PSYOP ORDER OF BATTLE
FOR VIETNAM

The “Professional Litterbugs” of the 6th PSYOP Battalion in Bien Hoa have a long and proud record of achievement. They carry on the tradition of the old 6th Battalion, which was reorganized into the 4th PSYOP Group in December of 1967. The Meritorious Unit Commendation was awarded to the 6th Battalion in June 1968 for “consummate skill in providing psychological operations support to allied forces.” The personnel of the Battalion live and work on the Honour-Smith compound, a short distance from Bien Hoa airfield. The compound offers many recreational facilities including a newly constructed club and athletic equipment. One of the unique responsibilities of the battalion is its support of elements of the Royal Thai Army’s ‘Black Panther’ Division. The division, which arrived in-country during the summer of 1968, receives assistance in support of Civic Action programs as well as during military operations. Providing PSYOP support to all of III Corps tactical zone, the men of the 6th PSYOP Battalion continue to maintain their high level of “pride and devotion.”

A PSYOP Mobile Audiovisual Information Collection and Dissemination System (MSQ-85) waiting for the ferry on the dock at Can Tho. The MSQ-85 was the primary system in the U.S. inventory designated for tactical point dissemination of video products in other-than-broadcast mode. The AN/MSQ-85 includes a printing press, an AQ-4A movie projector, AN/UIH-6 loudspeaker public address system, AP-9 slide projector, AN/USH two-track international standard tape recorder, BM-22A large projection screen and R-520A/UUR radio receiver, a case of hand grenades, three cases of C-rations, a roll of toilet paper, and a generator. The trailer in the back could have anything from leaflets, magazines, and gifts of soap, to 105mm rounds (full of leaflets).

The Battalion’s official report states that the 246th PSYOP Company was officially deactivated on 31 December 1967 to become the 6th Psychological Operations Battalion on 1 January 1968. The battalion colors were presented to Major Clarence A. Barkley, the 6th PSYOP Battalion Commander by the 4th PSYOP Group Commander on 5 January 1968 at Bien Hoa. The 6th PSYOP Battalion moved its residence from the Train Compound to the Honour-Smith Compound on the 28th of January 1968. The move was made due to expected increase in unit strength and the present lack of adequate space at the Train Compound. The 6th Psychological Operations Battalion reported these quarterly production totals: Leaflets printed: 49,800,000; Leaflets disseminated: 372, 800,000; Loudspeaker broadcasts: 1,425 hours and 40 minutes; Total missions: 1002. Of the 20 officers assigned to the 6th Battalion, 14 had formal PSYOP training. The remaining 6 were enrolled in after-hours study course. A small Viet Cong propaganda printing press was presented to the 6th PSYOP Battalion by the 5th Special Forces Group.

10th PSYOP Battalion

In IV Corps, the 10th PSYOP Battalion of the 4th PSYOP Group was formed from the 19th PSYOP Company at Can Tho. It was officially Constituted 7 November 1967 in the Regular Army as the 10th Psychological Operations Battalion and Activated 1 December 1967. It continued operations until it departed Vietnam and was inactivated 17 April 1971 at Fort Lewis, Washington. The 10th Battalion maintained 15 field units, at Bac Lieu, Ben Tre, Ca Mau, Cao Lanh, Chau Doc, Dong Tam, Go Cong, Long Xuyen, Moc Hoa, My Tho, Rach Gia, Sa Dec, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, and Vinh Long. Headquarters had 4 presses located at "Villa Cruz" that could produce 3-color leaflets in press runs of about 100,000. Larger runs (and repetitive runs like Chu Hoi and B-52 leaflets) were usually printed by the 7th PSYOP Group in Okinawa. Two 80kw generators were located there and one ran around the clock to power the presses and operate fans and light boxes for developing the run plates. The officer’s club was up on the roof of the Villa Cruz. Not to be outdone, the enlisted billet located in Ben Xi Moi had it's own club on their roof.

10th Psychological Operations Battalion O Club, Can Tho, 1968.
Photo by William Ruzin

According to the Operations Report ­ Lessons Learned Headquarters 10th Psychological Operations Battalion period ending 31 January, 1968 dated 6 February 1968 the 10th PSYOP Battalion dealt with a group known as the “KKK,” a quasi-bandit guerrilla band of Cambodian extract operating along the Cambodian border in Chau Doc province. The KKK was organized in company and battalion levels and constituted a threat to the local government and administration by taxing the people and in some instances attacking villages and assassinating leaders. Between 24 December 1967 and 3 January 1968, 185 of these KKK bandits rallied to the GVN. An arrangement was worked out by province officials and they offered full Chieu Hoi type benefits to the KKK members although current GVN policy does not classify the KKK as being eligible. Seizing the possibility of influencing the KKK personnel of the 10th POB dispatched 2 field teams to the area to determine conditions and make leaflet and loudspeaker appeals.

