NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (NLF)
ANTI-AMERICAN LEAFLETS
OF THE VIETNAM WAR

NLFStampVN.jpg (19484 bytes)

Who were the Viet Cong? The 1966 Department of the Army Pamphlet 360-518, Know your Enemy - the Viet Cong, discusses the enemy in depth. Some of the comments are:

Literally translated, the phrase Viet Cong means Vietnamese Communist, and those who are Viet Cong employ the whole Communist arsenal of deceit and violence. A Viet Cong is a man, woman, or child a tough fighter, with words or weapons, for what he is taught to call the "liberation" of South Vietnam-the Republic of Vietnam. Viet Cong also applies to the military and civilian components of the "Front" (the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. To its deluded followers the Front is the government they serve, but to the vast majority of South Vietnamese it is an instrument of terror and oppression manipulated by the Communists of North Vietnam.

The Communist regime in Hanoi directs, controls, and supplies the entire Viet Cong political and military effort to conquer the Republic of Vietnam. All control, political and military, comes ultimately from the Central Committee of North Vietnam’s Lao Dong (Communist) Party, which maps out broad strategy.

In South Vietnam itself, the Communists have created a show of legitimacy through the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. The Front’s national central committee sets policy and also is responsible for planning and organization building.

The next level in the Communist-dominated Front hierarchy consists of the 3 interzone headquarters, which determine agitprop (persuasion and propaganda) policy guidance and which are responsible for political indoctrination and training.

Within the last 6 years the Viet Cong’s Binh Van program, "proselyting," as they call it-has become a major program. A favored practice is the use of girls and women, speaking as sisters or mothers, to serenade small garrisons, calling to them to save their precious lives for their families’ sake, and imploring them to have mercy on civilians

The National Liberation Front (NLF) was a constant subject of debate during the Vietnam War. The Americans and the Government of Vietnam (GVN) considered it a front used by Hanoi to disguise the machinations of the Communist regime of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) in the insurrection against the government of the South. They claimed that the quality and the dissemination of the propaganda were such that it could not be produced in the field under combat conditions. They believed that the expertise, clarity and concept of the propaganda proved that Hanoi was the origin of the leaflets.

The DRVN rejected the claims and said that the NLF was proof that the revolution in the south was agrarian in nature and made up of people of every political and religious affiliation. The NLF, they said, consisted of simple farmers, tradesmen, workers and students. The fight was an old-fashioned war of liberation against the American-backed fascist regime of Saigon.

The truth is somewhere in the middle. The NLF was surely controlled and dominated by the north, but there can be no doubt that there were dedicated and motivated soldiers and civilians that fought for what they believed to be their nation's liberation.

Colonel Frank L. Goldstein says in Psychological Operations, Air University Press, Maxwell AFB, AL, 1996, "The importance and priority that the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong put on psychological operations are well known, as in the slogans ‘political activities are more important than military activities,’ and ‘fighting is less importance than propaganda.’ General Vo Nguyen Giap in his People's War, People's Army quotes as one of Ho Chi Minh's cardinal principals of political warfare, ‘Do not attempt to overthrow the enemy but try to win him over and make use of him.’

Goldstein mentions three Viet Cong PSYOP programs. Dan van was the VC effort to develop support in the areas that it controlled while dich van was the effort to develop support in GVN-controlled areas. Binh van was the recruiting program among the Army of the Republic of Vietnam troops and GVN civilian servants. Destruction of South Vietnam's armed forces was an overriding priority for the VC; violence, armed attacks, assassinations, kidnappings, terrorist acts, and binh van were employed. The top objective of binh van was to induce unit desertions, preferable accompanied by an act of sabotage. The next highest objective was to induce individual military desertion or civilian defection, preferably accompanied by an act of destruction or a theft of key documents. Next was to induce major and significant opposition within the military or civil service, either covertly or overtly.

Viet Cong Oath of Honor

The NLF produced thousands of propaganda leaflets during the long civil war. The Communists aimed some at the Americans, some at the Army of Vietnam (ARVN) or government officials, and some against the other allied nations that joined the fight to protect the sovereignty of the Government of Vietnam. In this article, we will illustrate and discuss those leaflets aimed specifically at Americans. In many case the leaflets will be of high quality and bear the symbol of the NLF. In other cases, they will be crude, on poor quality paper, typewritten or handwritten.

A brief history of the Vietnam War is necessary to show the reason that the NLF produced so many leaflets attacking the United States. During WWII, The League for the Independence of Vietnam, (Viet Minh) was organized as a nationalistic party seeking Vietnamese independence from France. After the victory by the Allies and the defeat of the occupying Japanese forces, Ho Chi Minh, the Viet Minh leader declared Vietnam's independence.

The French did not recognize the independence of Vietnam and tried to regain control over their old colony. The war between the French and the Viet Minh was fought from 1946 until 1954, when the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu by Communist forces under the direction of General Vo Nguyen Giap. A cease-fire was negotiated in Geneva in 1954 and the warring forces were separated with the French controlling that portion of Vietnam below the 17th parallel and the Viet Minh in power of the territory north of the 17th parallel. A demilitarized zone would keep them apart and see that no more blood was shed. There was then a great movement of people as thousands of Catholics moved south, nationalists, and Communists moved north.

Ngo Dinh Diem

Ho Chi Minh

Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch anti-Communist, became the President of the GVN. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the DRVN. Free elections were planned for 1956 under the supervision of an International Control Committee to unify North and South Vietnam under a single elected government. There seems little doubt that Ho Chi Minh would win this election since he was a popular leader who had helped to throw the Japanese out of his country. He was admired by the people, called "Uncle Ho," and was even a friend of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) who had helped to arm and train his fighters. However, President Dwight D. Eisenhower supported the creation of a counter-revolutionary alternative south of the seventeenth parallel. He was not going to allow the Communists to take southern Vietnam without a fight. President Diem, facing sure defeat, refused in 1956 to hold the scheduled elections.

Diem could justify his decision by saying that the GVN was democratic, made up of many different parties that would split the vote. The North, under Ho Chi Minh, was a dictatorship. The votes would be along party lines as directed by the party leadership. The Communists would get the usual 99.5 votes they get in all of their so-called "elections." To hold a free election was to give away the nation. The United States, now operating under the "Domino Theory," and fearful of a Communist takeover of all of Southeast Asia, supported him. In late 1957, with American aid, Diem counterattacked his critics. He used the help of the American Central Intelligence Agency to identify those who sought to bring his government down and arrested thousands. In 1959, Diem passed a series of acts known as Law 10/59 that allowed the government to hold someone in jail without formal charges if they were suspected of being a member of the Communist Party.

From 1956-1960, the Communist Party of Vietnam tried to reunify the country through political means. They tried unsuccessfully to cause Diem's collapse by exerting tremendous internal political pressure. It gradually became clear to the North that the country could only be reunified by force of arms. This led directly the North Vietnamese decision to unify South through military force rather than by political means. Diem’s success against their movement in the south convinced them that more violent tactics were required. In January 1959, the Communist Party approved the use of revolutionary violence to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem's government.

President Diem with United States President Eisenhower

The U.S. government provided economic and military assistance to the Diem regime. Meanwhile, Diem became increasingly unpopular with the people of South Vietnam. He replaced elected village councils with Saigon-appointed administrators. He also aroused the ire of the Buddhists by selecting his fellow Roman Catholics (most of whom had moved to South Vietnam from the North) for top government positions.

The Viet Minh soldiers who were trained and armed in the North now started a Guerrilla war against the national government of the south. The Americans gave the guerrillas a new name, "Viet Cong." This was a derogatory and slang term meaning Vietnamese Communist. They were the military branch of the National Liberation Front (NLF), controlled by the Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN), which was located near the Cambodian border. For arms, ammunition and special equipment, the Vietcong depended on war materials brought down the Ho Chi Minh trail by trucks, porters and even bicycles. They met their other needs within South Vietnam by confiscation of rice, forced sale of bonds to farmers, etc. The main force Vietcong units were uniformed, full-time soldiers. They had the ability to launch large-scale offensives over a wide area. Regional forces were also full-time, but operated only within their own districts. When necessary, the small regional units could combine to make up battalions and regiments. If the enemy pressure became too great, they simply separated into their individual units and cells and returned to their jungle hideaways and caves. They went south to their old childhood areas and began a campaign of assassination, sabotage, and propaganda.

Diem asked for more American money, military advisers, and war materiel to build up his army. The Americans complied. U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent the first of the troops after the DRVN unified the South Vietnamese communist insurgents in an organization called the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam on 20 December 1960. The front had long and historic roots in Vietnam. It brought together Communists and non-Communists in an umbrella organization. Membership was open to anyone who opposed Ngo Dinh Diem. However, as always happens in any Communist-inspired organization, the moderate parties were soon dismissed and within a short time the NLF became exclusively communist.

Elements of the 173d Airborne Brigade arrive in Vietnam, May 1965.

The number of American servicemen gradually rose from 900 in 1960 to 540,000 under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the last years of the war. By this time Richard M. Nixon was President and Nguyen Van Thieu led the GVN. Nixon instituted a program of "Vietnamization." The South Vietnamese would gradually assume all military responsibilities for their defense while being supplied with U.S. arms, equipment, air support, and economic aid. The Communists believed that it was the financial, manpower, and materiel help of the Americans that prolonged the war. That is the reason that they regularly attacked the Americans with their propaganda leaflets, both at home and abroad.

War protest Washington DC, Nov 15, 1969

National Guard Soldiers before the shooting at Kent State in Ohio

On the American home front there was much animosity toward the war. TV viewers saw young American servicemen killed and placed in body bags on their nightly TV news. There were not enough volunteers to continue to fight a protracted war, so the U.S. Government instituted a draft. This turned many professors and students against the war and the Johnson administration. There was a riot in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. There were marches by black leaders who believed that their people were being led to the slaughter in Southeast Asia. At Kent State in Ohio, four students were killed by National Guardsmen who were called out to preserve order on campus after days of anti-Nixon protest. Students at Jackson State in Mississippi were also shot and killed. A mother was heard to cry, "they are killing our babies in Vietnam and in our own backyard." All of this was grist for the Communist propaganda mill. Leaflets were churned out by the thousands showing the riots, the student unrest, and calling for American blacks to quit the war and go home.

NLF Flag

Do we know exactly what the demands of the NLF were? We do. They published them as a manifesto for all to read.

Program of the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam

I. Overthrow the camouflaged colonial regime of the American imperialists and the dictatorial power of Ngo Dinh Diem, servant of the Americans, and institute a government of national democratic union. The present South Vietnamese regime is a camouflaged colonial regime dominated by the Yankees, and the South Vietnamese government is a servile government, implementing faithfully all the policies of the American imperialists. Therefore, this regime must be overthrown and a government of national and democratic union put in its place composed of representatives of all social classes, of all nationalities, of various political parties, of all religions; patriotic, eminent citizens must take over for the people the control of economic, political, social, and cultural interests and thus bring about independence, democracy, well- being, peace, neutrality, and efforts toward the peaceful unification of the country.

II. Institute a largely liberal and democratic regime.

1. Abolish the present constitution of the dictatorial powers of Ngo Dinh Diem, servant of the Americans. Elect a new National Assembly through universal suffrage.

2. Implement essential democratic liberties: freedom of opinion, of press, of movement, of trade unionism; freedom of religion without any discrimination; and the right of all patriotic organizations of whatever political tendency to carry on normal activities.

3. Proclaim a general amnesty for all political prisoners and the dissolution of concentration camps of all sorts; abolish fascist law 19/59 and all the other antidemocratic laws; authorize the return to the country of all persons persecuted by the American-Diem regime who are now refugees abroad.

4. Interdict all illegal arrests and detentions; prohibit torture; and punish all the Diem bullies who have not repented and who have committed crimes against the people.

III. Establish an independent and sovereign economy, and improve the living conditions of the people.

1. Suppress the monopolies imposed by the American imperialists and their servants; establish an independent and sovereign economy and finances in accordance with the national interest; confiscate to the profit of the nation the properties of the American imperialists and their servants.

2. Support the national bourgeoisie in the reconstruction and development of crafts and industry; provide active protection for national products through the suppression of production taxes and the limitation or prohibition of imports that the national economy is capable of producing; reduce custom fees on raw materials and machines.

3. Revitalize agriculture; modernize production, fishing, and cattle raising; help the farmers in putting to the plow unused land and in developing production; protect the crops and guarantee their disposal.

4. Encourage and reinforce economic relations between the city and country, the plain and the mountain regions; develop commercial exchanges with foreign countries, regardless of their political regime, on the basis of equality and mutual interests.

5. Institute a just and rational system of taxation; eliminate harassing penalties.

6. Implement the labor code: prohibition of discharges, of penalties, of ill-treatment of wage earners; improvement of the living conditions of workers and civil servants; imposition of wage scales and protective measures for young apprentices.

7. Organize social welfare: find work for jobless persons; assume the support and protection of orphans, old people, invalids; come to the help of the victims of the Americans and Diemists; organize help for areas hit by bad crops, fires, or natural calamities.

8. Come to the help of displaced persons desiring to return to their native areas and to those who wish to remain permanently in the South; improve their working and living conditions.

9. Prohibit expulsions, spoliation, and compulsory concentration of the population; guarantee job security for the urban and rural working populations.

Vietnam Rice Farmers

IV. Reduce land rent; implement agrarian reform with the aim of providing land to the tillers.

1. Reduce land rent; guarantee to the farmers the right to till the soil; guarantee the property right of accession to fallow lands to those who have cultivated them; guarantee property rights to those farmers who have already received land.

2. Dissolve 'prosperity zones' and put an end to recruitment for the camps that are called 'agricultural development centers.' Allow those compatriots who already have been forced into 'prosperity zones, and 'agricultural development centers' to return freely to their own lands.

3. Confiscate the land owned by American imperialists and their servants, and distribute it to poor peasants without any land or with insufficient land; redistribute the communal lands on a just and rational basis.

4. By negotiation and based on fair prices, repurchase for distribution to landless peasant or peasants with insufficient land those surplus lands that the owners of large estates will be made to relinquish if their domain exceeds a certain limit, to be determined in accordance with regional particularities. The farmers who benefit from such land and distribution will both be compelled to make any payment or to submit to any other conditions.

School Children in Vietnam

V. Develop a national and democratic culture and education.

1. Combat all forms of culture and education enslaved to Yankee fashions; develop a culture and education that is national, progressive, and at the service of the Fatherland and people.

2. Liquidate illiteracy; increase the number of schools in the fields of general education as well as in those of technical and professional education, in advanced study as well as in other fields; adopt Vietnamese as the vernacular language; reduce the expenses of education and exempt from payment students who are without means; resume the examination system.

3. Promote science and technology and the national letters and arts; encourage and support the intellectuals and artists so as to permit them to develop their talents in the service of national reconstruction.