The 10th flew 5 or more leaflet-drop missions per day, using two C47 aircraft and U-10 HelioCouriers. The USAF 5th SOS located at Binh Thuy Vietnamese Air Force Base had two C47 “Gooney Birds” plus six U-10 Super HelioCouriers.) These were also used elsewhere in IV Corps. The unit was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for Vietnam 1967-1968, and the Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class for Vietnam 1967-1970.

Another interesting mission occurred in January 1968 when a study was completed and plans were formulated for a project to reach the population of tightly controlled Viet Cong areas by means of attractive waterproof jackets containing leaflets and brochures along with gifts (soap, thread and needles, tooth brushes, crayons, etc.) floated into the targeted areas by means of numerous canals and waterways of IV Corps. Arrangements were made with the Binh Thay Naval Base S5 (Civil Affairs) to supply the 10th POB with detailed intelligence of the targeted groups in the river target areas and a means of delivery. A search was made for a source of cellophane bags and a bag sealer.

   

The 10th PSYOP Battalion HQ building in Can Tho, following an attack in January 1968.
(Photos courtesy of Rick Hofmann)

The 10th flew 5 or more leaflet-drop missions per day, using two C47 aircraft and U-10 HelioCouriers. The USAF 5th SOS located at Binh Thuy Vietnamese Air Force Base had two C47 "Gooney Birds" plus six U-10 Super HelioCouriers.) These were also used elsewhere in IV Corps. The unit was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for Vietnam 1967-1968, and the Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class for Vietnam 1967-1970.

10th PSYOP Battalion "Order of the Delta Psywarrior" Certificate

Colonel Robert L. Gleason discusses the Air Force contribution in Vietnam in “Psychological Operations and Air Power: Its Hits and Misses,” Air University Review, March-April 1971:

In 1961, in response to President Kennedy’s order to all services to bolster their counterinsurgency capability, the USAF established the 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron. Known as Jungle Jim, it later became the 1st Air Commando Squadron and finally evolved into the present Special Operations Air Force. Its original mission gave high priority to the conduct of psychological operations. Because of scarcity of experience in PSYOP, the Jungle Jim personnel turned to the US Army Special Warfare Center for some accelerated instruction in the subject. On 15 November 1961 they deployed to South Vietnam. On 4 December they flew our first PSYOP mission in C-47s equipped with belly-mounted loudspeakers.

The first USAF crew lost in South Vietnam was probably on a PSYOP mission. On 10 February a Farm Gate C-47 carrying USAF and USA instructors, together with Vietnamese personnel, distributed leaflets bearing Tet greetings from RVN President Diem to numerous villages between Da Nang and Saigon. Upon landing at Tan Son Nhut, the aircraft was discovered to have picked up several bullet holes. The program called for a return flight the following day over the same villages to deliver another Tet message, this time from President Kennedy. The crew, not knowing where the ground fire was picked up but anxious to complete the two-phase PSYOP project, elected to fly the return mission. It was on this flight that the aircraft was lost north of Da Lat, causing the death of its joint (USAF-USA) and combined (U.S.Vietnamese) crew.

U.S. Navy’s Mobile Riverine Force

The booklet adds:

From its headquarters in the heart of the Mekong Delta, the 10th PSYOP Battalion coordinates PSYOP support for allied military operations throughout the IV Corps tactical Zone. The 10th PSYOP Battalion, located in the bustling city of Can Tho, maintains two billets and one headquarters compound for its operations. The “Villa Cruz” houses the printing facility as well as the officer’s quarters and Battalion S-4 section. The “New Villa” is home for the unit’s enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. The command section and S-1, S-2, S-3 and PDC sections are located on the second floor of the Civil Operations Rural Development (CORDS)* PSYOP Building. Here, all analysis and development of propaganda is accomplished including graphical illustrations and testing. Seven close support platoons are fielded by the battalion throughout the provinces of IV Corps. Broken down into two man teams, they work closely with CORDS and other representatives to give quick reaction support. One of the most unique field teams operates with the U.S. Navy’s Mobile Riverine Force during operations conducted on the waterways of the Delta. Using gigantic loudspeaker systems, the psywarriors coax the enemy from his hiding places along the thickly wooded shoreline.