4. Watch over public health; develop sports and physical education.

Viet Cong on Patrol

VI. Create a national army devoted to the defense of the Fatherland and the people.

1. Establish a national army devoted to the defense of the Fatherland and the people; abolish the system of American military advisers.

2. Abolish the draft system, improve the living conditions of the simple soldiers and guarantee their political rights; put an end to ill- treatment of the military; pay particular attention to the dependents of soldiers without means.

3. Reward officers and soldiers having participated in the struggle against the domination by the Americans and their servants; adopt a policy of clemency toward the former collaborators of the Americans and Diemists guilty of crimes against the people but who have finally repented and are ready to serve the people.

4. Abolish all foreign military bases established on the territory of Viet-Nam.

VII. Guarantee equality between the various minorities and between the two sexes; protect the legitimate interest of foreign citizens established in Viet Nam and of Vietnamese citizens residing abroad.

1. Implement the right to autonomy of the national minorities: Found autonomous zones in the areas with a minority population, those zones to be an integral part of the Vietnamese nation. Guarantee equality between the various nationalities: each nationality has the right to use and develop its language and writing system, to maintain or to modify freely its mores and customs; abolish the policy of the Americans and Diemists of racial discrimination and forced assimilation. Create conditions permitting the national minorities to reach the general level of progress of the population: development of their economy and culture; formation of cadres of minority nationalities.

2. Establish equality between the two sexes; women shall have equal rights with men from all viewpoints (political, economic, cultural, social, etc.).

3. Protect the legitimate interest of foreign citizens established in Viet Nam.

4. Defend and take care of the interest of Vietnamese citizens residing abroad.

China's Mao Tse Tung meets with Ho Chi Minh

VIII. Promote a foreign policy of peace and neutrality.

1. Cancel all unequal treaties that infringe upon the sovereignty of the people and that were concluded with other countries by the servants of the Americans.

2. Establish diplomatic relations with all countries, regardless of their political regime, in accordance with the principles of peaceful coexistence adopted at the Bandung Conference.

3. Develop close solidarity with peace-loving nations and neutral countries; develop free relations with the nations of Southeast Asia, in particular with Cambodia and Laos.

4. Stay out of any military bloc; refuse any military alliance with another country.

5. Accept economic aid from any country willing to help us without attaching any conditions to such help.

IX. Re-establish normal relations between the two zones, and prepare for the peaceful reunification of the country.

The peaceful reunification of the country constitutes the dearest desire of all our compatriots throughout the country. The National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam advocates the peaceful reunification by stages based on negotiations and through the seeking of ways and means in conformity with the interest of the Vietnamese nation.

While awaiting this reunification, the governments of the two zones will, based on negotiations, promise to banish all separatist and warmongering propaganda and not to use force to settle differences between the zones. Commercial and cultural exchanges between the two zones will be implemented the inhabitants of the two zones will be free to move about throughout the country as their family and business interests indicate. The freedom of postal exchanges will be guaranteed.

X. Struggle against all aggressive war, actively defends universal peace.

1. Struggle against all aggressive war and against all forms of imperialist domination; support the national emancipation movements of the various peoples.

2. Banish all warmongering propaganda; demand general disarmament and the prohibition of nuclear weapons; and advocate the utilization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.

3. Support all movements of struggle for peace, democracy, and social progress throughout the world; contribute actively to the defense of peace in Southeast Asia and in the world.

Viet Cong Code of Discipline

Viet Cong Tax Receipt Bond

Notice that the code states that the Viet Cong will never take anything from the people. So, how were the people compensated when the VC came to their village and took their rice and livestock? The people were paid with bonds that were to be bought back by the Communist government after the glorious revolution. The bonds were very attractive and colorful, but worthless. This method of payment allowed the Viet Cong to take from the people but pretend instead that they were buying foodstuffs. There are about a half dozen different such bonds known. In all cases the VC cadre would fill in the information on how much was taken, its worth and then sign the form. He kept the stub; the farmer kept the bond. Of course, he quickly hid it because South Vietnamese troops finding it would believe that the farmer was helping the Viet Cong. The farmer was in a lose-lose situation. The bond above was issued by the Ministry of Finance and National Liberation Front Committee.

The Special Operations Research Office of the American University (SORO) published the classified A Short Guide to Psychological Operations in the Republic of Vietnam in 1965. Authors Jeanne Mintz, Herbert Silverberg and James Trinnaman discuss the Viet Cong propaganda tactics:

The Viet Cong place great emphasis on face-to-face contact with the individual peasant, where this is possible. In less secure areas they use leaflets, but only as a last resort. Normally they attempt to infiltrate a five-man team into the village. The team stays overnight, circulating from house to house, holding mass meetings, and distributing printed matter.

An advantage that the Viet Cong had was a direct line of command and a guidance policy for propaganda that left no room for error. I have read numerous American PSYOP after-actions and they depict a lack of strong guidance, communication, training, equipment and repair. Some examples are a PSYOP After-Action Report by Colonel William E. Linn, Chief of Policy, Plans and Research and later the Assistant Director for Field Operations of JUSPAO from March 1968 to April 1969.

COL Linn is particularly disturbed that JUSPAO was never warned in advance about major policy shifts, and if given advance notice, was not allowed to utilize the information for PSYOP. He gives as example the bombing halts of March 1968 and October 1968. On both occasions JUSPAO was ready to tell the Vietnamese people why the bombing was halted. Because they had no guidance or permission they were unable to do so. As a result:

Hanoi propagandists had a field day pounding all Vietnamese target audiences that they had won a total victory; to fight on until the U.S. aggressors are forced out of Vietnam; that the North Vietnamese regime had not conceded anything to the United States at Paris; and that the United States was required to admit defeat due to U.S. and world public opinion; and that the bombing halt was proof that the communists’ fight in the Republic of Vietnam was just and right.

Colonel Taro Katagiri commanded the 4th PSYOP Group from 4 October 1968 to 13 March 1970. He discusses some of his unit’s problems in the declassified Senior Officer Debriefing Report. He says that there needs to be better method of coordinating and unifying the PSYOP message. The army needs senior officers to understand what PSYOP can do. He gives an example of a brigade commander who boasted that his Chieu Hoi program consisted of two howitzers, one named “Chieu” and the other “Hoi.” He tells of pilots not wanting to drop leaflets because “That is mixing politics with war.” He wants an appreciation of PSYOP taught to all officers from early in their training.

While some Americans were arguing with each other about the value of PSYOP, the Viet Cong were holding village meetings, singing and putting on plays, and gathering converts.

A Vietnamese interpreter and Australian Army Private David Bannister inspect a Viet Cong propaganda leaflet found during Operation Pinnaroo. It consisted of a clearing operation in the village of Long Dien and then a search and destroy action in the Long Hai hills south of Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy Province in March 1968. Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.

Faked Photo of General William Westmoreland

Since we are mentioning photographs, I should point out that many of the propaganda photographs published by the communist forces and sent around the world were bogus. This subject is discussed by Dino A. Brugioni in Photo Fakery, Brassey’s, Virginia, 1999:

During the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese carefully monitored public opinion in the United States, especially the American public’s reaction to any massacre of innocent civilians. Sensing sympathy, they began to orchestrate a program to denigrate the U.S. military by showing that the killing of the innocents was not accidental but a policy deliberately fostered by the U.S. High Command in Vietnam. General William Westmoreland was singled out for condemnation. To foster this idea, the North Vietnamese combined a Newsweek cover photo of the general with a massacre scene and circulated the result as proof that the United States military had embarked on a deliberate policy of killing innocent civilians.

There are a number of high-quality leaflets that were obviously made in North Vietnam. They attempt to disguise that fact by bearing identification such as "South Vietnam NLF" but it is doubtful that anyone was fooled. The leaflets were carried down the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia for dissemination in South Vietnam. The NLF did not have the ability to disseminate their leaflets by air. They carried their leaflets by hand and placed them in bars, restaurants, and along jungle trails where the Americans and their Allies were sure to find them. They varied in size and shape. Most were single sheets of paper, but rarely leaflets were designed to fold out to reveal longer messages inside.

"Hey, Hey, LBJ" Leaflet

A favorite theme of these leaflets was the anti-war movement back in the United States. One shows a group of marchers carrying banners that read "Get out of Viet Nam" and "Stop the Bombing." Text at the upper left in bright red is:

Hey, Hey, LBJ, and the anti-war slogan: Hey, Hey, LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?"

Some of the text on the back is:

Hey, Hey, LBJ. How many kids did you kill today? That's what everybody's saying all over the US today. And millions of people all over the world who know no other English shout it.

A captured enemy anti-war document is a directive dated 28 April 1971, that urges the addressees to motivate discussions among the people on recent antiwar demonstrations in the United States. This document was captured on 12 May 1971 in South Vietnam by Company A, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry division:

Strengthen the struggle movement of the people of all classes, step up the enemy proselyting activities and the anti-Vietnam war movement of the Americans.

In cities, motivate the people to spread rumors. Use newspapers, news reports and radio stations to spread the struggle movement of the American people to meet the following requirements:

Win public opinion among all city dwellers to motivate the masses to back the struggle movement of the American people by demanding an end to the South Viet Nam war, rapid withdrawal of all US troops from South Viet Nam and restoration of peace in Viet Nam as well as in Indochina.

Another document believed to from the Hoai Haong District Party Committee, Bin Tuy Province, Viet Cong Region 6 adds:

The spontaneous antiwar movements in the US have received assistance and guidance from the friendly North Viet Nam delegation at the Paris Peace Talks. Of the US antiwar movements, the two most important ones are: The PCPJ (the People's Committee for Peace and Justice) and the NPAC (National Peace Action Committee). These two movements have gathered much strength and staged many demonstrations. The PCPJ is the most important. It maintains relations with us.

YANKS COME HOME! GO HOME

A second leaflet with the same theme shows a group marching under a banner that reads:

International Days of Protest Against the War in Vietnam.

Some of the text on the back is:

Yanks! Come home! That's what they are saying in the States. They're right! There's no reason for you to be away from home.

YANKS COME HOME

An interesting South Vietnam National Liberation Front leaflet depicts a soldier in a tunnel moving toward a distant opening. It is clearly a satiric reference to General Westmoreland’s comment about seeing light at the end of the tunnel; a reference to an eventual victory in the Vietnam War. The text on the front of the leaflets is:

The only way out
Come home now.

The back of the leaflet is all text. Some of the comments are:

YANKS COME HOME

That’s what they’re crying in the States. They’re right! There’s no reason for you to be away from home.

YANKS GO HOME

That’s what they’re shouting all over South Vietnam. They’re right! There’s no reason for you to be here where nobody except a few crooks who betray their own people want you.

HANG ON TO YOUR HEAD

This National Liberation Front leaflet dated February 1967 depicts a rusting helmet on the ground with a flower growing through it. The symbolism is good. It implies American death and defeat, and the flower was a hippy symbol of peace, often placed in the barrel of a soldier's rifle. The back is all text. Some of the message is:

HANG ON TO YOUR HEAD

GI’s in Vietnam now number over 400,000. GI’s killed, maimed or missing – more than 131,000.

Lots of soldiers –
Lots of money –
Lots of hardware –
Lots of coffins!

Better make it out – before you’re pushing up daisies too.

GO HOME –ALIVE!

End the War in Vietnam

An occasional theme of the NLF was a demand for peaceful negotiation. They produced a leaflet that shows a symbol of peace on the front, a female holding a palm frond. Above her are the words "END THE WAR IN VIETNAM." There is a long message on the back; some pertinent comments are, "Peace! Negotiations! Cry the U.S. warmakers. But peace has not come yet. Because the Americans and their puppets want no serious talks yet…"

Black Men Should Not Fight in Vietnam for Racist America

"I wish I were an Alabama trooper..."

Some of the NLF leaflets emphasized the racial problems at home. One depicts black men holding a sign that says:

Black men should not fight in Vietnam for racist U.S.A." Some of the text on back is, "I wish I were an Alabama trooper, that is what I would truly like to be. I wish I was an Alabama trooper, cause then I could kill the niggers legally.

Anti-war Protestors

A similar leaflet depicts another anti-War crowd carrying signs such as “Weapons cannot win the people” and "Bring the troops home now.” Some of the text on the back is:

AFRO-AMERICANS!

The Vietnamese are not exploiting you nor discriminating against you. No Vietnamese shoots and kills Black freedom-fighters in the streets of America. The Vietnamese are fighting for their own independence and freedom.

GI Don't

A small printed Viet Cong leaflet says simply:

There is no hatred among the Vietnamese people and your own ones. So why are you killing the Vietnamese?

G.I! DON’T take part in any operations – move forward – shoot. You will return home safely!

Demand the war end

A second such piece has the text:

Demand the war end and your home repatriation! The Vietnamese affairs should be settled by the Vietnamese themselves.

A third says in part:

US ARMYMEN!

When you fight against foreign aggressors to defend your FATHERLAND and your PEOPLE, your implementing your CODE OF CONDUCT is legitimate.

However, the present Johnson - McNamara’s dirty war of aggression against the Vietnamese people, implementing your CODE OF CONDUCT does not make sense at all.

U. S. OFFICERS AND MEN!

Another all-text leaflet reminds the Americans of their own fight for freedom against the British. It says in part:

In former times, your ancestors heroically opposed British imperialism to realize independence, freedom to the Americas. That was a just war, approved by the American people and supported by the world’s people…

Apparently the Viet Cong were unaware of the vast number of Royalists who supported the British during the revolutionary War, and the even greater number of Europeans who though that the rebels were upstarts that should be beaten down.

U. S. ARMYMEN!

Another all-text leaflet says in rather bad grammar and spelling:

U. S. ARMYMEN!

The contention that “the Americans oppose the Vietnamese who aggrese Vietnam, on the Vietnamese territory” is nothing but a farce!

Is it conceivable that you, a fair minded person, believe the deceitful contentions of Johnson – Macnamara?

Why sacrifice your youthful days, bury your honor and life in the South Vietnam battlefieds?

250,000 Expeditionary French…

I added this leaflet to drive home the point that genuine Viet Cong leaflets were often printed from hand-carved wood or rubber blocks, always on cheap paper and generally did not last long in the tropical climate of Southeast Asia. Compare this leaflet to all the fancy full-color fakes on perfect paper or cardboard for sale today. The language is also interesting. They seldom got it right. This leaflet says:<

250,000 expeditionary French corpses were routed here. Don’t follow their footsteps!
Don’t massacre innocent children, weak women!
Stop terrorist raids, massacre, plunder, house burning and wemen raping.
Don’t sow death and destruction then you will not be given any harm.

I assume they meant to say that 250,000 French soldiers were routed here, or 250,000 corpses were left here. They managed somehow to imply that they had routed the corpses. They misspelled “woman” on the back as “wemen.” Finally, instead of saying “you will not be harmed,” they say “you will not be given any harm.” This is a perfect example of a guerrilla band in the bush trying to produce an English-language leaflet.

Notice also the comments added by the American troops that found the leaflet and a second comment perhaps from their officer or S2. Some of the (edited) comments are:

Three Viet Cong killed in action.
One United States soldier killed in action.