A Swabbie Santa comes to Vietnam

The photo above shows a USN Civic Action mission. Pham thi Bac (now Bac thi Eaton), perhaps the only Vietnamese female to hold full membership in both the Game-Wardens and the Mobile Riverene Association told me of going to the villages with a group of American doctors and nurses to give medicines to Vietnamese elders and children. At Christmas the Navy unit that she worked for purchased toys and candy which was taken to Cao Lanh Hospital and distributed. In the photo above an American seaman in a Santa Claus outfit hands out gifts to the Vietnamese.

* Dale Andrade discussed the CORDS program in an article called “Three Lessons from Vietnam” published in the Washington Post.

There must be a unified structure that combines military and civilian pacification efforts. In Vietnam that organization was called CORDS, for Civil Operations and Rural Development Support. Formed in 1967, it placed the disjointed and ineffective civilian pacification programs under the military. This was accomplished only at the insistence of President Lyndon Johnson, who took an active interest in seeing the pacification process function smoothly under a single manager: Gen. William Westmoreland. CORDS gave the pacification effort access to military money and personnel, allowing programs to expand dramatically. In 1966 there were about 1,000 advisers involved in pacification, and the annual budget was $582 million; by 1969 that had risen to 7,600 advisers and almost $1.5 billion. This rapid progress was possible only because of CORDS's streamlined system under Defense Department control.

Printing of propaganda by the 4th PSYOP Group was done in Vietnam, at Group headquarters in Saigon, and in facilities at each company and battalion headquarters. The 4th PSYOP Group used the offshore services of the 7th PSYOP Group for large printing jobs.

According to the booklet:

The mission of the 4th Psychological Operations Group is to provide psychological Operations in support of all U.S. military operations and internal development programs in the Republic of Vietnam.

The 4th Psychological Operations Group is organized as shown in Table of Equipment (TOE) 33-500F, 18 September 1967. The Group headquarters (in Saigon) includes a Headquarters Company. Each battalion has a close support company containing loudspeaker and audio-visual teams and a general support company containing a print plant. The Group headquarters and each battalion have the conventional S-1, S-2, S-3, and S-4 staff sections, plus a Psychological Operations Development Center (PDC). The PDC system throughout the Group is the "core" for Group propaganda operations.

With an authorized strength of 880 American military personnel, 133 Vietnamese civilian personnel and 78 Army of the Republic of Vietnam interpreters, the Group is comprised of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th PSYOP Battalions—one in each of the "corps tactical zones" of Vietnam.

The early history of the 4th Psychological Operations Group is actually the history of the 6th Psychological Operations Battalion. During the early phases of the Vietnam build up in the spring of 1965, PSYOP detachments began arriving from Okinawa and Fort Bragg. The 6th Psychological Operations Battalion Headquarters arrived in country on 5 February 1966. The battalion headquarters took control of the various detachments, which were organized into three companies. These companies, the 244th, 245th, and 246th were located in I Corps, II Corps, and III Corps respectively. In November of 1966, the 19th PSYOP Company was deployed to Vietnam to be assigned to the battalion and located in IV Corps.

On December 1, 1967, the 6th PSYOP Battalion was reorganized into the 4th PSYOP Group. At the same time, three of the companies became battalions, the 7th PSYOP Battalion (formerly the 244th PSYOP Company), the 8th PSYOP Battalion (formerly the 245th PSYOP Company), and 10th PSYOP Battalion (formerly the 19th PSYOP Company). The 6th PSYOP Battalion (formerly the 246th PSYOP Company) became the fourth battalion in the Group, located in Bien Hoa.

The booklet goes on to tell of some operations:

Hundreds of newly-assigned 4th Group psyoperators reflect the growing intensity of the psychological operations effort in Vietnam. The past year produced substantial evidence of the effectiveness of the 4th PSYOP Group operations in countering communist aggression is Southeast Asia. Examples typical of these operations: In June 1968, 4th PSYOP Group field teams and helicopter loudspeakers scored a record 135 enemy defections during a Communist offensive in the Saigon suburb of Gia Dinh.

Tactical Loudspeaker Team with interpreter
US Soldier in photo is Jack O'Neil
(Photo courtesy of Rick Hofmann)

The booklet explains the missions of the four PSYOP Battalions:

The battalion mission in each corps tactical zone is two-fold; first, to provide psychological operations support to all U.S. combat units. This support includes the use of field teams equipped with powerful ground loudspeakers and audio-visual equipment. Habitually operating with front-line fighting units, loudspeaker teams provide close support in tactical operations and are highly successful in this role. Secondly, the battalions are required to support non-military "pacification" or internal development" programs. For example, they employ audio-visual jeepsters in support of revolutionary development, civic action and medical aid projects and programs throughout Vietnam. This later role appears to be an ever-increasing one for the 4th PSYOP Group.