Other comments tell the date the leaflet was found, the general vicinity, the unit, and point out that the leaflet was found “lying beside road.”

A veteran from the 199th Light Infantry Brigade said after perusing this leaflet:

Sir Charles tried to scare us with those things in the 199th Area of Operations. It didn't work. Then again, I'm not sure how much good the Chieu Hoi pamphlets that we dropped on them did either. It always freaked me out to walk thru an area where those Chieu Hoi pamphlets were littering the ground.It kind of made you think that maybe it was Charlie's country.Of course, it usually was. I found it kind of hard to accept a Chieu Hoi after he had run out of ammo, defected, and your buddy was dead.

However, we did have an outstanding Kit Carson scout and that was where we got him. He would use his Viet Cong sapper skills to come thru our perimeter at the firebase and it was downright scary to watch.

AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IN SOUTH VIETNAM

I could add another dozen such all-text leaflets to this article but I think I will stop with this piece taken from the body of a Viet Cong guerrilla on 1 September 1966. The leaflet is signed by the South Vietnam Liberation National Front and uses Christmas as a theme to demoralize American troops and make them long for home. Some of the poorly written text is:

Why you can’t enjoy Christmas eve besides your loved ones at home?

Because: the U.S. government has been waging the aggressive war in south Vietnam which against Amrican interests. You are forced to commit these atrocious transgressions: in the daily raids women, children are killed: poison gas is used to massacre honest people; villages are burnt; churches are destroyed….in that situation how can Vietnamese people have a happy Christmas?

There are handwritten comments on the back of this leaflet by the unit who discovered it. Lieutenant Groom states that it was found on the body of a dead Viet Cong on 1 September 1966, near map coordinate YA 850130, by the 1st Psywar Intelligence team.

Another NLF leaflet reported that blacks were given all the dirty and dangerous jobs. The leaflet went so far to suggest that black GIs refuse to fight and surrender so that they could be sent home. The leaflet reads in part:

In combat in Vietnam you are forced to:

- Go first
- Withdraw last
- Stay in the outer ring
- Do the hardest and the most dangerous jobs!

In Vietnam casualty rates for blacks are much higher than whites!
In the states you are called niggers! The Vietnamese people are not your enemy!
Refuse to obey all combat orders! Sit on the fence! Refuse to interfere in the internal affairs of your Vietnamese brothers! Refuse to perpetuate crimes against them! When under attack, lay down your weapons, let yourselves be captured: you will be taken alive and will eventually be allowed to return home.

Cross over to the S.V.N.F.L.: you’ll be warmly welcomed and receive all possible help to return to the United States or seek asylum in a foreign country. Demand to be sent home immediately! Your true struggle is in the United States.

A 21 March 1970 report from Marine Combined Action Platoon (CAP) 4-1-1 tells of a running gunfight with a number of Viet Cong. It ends:

The Patrol returned to the Area of Operations and conducted a sweep of the area, producing one B-40 rocket and propaganda leaflets on racism.

We cannot determine which of the Viet Cong leaflets with a theme of racism was found, but it could well have been one of the above.

"...we put you right up front".

How Democracy Operates

Another NLF leaflet featured the myth that minority troops were dying in greater numbers than their white comrades did. The leaflet has a cartoon on the front where a staff sergeant says to his assembled troops, "Back home in the States, negroes are at the end of the line, but here in Vietnam it's different - we put you right up front." False claims are made on the back that, "11 percent of the U.S. population are Negroes. 30 percent of the G.I.s in Vietnam are Negroes. 40% of G.I. deaths in Vietnam are Negroes." In reality, white troops died at a slightly higher percentage than in the general population.

Another leaflet shows a black man being arrested by a club-bearing white police officer. A picture on the back depicts a black soldier crawling in a swamp. Some of the text on the back is, "The Vietnam is 'a hell hole of racism for the Negroes GIs over and above the usual hell of war' ( Philadelphia Independent). Your real enemies are those who call you 'Niggers.' Your genuine struggle is on your native land. Go home now and alive!"

You Go In....You Come Out

What's In Washington's War for You?

Another NLF leaflet claimed that the war in Vietnam was for profit. There was a myth during the war that Vietnam was floating on a sea of oil and that was why the United States had chose to take part. Other rumors claimed that LBJ and his wife were getting rich from government contracts. These rumors were all nonsense, but at the time many people were willing to believe them. The leaflet depicts an American patrol in the bush at the left and the text "You go in," while at the right coffins are depicted draped with the American flag and the text "You come out." The back of the leaflet explains what the war is all about:

For Herbert Fuller of New York (with 10 million invested in a sugar mill at Tuy Hoa, South Vietnam) the answer is simple: 'I'm in it for the money," he says. Gloating over your corpse, he adds: "Once you've cleared the land, we'll get back our investment in two years."

Don't Support A Government without Supporters

Another popular theme of the leaflets was that Vietnam was a civil war and the people should be allowed to settle their differences as had been done in the American Civil War. One such leaflet depicted an anti-war demonstration with people holding signs such as “Stop the killing.” The text on the front is:

Demand the Nixon administration immediately end its war of aggression in Vietnam without posing any condition whatsoever. Demand immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops and troops of other foreign countries in the U.S. camp. Let the South Vietnamese people settle their own affairs.

There is a long message on the back. Much of the message attacks the legitimacy of the government and its leaders, and that is a direct attack on the current leader:

You probably remember what the dictator Nguyen Cao Ky said at a press conference on June 21, 1965: "I have only one idol, Adolph Hitler."

Other NLF leaflets simply wanted the Americans out and used a theme of sadness and homesickness. One shows an anti-war demonstration on the leaflet front. An American allegedly wrote the text on the back:

COMIN’ HOME SOON. There’s a mother in California, whose heart is aching now. There’s a girl in Indiana who feels the same somehow. There’s a guy far away at a place they call Da Nang, that’s the cause of all this pain.



Flag draped coffins

The photo in the above leaflet shows a number of flag draped coffins being loaded onto planes for transport back home. The text on the reverse warned thatL

Escalators go up or down

But Johnson’s escalation can only take you one way…

…into a coffin of rough pine (if they can find your remains).

Another colorful leaflet that mentions President Johnson depicts a question mark and the title:

WHAT HOPES

Is President Johnson toying with

IN VIETNAM

Aren't You Sick Too?

Another leaflet showed a group of soldier on the front with the text:

You’re not the only one who’s sick of this war.

Private David Carnevale allegedly wrote the letter on the back of the leaflet. He was killed in action just three days later, according to the NLF. Some of his comments are:

I feel as if I were 100 years old. My luck is running out. Please do what you can for me. Dad, I don’t want to die! Please get me out of here!

WHY SHOULD YOU DIE IN SOUTH VIETNAM?

The above bi-fold leaflet depicts a wife near the flag-draped casket of her husband at the left and an alleged victim of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the right. The leaflet is signed by the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation. The back is all text and says in part:

It’s a Hell of a Life

Spike-traps, mines and sniper fire are your inseparable companions…

What happened to the 3rd Marine Division in its first days in Vietnam?

On Thanh Hill (south of Danang) on the night of May 27, 1965, attacked by a hand grenade and bayonet charge, 139 U.S. Marines died right at their position…

Our Resounding Victories

The brochure is folded into eight pages. It bears one illustration which seems to be of U.S. troops carrying casualties to a helicopter. The text inside is a dairy of battles in which the Viet Cong claims that the U.S. forces were soundly defeated. The brochure is signed by the Liberation Army. An example is:

June 18 – 26, 1966

1,402 U.S. troops of the 101st Division of paratroopers and the First Air Mobile Cavalry Division were killed or wounded by the Liberation Army at Tuy An (Phu Yen Province).