Field teams of the Group have been part of every major combat operation in Vietnam since February 1966, including Operations Cedar Falls, Byrd, Hastings and Manhattan.

The battalions work closely with the Air Force 14th Special Operations Wing, elements of which are co-located with the PSYOP Battalions. The Special Operations Squadrons fly leaflet and loudspeaker missions, which are requested and targeted by the battalions.

C-47 Dropping Leaflets

The booklet then explains the resources of the group to the new troops:

Aircraft are the primary means of distribution of psychological operation leaflets in the Republic of Vietnam. They are also used for aerial loudspeaker broadcasts. Aircraft used in dissemination are the C-47, U-10, and O-2B. Other means of PSYOP support include broadcasts from small naval vessels and helicopters and ground loudspeaker operations conducted by Group field teams serving with front-line combat units.

The 4th PSYOP Group headquarters has two Mobile Advisory Teams, which are designed to react immediately to any PSYOP situation. These teams also conduct instruction on PSYOP techniques for all allied units requiring such help. They also evaluate low-level PSYOP programs and make recommendations on ways of improving these efforts. A Mobile Advisory Team in each battalion performs similar functions.

Loudspeaker also supported hamlet operations

Aerial loudspeaker in C-47 aircraft
(Photo courtesy of Dave Boyers)

The Group as well as each of its subordinate battalions, has the capability of producing taped messages for loudspeaker and radio dissemination.

Psychological Operations Development Centers (PDC) comprise the system for development of propaganda throughout the Group. The headquarters PDC was organized in December 1967. Presently each battalion and separate company maintains its own PDC, which is an extension of the headquarters center.

Psychological Operations Development Center (PDC)

The PDC systematically analyses the target audiences and carefully develops messages with the proper impact. Another PDC responsibility is the careful critique of all materials requested by outside agencies. All propaganda is carefully checked for compliance with Policy Guidance and validity of layout and message content. These procedures are often completed within one day of receipt of the materials to be tested. The PDC employs social scientists, area (cultural) experts, writers, artists and illustrators.

 

PSYOP Illustrator prepares the graphic for a new leaflet. Finished leaflet at right

PSYOP Print Press

The Group Headquarters provides general support to the battalions. Installed at the newly enlarged headquarters printing plant are three Hess and Barker web-fed presses, three Multilith 1250 presses and three automatic paper cutters. Battalion printing capabilities are organic to the battalion general support company. Multilith 1250 presses are the battalion’s primary means of reproduction, while the Multilith 85 press is sometimes used for quick reaction materials.

Photo processing truck
(Photo courtesy of Dave Boyers)

Passing out newspapers

The booklet concludes:

Newspapers and newsletters are produced by the thousands for a news hungry rural population. The 2-billionth leaflet emerged from the clamoring presses of the Group’s Headquarters printing facility in May and the 3-billionth leaflet was printed in November 1968. In several battalions, Vietnamese Armed Propaganda Teams are used in face-to-face communications and accompany Group loudspeaker and audio-visual teams in close support operations and propaganda missions to hamlets.

Leaflet 3123

On the subject of armed propaganda teams, JUSPAO leaflet 3123 depicts an entire marching company of Vietnamese APTs, each with a loudspeaker under his right arm. To the right of the photograph is a Chieu Hoi symbol and the text:

Return to alleviate the suffering of the people.

The back is all text:

The Chieu Hoi Cadres of Long An Province. Deeply encouraged by the success of the Chieu Hoi program, the armed propaganda teams of long An welcomes the prime Minister and Vietnamese government officials to long An. The event was the opening ceremony of the ‘Spring for the fatherland’ campaign. The aim of the Chieu hoi program is to urge those still on the other side to return to their families and alleviate the sorrows of separation.

Armed Propaganda Team Member passing out leaflets

The 69-page APT Handbook issued to American advisors attached to Vietnamese armed propaganda teams. The handbook covers such subjects as; force structure and allocation, recruitment, operations, training, logistical support, finance, and all the other areas important for a force in the field

7th PSYOP Group

The 7th PSYOP Group was constituted 19 August 1965 in the regular Army and activated 20 October 1965 and assigned to the Ryukyu Islands, located in the Machinato Service Area. It was attached to IX Corps for operation and Training. The 7th PSYOP Group was the successor to the U. S. Army Broadcasting and Visual Activity, Pacific, (USABVAPAC) which was disbanded 20 October 1965. The 7th assumed all missions and functions previously administered by USABVAPAC and transferred members and equipment.

The 7th PSYOP Group was tasked with support activities in Okinawa, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The group consisted of the 14th PSYOP Battalion, the 15th PSYOP Detachment, the Japan Detachment, the Korea detachment, the Taiwan Detachment, and the Vietnam Detachment.

In Vietnam the Group worked in support of the Commander, United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (COMUSMACV). A two–man team consisting of a liaison officer and an NCO arrived in Vietnam on 20 October 1965 and remained after the 4th PSYOP Group was formed. At one time more than 80 people from the 7th PSYOP Group were on TDY in Vietnam. Throughout the war, the duties of the 7th PSYOP Group included the provision of PSYOP liaison and offshore printing support for South Vietnam.

During 1965 The Okinawa printing plant produced 125 million leaflets for MACV and the Vietnam Detachment produced another 62 million on its web-fed press in Saigon. The Detachment maintained liaison with the Joint United States Public Affairs Office and the Military Assistance Command Political Warfare Directorate. In September two members journeyed to Vietnam to plan and conduct the first high altitude leaflet and toy bundle dissemination over North Vietnam. They returned again in December to assist in a Christmas toy drop over North Vietnam.

In 1967 the unit was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation for their support of military operations. Besides the units mentioned earlier, the 7th PSYOP Group added a Radio Detachment (Provisional) Vietnam. The unit now had 41 linguists who were proficient in 11 different languages. During 1967 they printed 7 billion propaganda leaflets for Vietnam and Korea. Their printing capability was enhanced by using the U. S. Army Printing and Production Center in Tokyo, and the Regional Service Center of the United States Information agency in Manila.

PSYOP Loudspeaker Truck

The small detachment’s Vietnam HQs were bombed by the VC in December of 1966 and they moved to 8 Vinh Vien Street. Later they moved to 16 Pham Ngu Lao in the Cholon section of Saigon. They coordinated the activities of four loudspeaker teams, supervised two leaflet dissemination courses, and assisted members who were on temporary duty (TDY) with MACVSOG. Their motto was "Credibility Through Communication."

The Vietnam Detachment, established by the 7th PSYOP Group, operated from Saigon, where, on 3 February 1969, it was officially designated the 244th PSYOP Detachment of the 7th PSYOP Group. Later, this detachment became a company within the 7th PSYOP Group.

7th PSYOP Group Loudspeaker Jeep

Leaflet Mix 249 was the last number used by MACV; Mix 250 begins 7th PSYOP Group control. Leaflet Mixes 239-248 had been previously assigned to the 7th PSYOP Group. (Memo dated 4 July 1972).

Leaflet 4508 was the last number used by MACV; leaflet 4509 begins 7th PSYOP Group control.

After the Vietnam War, the 7th PSYOP Group was deactivated for a time. In the mid-1970s, it was revived as a headquarters for the 353rd and 306th PSYOP Battalions, the 1st PSYOP Company, and the 15th PSYOP Company, all located in California. During this period, the 7th PSYOP Group was located in San Francisco, and reported to the 351st CA Command, which was an ARCOM-level USAR element.

After the 244th PSYOP Detachment of the 7th PSYOP Group became a company, it was commanded by Maj. (later Col.) David G. Underhill.

The psywar operation in Vietnam involved complex civilian and military arrangements, and was enormous in scope and confusing in structure. In addition to JUSPAO, MACV, and the 4th and 7th PSYOP Groups, other American units conducting psywar operations in Vietnam include the U.S. Embassy Mission PSYOP Committee, Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support, the U.S. Army-Vietnam (USARV), force commanders and senior advisers, U.S. Naval Forces-Vietnam, III Marine Amphibious Force (who held original responsibility for I Corps), and the 7th U.S. Army Force. Psychological operations in Vietnam was sometimes termed "a many-splintered thing."(Arts and Science,Vol. 1, no year)

Despite the confusion and complexity of the allied psywar operations, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong became targets of what would prove to be the largest psychological operation to date. For example, in 1969 alone, no less than 10.5 billion leaflets were distributed by JUSPAO.

Barger mentions the enormous amount of leaflets produced:

As PSYOP forces shifted emphasis toward support to Pacification efforts and related programs, such as Phoenix, the net effect on the overall PSYOP mission was not a change in tasks but an addition to tasks. For example, by the third quarter of 1969, the 4th PSYOP Group’s in-country printing elements produced over 595 million leaflets, nearly 100 million of those for Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office, the Vietnamese General Political Warfare Directorate, and other Government of Vietnam agencies To understand how this entails an expanded scale of printing requirements, consider that it took the 4th PSYOP Group's print facility 28 months to print their two-billionth leaflet in May 1968, but they printed their three-billionth in November, only seven months later. As this expansion of requirements reached the limit of military PSYOP capabilities, the force underwent additional structural changes and relied more heavily on offshore support from the 7th PSYOP Group and other agencies, and was forced to prioritize their efforts when demands exceeded capabilities. Related structural and personnel changes in CORDS, JUSPAO, and MACV would influence PSYOP priorities even more in the coming years.