Leaflet 0549

This bi-fold leaflet has four photographs on one side; a cemetery, a downed American aircraft, flag-draped coffins and war protestors. The other side is all text, signed by the South Vietnam National Liberation National Front. There are some grammatical errors. It says in part:

AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IN SOUTH VIETNAM!

In November 1962, ex-President Eisenhower admitted that after years of fight in South Vietnam, the United States has realized that the wars carried in Asia by the U.S. expeditionary forces will never be victorious.

In December 1962, the late President Kennedy also said that the anti-guerrilla war in South Vietnam is a hard thing and the United States are engaged in a tunnel the end of which cannot be seen.

This Leaflet Lists Radio Frequencies and Broadcast Times

One NLF leaflet actually mentioned radio stations. This is a common theme used in U.S. leaflets. The enemy leaflet depicts an anti-war demonstration on the front with marchers carrying a banner:

End the war in Vietnam and social crisis at home.

Some of the text is:

To know the truth about this war you hate to fight: Listen to Liberation Radio, the voice of the S.V. National Front for the Liberation special English transmission for GIs in S.V.

Every Saturday from 2100 to 2115 hours (Saigon time.

Every Sunday from 09800 to 0830 hours (Saigon time)

Meter bands: 25, 30, 50, and 40.50.

There is a second paragraph mentioning the hours and location of the Voice of Vietnam broadcasting from Hanoi.

We should take just a moment to talk about the Communist radio propaganda campaign. The Vietnam Experience book entitled The North, Boston Publishing Company, 1986, talks of “The Other PSYWAR”:

While the bulk of Radio Hanoi’s “Voice of Vietnam” programming was directed toward boosting Communist morale, by 1972 as many as 32 out of as total of 728 broadcasting hours each week was in English. Radio Liberation, the clandestine mouthpiece of the Viet Cong, supplied an additional 12 hours of English language programming.

Many bemused American soldiers tuned to their favorite Communist disk jockey, Thu Huong, better known as “Hanoi Hannah.” Hannah would alternately harangue and cajole the Americans between plays of the latest pop tunes. While Radio Hanoi and its honey-voiced broadcaster took their propagandizing seriously, American GIs regarded their efforts as simply comic relief.

U.S. warplanes struck the Hanoi radio station for the first time on 22 February 1968, but the transmitter continued working. During the Christmas bombings of 1972, American B-52s blasted the station again…the station stayed on the air.

Another occasional theme of the NLF propaganda was in the form of taunts. One NLF leaflet mentions the siege of Khe Sanh. The Marines were placed in the center of enemy territory to tempt the VC and NVA to attack. They were staked out like a goat in tiger country. The Communists attacked and were fired upon and bombed on a daily basis. It went exactly as planned. The Americans challenged the Communists to come out and fight in the open where American technology and airpower could destroy them. The VC and NVA thought of it as another Dien Bien Phu and sent wave after wave of troops at the Marines. The Marines later withdrew. The NLF called them cowards for leaving in a terribly written leaflet:

U.S. TROOPS' SHAMEFUL WITHDRAWAL FROM THE KHE SANH BASE. Khe Sanh is a big front base of U.S. troops which located south of the DMZ. More than 6,000 Marines stationed here. To face with the North Quangtri Liberation armed forces violent attack and overwhelm. on June 26, 1968, after 150 days of encirclement, U.S. troops forced to run away from the Khe Sanh base though had received big reinforcement and more than 40,000 U.S. troops from other units.



Happy New Year 1969 Pocket Calendar

Like the GVN, the NLF also produced handy wallet-sized cards and calendars. One calendar has "Happy New Year 1969" on the front. The back has the twelve months and text:

Let the Vietnamese settle their internal affairs themselves. How many more days for you? Give yourself a chance. Get out now - alive!

NLF Christmas Card

The NLF produced a number of small Christmas cards in the form of leaflets. They each showed a scene of a wife at home missing her husband who was at the front. Each had text asking American to end the war. For more information of this and other Propaganda Christmas Cards check out my article on Counterfeit Christmas Cards

There are many more of these leaflets, printed professionally and sometimes in color. We will now discuss some of the cruder leaflets, possibly done in the field on small portable printing presses within their underground bunker complexes. Other such leaflets were produced by local printers who supported the Viet Cong and their Communist cause. In most cases the paper is crude, the ink is not evenly applied and the messages on one side of the leaflet bleed through to the other side.

NLF Leaflet for the 1st Air Cavalry Division
There are a number of poor-quality leaflets aimed at specific units. The 1st Air Cavalry Division seems to be a favorite of the NLF. A number of such leaflets exist. One small leaflet on greenish paper is addressed to the "Officers and men in the 1st Air Cav. Div." The leaflet tries to convince the cavalry that they are bearing a disproportionate load of the war. Some of the text is:

Why does Nixon always mouth peace and the withdrawal of US troops home yet the Air. Cav. Div. is still stretched out along a line of more than 200 km in these dense, rough and dangerous jungles.

Another leaflet addressed to "G.I.s in the 1st Air Cavalry Division!" tells the cavalry that they have come from one terrible battlefield only to be sent to a second one. Some of the more interesting text is:

Refuse to go out on operation, to terrorize and massacre the Vietnamese people who are struggling for independence and peace.

A number of the leaflets used the "unjust war" theme. Some of the text is:

GI’s…Refuse to interfere in the Vietnamese people’s internal affairs. Cross over to the side of the Liberation Army. You will be helped to return home or go to a neutral country of your choice.

American Officers and Men...

Another leaflet is addressed to "American Officers and men." It says In part:

The Thieu-Ky administration is a militarist one, lackey of the U.S. aggressors, it has resorted to bayonets and bombs to carry out an extremely barbarous repression of the patriots in South Viet Nam, causing untold suffering and mourning to the people…

Notice that the NLF uses terms like "massacre" and "U.S. aggressors" in their propaganda. This would certainly make the leaflets worthless to the American finder. Some experts feel that the leaflets were meant more for American homeland consumption and to keep up the morale of the Viet Cong. They believe that these leaflets were not expected to work on the American fighting man.

Another Viet Cong leaflet addressed to “U.S. OFFICERS AND MEN!” was left by sappers after an attack at Landing Zone Baldy, 35 miles north of Chu Lai on Highway One near the coast, in July 1970. The message is long and involved and not very good English. Some of the text on the front is:

About 200 years ago also on these days Washington, Lincoln the national heroes valiantly have risen up to lead American people against British imperialism achieved freedom and independence for the fatherland and happiness to their peoples.

Some of the text on the back is:

To save the honor and prestige of the US, which is being stained by Nixon’s clique and for your survival you would join the American’s struggle movement by:

Refuse going to battlefield.

So not let be killed on Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia battlefields by Nixon’s clique.

Demand an end to the war, bring you home immediately.

The Provisional Revolutionary Government of Republic of South Vietnam.

Sergeant Ken Murphy, formerly of the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal) who picked up this leaflet at LZ Baldy says:

The sapper’s left them all over the Fire Support Base / Landing Zone after the attack; just dumped them all over the ground. Every time we pulled a stand down at a LZ or FSB we seemed to get incoming fire.