Before we leave this look at Allied PSYOP against the Communists in Vietnam we should study what the Viet Cong thought of the American and Republic of Vietnam’s propaganda campaigns waged against their forces. There are numerous such reports produced during the length of the war as enemy documents were captured and translated. One such document is a JUSPAO Field Memorandum dated 27 August 1966. It is a Viet Cong internal document which is a memorandum from a high headquarters (probably the Central Committee of the People's Revolutionary Party) to its interzone and provincial level agit-prop units throughout the country:

At present, the enemy is using psywar to attack us on the ideological plane. He has scattered many leaflets from aircraft and has appealed to us through (loudspeaker) broadcasts. The objective of this is to destroy our morale. The themes of this propaganda are these: rally to the enemy side; the war causes much misery; U.S. weapons are very powerful and they menace us; rewards will be given those who leave their friends and abandon their mission; the South Vietnamese army soldiers have much honor and (monetary) benefits, and the enemy side is the side of authority.

These efforts surely influence our troops. If we do not closely control cadre and soldier thoughts, we shall face many difficulties. For this is a dangerous wicked scheme by the enemy. It is related to the general war situation, all aimed at reducing the fighting spirit of our forces and having a great influence on our struggle toward victory in general, and during this summer in particular.

Appropriate measures to counter enemy propaganda are:

1. Carefully indoctrinate troops, cadres and soldiers about the enemy's psywar schemes. Make clear to all people the fact of his corruption and that he pretends to be very strong but cannot hide his failures; that our people will gain victory. Make cadres and soldiers understand the glory of a revolutionary soldier. Make everybody energetic and cause them deeply to resent the enemy and be determined to fight and win all battles under all circumstances. "

2. Whenever the enemy uses psywar, cadres should immediately hold indoctrination sessions and closely manage the people's thoughts and actions. Be prepared for all developments. When leaflets drop, all people, even the cadres and soldiers should tear them up without reading them. Only cadre chiefs are authorized to read and then explain and analyze the contents of the leaflets to the cadres and to soldiers in their units. The latter are prohibited from reporting on the contents of this propaganda to others, or to discuss it. To discuss enemy propaganda is to voluntarily or involuntarily propagandize for the enemy. Set up a self-improved spirit in each unit so that cadres and soldiers help each other.

The two approaches to be employed, therefore, are indoctrination and denial of access to the materials.

THE SLOGAN SLIP

One of the interesting types of propaganda leaflet used in Vietnam was the "Slogan Slip." It was so important that the Joint U.S. Public relations Office did an entire memorandum on the subject. JUSPAO Field Memorandum Number 14, 9 February 1966 says in part:

A captured Viet Cong directive for example declared that:

The slogan is a form of agitation that concentrates the determination of the masses to struggle, expresses the attitudes and actions of the masses to make revolution, and lowers the prestige and power of the enemy . . . They are of three types: those which praise our policies; those which express hatred especially for enemy crimes; and those which support the birth van proselyting movement.

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 tersest, for example, might read "Down with US-Lackey Clique." Slogans could be written on paper, on wood panels, carved into tree trunks and lettered on walls or on large banners to be hung over 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.

Slogans may be written in the form of poetry, in verses of six or eight words, or in the form of words to popular songs. But all slogans must be written in serious and dignified form and not scrawled. Many slogans now used are disorderly. These must be improved. The masses must be taught to write slogans properly, hang them in public places, and protect them from enemy soldiers during clearing operations. Slogan slips are generally distributed covertly. They are slipped into women's shopping baskets at markets, tossed in parked vehicles in the cities, placed at night in school room desks or simply scattered along paths and walks where they are apt to be found by pedestrians.

The Americans liked the Slogan Slip. They liked it so much that they stole it from the enemy. The 7th PSYOP Group printed dozens of different ones. They would usually be printed on a single sheet of paper that was cut up into small strips and dropped over the enemy. The grouping I show above is coded 4512 to 4515. I have seen many other similar pages. The text on these four are (front and back):

The senseless war goes on without end. Why?
Serious negotiations by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam are the way to peace.

The war is madness. The Communist Party leaders should have gone into the peaceful political discussion phase.
The war is a lost cause.