Do GIs Have a Right to Know

This is one of the strangest leaflets found in Vietnam. This large anti-war leaflet is 9.5 x 14-inches with text on both sides. The front of the leaflet reproduces an alleged article from the New York Post, 15 October 1966. The back bears a photograph depicting three soldiers that allegedly refused deployment to Vietnam on 30 June 1966. The long text discusses various articles in numerous newspapers discussing American losses in the Vietnam War. The leaflet was issued by the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, New York City. I assume that this American anti-war leaflet was sent to Vietnam where it was reproduced and distributed by the Viet Cong. Once found, the leaflet was forwarded to Brigade Intelligence first, and then passed along to the PSYOP unit for study.



The NLF also produced surrender leaflets, just as the Allies did. One bears the long title:

THE SOUTH VIETNAM NATIONAL FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION GIVES LENIENT AND HUMANE TREATMENT TO RALLIED ARMYMEN AND PRISONERS-OF-WAR.

Notice that they have copied the "rallier" term from the South Vietnamese Chieu Hoi program. Some of the text is:

Men in the U.S. army and its satellite armies who cross over to the people’s side will be given kind treatment and helped to return to their families when conditions permit…

This insult to the American military occurs again in a leaflet entitled "WHY?" In the leaflet the Americans are accused of using poison gas and compared to Nazis:

Are you resigned to playing the same role as those Nazi soldiers who blindly obeyed Hitler’s orders and committed crimes…?

VC Flag Leaflet

Sometimes the crude leaflets are quite colorful. Some of the leaflets depicted the Communist flag in full color. I have them with either English or Vietnamese text. One such leaflet shows their flag in red, blue and gold, and the title "Leniency and humane treatment to rallied Armymen and prisoners-of-war." There were discussions of the terms "leniency and humane treatment" in several American documents. Experts called the phrase "directive language" and believed that the Communist Party had directed that these words be used in almost every leaflet dealing with ralliers and prisoners. There were even discussions of what the words meant. One expert stated that the Viet Cong considered the American military to be nothing more than criminals and bandits who were in Vietnam illegally and who had no rights under the Geneva Convention. These Americans under their control were subject to severe punishment. If they treated a prisoner with the most rudimentary kindness that would automatically become lenient and humane treatment.

Policy toward US and Satellite POWs in South Vietnam.

Another Viet Cong leaflet depicts a stylized flag and the title, “Policy toward US and Satellite POWs in South Vietnam.” It offers the usual promises of safe conduct and good treatment and is signed by “The High Command of the SVNLA.”

VC Flag Leaflet

The leaflet is actually a large sheet that has been folded into eight segments. It shows the Viet Cong flag on the front and all the text is in Vietnamese. It is interesting to note that the Americans prohibited the image of the Viet Cong flag on any Allied leaflet because the image could be cut from the leaflet by an enemy soldier and saved as a wallet-sized photograph and carried as a patriotic reminder of Communist victory. The text on the front of the folded sheet is:

Announcement for the Convention of Chairman's Plenum Session,
Central Committee of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam.

Righteous Cause

Another interesting piece of Vietnamese-language propaganda is the above newspaper Chinh Nghia (“Righteous Cause”). This propaganda newspaper was produced to keep the local people up-to-date with Communist doctrine. This New Year issue is for Tet (Year of the Horse) 1966. The paper was produced by the Military Proselytize and Propaganda Service. The main headline is the announcement of a four-day Tet truce. It ends with “We wish you good health a happy new year.”

VC Sex Leaflet

The Viet Cong rarely, if ever, depicted a naked woman on a leaflet. Some of the Communist leaflets imply sex, but it is never illustrated. For instance, one leaflet pictures a woman in bed with the blankets covering all but her eyes and the text:

I am waiting for you darling.

The back of the leaflet is all text and says in both English and Vietnamese:

Darling!

I'm longing for your return home. Our happiness is here in our sweet home, NOT IN SOUTH VIETNAM!

NO REENLISTMENT!

Viet Cong Reward Leaflet for 1LT Marcinko

Another type of Viet Cong propaganda is called the "slogan slip." JUSPAO Field Memorandum Number 14, 9 February 1966 says:

A tool in the Viet Cong communication armory is the slogan slip. This is a small piece of paper (sometimes as small as two by three inches) which contains a short message expressing one idea. The most terse, for example, might read "Down with US-Lackey Clique". Slogans could be written on paper. on wood panels, carved into tree trunks and also lettered on walls or on large banners to be hung across roads leading into villages. Most of the slips I saw were just standard writing paper cut into about one inch stripes with handwritten text on them.

A longer version of such a slip is depicted in Rogue Warrior, Richard Marcinko, Pocket Books, NYC, 1992. This hand-printed scrap of paper bears a message on each side. The text on one side is:

Award of 50,000 piasters to anyone who kills First Lieutenant Dick Marcinko, a gray-faced killer who has brought death and trouble to the Chau Phu Province during the Lunar New Year.

Text on the other side is:

Award of 10,000 piasters to anyone who kills the leader of the secret blue-eye killer's party which has massacred many families during the United Nation day of 2 January 1968.

Gary D. Murtha mentions more about the Viet Cong hand-written propaganda in his self-published booklet The Phoenix Program in Vietnam, 1994.

He says:

The Viet Cong also had a propaganda program similar to the U.S. leaflet program, but on a much smaller scale. Portable typewriters and printing presses were used when available. In fact, a large scale printing shop was discovered across the border in Cambodia. However, it was the hand written messages on poor quality paper that shows us that they took the propaganda business serious. For someone to sit down and actually pen a propaganda leaflet, knowing that it would probably be pitched in the trash, proves that the political cadre took his job serious.

Murtha illustrates some examples of the hand written leaflet. One is:

The American aggressors must be expelled and sent home so that the Vietnamese people can solve their own internal problems of the country. If this is accomplished there will be real, immediate peace.

The text of another is:

ARVN, Civil Guard and popular forces. You should all keep out the American aggressors and help liberate the district. The American aggressors must be exterminated.

Aussie Go Home

Just as the US and Australian forces sometimes named the enemy unit on a propaganda leaflet, the Viet Cong sometimes returned the favor to the Australians. On one occasion, they produced a leaflet that depicts death over a series of grave markers, and the words in bold black, “Aussie Go Home!”

NLF Posters

The Viet Cong sometimes placed large posters where they could be seen by American servicemen. The poster above was found in February 1968 by United States Marines Lance-Corporal John Fedyszyn from Dunkirk, New York, a forward-observer radioman from C Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. He was on a search and destroy patrol during Operation Dye Marker. The poster was found along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between combat base Alpha 3 and the combat base at Con Thien. This was a free-fire zone where anyone seen in the bush was presumed to be either Viet Cong or North Vietnamese regulars. The full-color poster depicts an American soldier throwing away his M-14 rifle. Text at the left is "Say no to this war! Go home now alive!"

North Vietnamese Patriotic Poster

This torn and tattered poster depicts a heroic Communist soldier resolutely advancing against the enemy. The text is:

Grab the gun!

To kill the invading Americans is youth's glory.

Combatants!

The Poster was prepared by the Liberation Publishing House of Rach Gia Province.

A roof is a shield to defend against the US

Some of the posters were professionally done in North Vietnam and very artistic. This poster depicts heroic North Vietnamese firing at US planes and one comes down in flames. This image is very reminiscent of North Vietnamese stamps which regularly pictured American aircraft shot down by North Vietnamese soldiers and women.

Nothing is more precious than freedom of choice

This poster depicts three North Vietnamese fighters, one holding a picture of Ho Chi Minh on high.

Keep the school open for the children

This poster depicts two armed North Vietnamese protecting a school from American invaders.



G.I!

I like the above leaflet because it claims to have been written by an American living in Costa Mesa, California. Apparently English was not his first language because the leaflet is filled with grammatical errors that are more likely made by an ethnic Vietnamese propagandist. I quote some of the more interesting lines:

American Government must be blind and foolish to send Americans over here to be killed or wounded for the likes of them.

But, since I have came into Vietnam, I have seen and heared many stories that make me change my mind.

I have been and talked with many Americans Saigon Majors, Colonels, and a few Generals, and to my opinion most of them would have to be retired if it was not for this war to give them an excuse to stay.

The puppet administration in Saigon is that most of the BASTARDS want to make Commanding Generals of South Vietnam before they reach the age of 35.

U.S. G.I. have no business being here!

Join together and demand to come home at once!

There were numerous other themes and mixtures of themes used on NLF leaflets. We show samples of such leaflets above. They are but a few of dozens of such leaflets brought back from Vietnam.

It is criminal

Some Viet Cong leaflets were extremely poorly made, just badly typed on any available paper and left where American soldiers might find them. An example is the following. It is a short typewritten message with no understanding of English grammar:

Burning, houses, killing honest people, raping women, it is criminal, U.S. officers and men don’t do so.

Stop terrorist raids

Another such leaflet says:

1. Stop terrorist raids, massacring, plundering, house burning, woman raping!

2. Stop herding the population into disguised jails dubbed “strategic hamlets.”

3.Hearty welcome to American officers and men’s progressive acts in opposition to the dirty aggressive war waged by Johnson – McNamara in South Vietnam!

American Servicemen of the US 11th Independent Armoured-Car Regiment

Another typewritten leaflet on cheap paper uses some interesting English grammar. Notice the use of “Armoured” instead of “Armored.” Some of the text of this leaflet is:

AMERICAN SERVICEMEN OF US 11TH INDEPENDENT ARMOURED-CAR REGIMENT AT SUOIRAM BASE (LONGKHANH PROVINCE)

Met with:

- Heavy failures on all SVN battlefields

- The intense struggle of the progressive American people and the world's people in protest against US aggressive war in SVN.

Recently, on Binh Long, Long Khanh battlefields the 11th Armoured car regiment has been dealt a terrible blow. Only in 3 days running of June 18th, 19th and 20th over 1 thousand GIs were killed, over 224 US military vehicles destroyed including 171 tanks and armoured cars.

Demand your immediate home return!

Long Khanh Liberation Armed Forces.

Were the NLF leaflets effective? Statistics seem to indicate that they were not. Martin F. Herz wrote leaflets for the United States during World War II. After the war, he became an authority and wrote numerous articles on the subject. He authored "VC/NVA Propaganda Leaflets Addressed to U.S. Troops: Some Reflections," in Orbis, winter 1978.

He says:

Considering the large number of American soldiers who served in South Vietnam, the number that surrendered or were captured by the enemy is surprisingly small. Almost all U.S. prisoners of war were airplane and helicopter pilots or personnel riding in helicopters. Only about 100 American soldiers were apprehended in action on the ground, and fewer than a half-dozen are known to have deserted to the enemy." He ends the article with, "In sum, while North Vietnam and its Viet Cong arm won the war, and while their psychological warfare efforts must not be underestimated, it can be seen that VC/NVA propaganda addressed to U.S. troops suffered from some shortcomings...but when considering the examples...it must be borne in mind that propaganda addressed to American troops made up only a very small fraction of the total Communist propaganda disseminated there. In my opinion, the decisive battle for "minds and hearts" took place in the United States and not in Vietnam. VC/NVA propaganda was more effective when addressed to Americans in America than when addressed to Americans in Vietnam.

Fakes and Counterfeits

A word of warning; many counterfeits of these Viet Cong leaflets exist. I ask the reader to look carefully at the genuine leaflets we have depicted. Notice that they are on crude paper, often just typewritten and seldom in color. The counterfeits are usually on modern paper or cardboard, better printed, and often in multiple colors. EBay abounds in fakes. Perhaps as many as 80% of the alleged Viet Cong leaflets offered for auction are modern reproductions or fantasies.Leaflets that should be crude and discolored are printed in full color on high quality pristine paper or cardboard. These can be identified as frauds because the color and quality of the leaflet is far beyond anything that the National Liberation Front or Viet Cong could produce 40 years ago. Curiously, all of the frauds are in mint condition, and many feature nudes, or identify specific units such as the "Green Berets," the Navy "SEALs," or divisions and regiments. Martin Herz says that after studying Viet Cong leaflets for several years, he saw just one "rather timid" attempt to exploit the sexual frustration of American GIs. Strangely, hundred of such leaflets have been offered for sale in the last year or two, almost 30 years after the end of the war. The beautiful wallet-sized leaflets bearing the unit insignia of almost every military organization to pass through Vietnam during the war, in full color and mint condition are obviously made to entice the veterans of those units to buy the fraudulent leaflet as a souvenir of their service. A Vietnam leaflet should only be purchased from an individual who either brought it back himself, or is able to identify and vouch for the person who did so.

Fake Leaflet Addressed to the 4^th Infantry Division.

Examine this fake leaflet addressed to the 4th Infantry Division. The ink is clear and shiny. The paper is pristine. In fact, a genuine leaflet was copied on a cream-colored paper and cut to size.

Fake "What For?" Leaflet

The fakers took the genuine NLF leaflet "What for?" that was originally produced in color and photocopied it in black and white. This leaflet was actually sold through the mail.

Fake Reward Poster

This poster offers rewards for a Green Beret (they much prefer to be called "Special Forces" since a beret is a hat) who will give intelligence or train the VC. Note that they will secretly meet in the Venus Bar. Do you suppose there will be CID agents in that bar looking for suspicious "Green Beanies?"

Fake Wanted Poster

A more recent fake that is becoming prevalent on Internet auction sites is a Viet Cong wanted poster with all Vietnamese text except for the name of a U. S. serviceman in English. The poster depicts a photograph of the named individual.



Fake Reward Card for 101st Airborne



Fake Reward Card for 82nd Airborne



Fake Reward Card for 1st Cavalry

Notice that these leaflets exist for almost every unit that passed through Vietnam during the entire length of the war. Isn't that convenient?

Another Fake Reward Card

Fake Calendar for 1st Cavalry

Above is a sample of a fake calendar allegedly made by the VC. The seller on eBay claimed to have most months and years, available as well as calendars for several different units.

Fake Sex Leaflets

Most veterans never saw a sex leaflet in Vietnam. The expert Martin Herz admits to seeing a "timid one." Depicted above are a few of literally hundreds of leaflets showing nude women that are now being offered to buyers as genuine Viet Cong propaganda. Herz, who was a chief leaflet writer of the Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF during WWII mentions the Viet Cong use of sex in propaganda in an article entitled "Lessons from VC/NVA Propaganda." He says:

Sex is ineffective as a theme. Sex as a theme addressed to American troops suggested itself to the NVA/VC just as it suggested itself to the Germans and Japanese in WWII. It did not work and must have been quickly abandoned, for I have seen only one example in an extensive collection of enemy leaflets. We, on our side, learned the same lesson, but had to learn it again and again, since some of our commanders seemed reluctant to believe that the prudish VC/NVA couldn’t be influenced by such appeals.

We have illustrated only a sampling of the many National Liberation Front leaflets. The author is always interested in hearing about others that were brought back from Vietnam. Interested readers are encouraged to write to him at sgmbert@hotmail.com.

NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (NLF) ANTI-AMERICAN LEAFLETS OF THE VIETNAM WAR

Fakes and Counterfeits

NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (NLF)
ANTI-AMERICAN LEAFLETS
OF THE VIETNAM WAR