The war consumes the product of all work. There is nothing left for building a better life.
The time has come for an end to the fighting and the beginning of serious political discussions to end the war.

When the war ends, all prisoners can be returned to their families.
All the people can return to their peaceful life when the war ends.

I should mention that after Nixon was reelected a Slogan Slip numbered 4610 was printed. The enemy did not care for Nixon and was probably hoping he would fail. By telling them of the election, the morale of the North might be lowered as they realized the bombing and fighting would continue. There would be no peace president to deal with. The text on the later slip was:

U.S. President Nixon has been reelected by an overwhelming majority of the American voters. He will begin his second 4-year term in January 1972.
President Nixon’s reelection is an expression of the American people’s confidence in his Indochina policies, particularly his quest for an honorable peace by negotiation.

Leaflets not prepared by PSYOP Units

Soldiers of the 9th Division

The first PSYOP units appeared in Vietnam about June 1965. It was almost February 1966 before they were really organized and running smoothly. There were already some combat units on the ground and they produced propaganda leaflets, although it is unknown if they did this internally, or used teams of people trained in PSYOP. The 1st Infantry Division arrived in Vietnam about October 1965 and apparently prepared Propaganda leaflets either without code or actually coded “1st Inf.” The leaflet above is numbered #15, which seems to imply 14 earlier leaflets. The very crude image shows Viet Cong being killed by an artillery blast at the left while one guerrilla runs away. At the right the guerrilla shakes hand with a soldier from the 1st Division. The text is:

Soldiers of the 9th Division

You are in the operating area of the powerful 1st U.S. Infantry Division. We know you are southeast of Minh-Thanh. More units of the 1st Infantry Division will be upon you. Surrender or die. If you want to surrender; remove your shirts, sling your weapons muzzle down, and put your hands behind your neck. Then report to the first soldier you see.

Surrender now or die under the power of the 1st Infantry Division.

Special campaigns – postcards and letters

Besides the regular leaflets, handbills and posters, occasionally the PSYOP troops would partake in special campaigns. Two that are of particular interest are leaflets made in the form of either postcards or stamped letters.

JUSPAO postcard 2904B.

This postcard was prepared in January 1969 as part of a Chieu Hoi (Open Arms) and Tet (New Year) campaign. The target was the Viet Cong and their relatives and sympathizers. It was a one-time item and not available for re-order. The same vignette was used on a poster coded 2902 which had an additional seven photographs of citizens working to improve the nation. The postcard depicts a Vietnamese mother and daughter watching some children light holiday firecrackers. The official title is “Postcard of Tet Poster No. 1, 1969.” The back of the postcard is blank. The text is:

HAPPY NEW YEAR – LONGING FOR PEACE

Leaflet 8-319 (1.14)

This Chieu Hoi “postcard” was dropped during Tet 1969 by Captain Albert Yanus of the 5th Special Operations Squadron from an HC-47d flying out of Bien Hoa AFB. The 3 1/2 x 5-inch blank-back cards were dropped in III Corps, the densely populated alluvial plain surrounding Saigon. The 5th SOS utilized HC-47d’s, O-2’s, and U-10's at Ben Thuy for leaflet and speaker missions. In addition, the HC-47d sometimes dropped parachute flares at night in support of Army firebases. Their official motto was “The truth shall make them free,” and their unofficial motto was “Better to bend the mind than destroy the body.” Although it is hard to evaluate the effectiveness of leaflet missions, CPT Yanus remarked that on one occasion he received an immediate report of 90 VC surrendering after a leaflet drop. The propaganda postcard depicts a beautiful Vietnamese maiden holding flowering branches. At the lower left is the Chieu Hoi (“Open Arms”) emblem in full color. The card is coded 8-319 (1.14) indicating that it was produced by the 8th PSYOP Battalion. The text is:

Happy New Year

Fun with language - A Vietnamese-language linguist told me that the literal translation of the four words is Wishing [you a] New Spring. I asked what might be a better translation. He said “Happy New Year.” I told him “Wasn’t that what I said?”

Major Michael G. Barger says about the annual Tet campaigns which first showed great success in 1966:

The 1967 Tet Campaign began on 11 January and continued through the end of February. The combined effort included dropping over 300 million leaflets, loudspeaker broadcasts using over two thousand different taped appeals, and both radio and television broadcasts. MACV, though acknowledging in their 1967 Command History that, “the Tet campaign was not solely responsible,” still determined that these efforts largely accounted for the record monthly high Hoi Chanh figure of 2,917 in February 1967. This perceived success led MACV to continue February’s campaign into March, dropping 87 million leaflets calling for a “Spring Reunion” along with 27 million safe conduct passes.

The Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office used the same image (minus the Chieu Hoi symbol) on a leaflet coded SP-2-67. The message says in part:

New Year is coming to the country. While the people living under the control of the Government of South Vietnam are preparing to celebrate a New Year, they are also thinking about the miseries suffered by the people living under Viet Cong domination… Please think of the benefits of the Open Army program and encourage your children who are now in the Viet Cong to return to South Vietnam.

There are at least three PSYOP products on card stock that the American military calls “stationery.” In all three cases the backs are blank, but it seems apparent that the products were meant to be used as postcards. In all three cases the items were prepared by the Joint United States Public Relations Office (JUSPAO) in three different formats. They are found in two different sizes with Vietnamese text, and also in a third variety with Cambodian text.

Postcard 1668A depicts Le Loi, a legendary hero of Vietnam. The postcards were printed in full color. A smaller version is coded 1668B and the Cambodian variety is coded 1668C. In addition there is a 7 x 10-inch handout, and a 20 x 28-inch poster all apparently produced in May 1968. The text is:

FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF HERO LE LOI

Promote the unyielding spirit of the Vietnamese People in the
destruction of Communism and salvation of the country.

The statue of Le Loi stands in front of the Municipal Hall of Thanh Hoa Province where he was born. Le Loi was emperor of Vietnam and founder of the Le dynasty. He is among the most famous figures of Vietnamese history and one of its greatest heroes.

The Le Loi poster printed by JUSPAO coded SP-1688.

Le Loi Featured on a Vietnamese Training Certificate.

Curiously, the same image was used on a Vietnamese training certificate. The caption on the picture under Le Loi is:

Glory be the indomitable will of the Lac Hong race.

Accompanying the certificate is a paper titled Training Certificate in Administration and Finance issued by the Republic of Vietnam Ministry of Education for civil servants upon graduation of the course.

[Note]: The Lac Hong is a name for the ancient Vietnamese in the BC era.

Postcard 1707A depicts Tran Hung Dao, a legendary hero of Vietnam. He stands with sword while behind him we see both soldiers from his own era and the present era marching with the flag of the Republic of Vietnam. A smaller version is coded 1707 and the Cambodian variety is coded 1707B. The text is:

FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF TRAN HUNG DAO

All the people unite to fight against Communism to save the nation

A Tran Hung Dao poster was printed by JUSPAO coded SP-1271.

A 1967 Army paper entitled Vietnamese Superstitions mentions this campaign:

PSYOP use of the venerated figure of Tran Hung Dao, victor in 1285 over the Golden Horde led by Kublai Khan’s Chinese vassal satisfies all requirements. We know the supernatural qualities with which the heroic figure of Tan Hung Dao is endowed in the popular mind, and the Government of Vietnam has the capability of invoking him in patriotic appeals aimed against the invaders (See JUSPAO poster 1271) which are among the most popular produced in the PSYOP field to date.

A Vietnamese woman walks by the poster in the streets of My Tho 1969.

This same image was used on several other leaflets. For instance, two uncut leaflets were disseminated without code and on the back was a message from the Province Chief of Binh Thuan Province to the 840th Viet Cong Main Force Battalion. The leaflets were not separated so a longer message could be placed on the back. The 840th battalion had attacked Binh Thuan during the Tet 1968 offensive. The Province Chief Nguyen Khac sent a Tet greeting and a message of peace.

An even stranger leaflet was three uncut leaflets with the code SP-170. The message on the back of this leaflet is a request from the residents of Suoi-Nghe village for the arrest and punishment of the Viet Cong who had murdered two village leaders.

Martin F. Herz served the United States Government in Paris, Cambodia, and Vietnam. He knew the area intimately. He said about Tran Hung Dao in his School of Foreign Service book, The Vietnam War in Retrospect (edited for brevity):

The King of Vietnam asked Tran Hung Dao what to do when the Mongols demanded the Vietnamese submit to them. “If we fight, we shall all be killed, but if we submit, we shall all be slaves. What should we do?”

Tram Hung Dao answered. “Your majesty if you wish to surrender then cut my head off first. For while it is on my head the kingdom shall stand.” All the assembled nobles and warriors, with one voice, shouted, “We will fight!”

Postcard 2592 depicts a heroic Vietnamese soldier charging forward with his flag waving behind him. A smaller version is coded 2592A and the Cambodian version is coded 2592B. The text is:  

WE ARE DETERMINED TO DEFEND THE NATION

Pack of Vietnamese Cigarettes

We have all heard the old “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” In this case, what came first, the Propaganda postcard or the Vietnamese cigarettes with the same image on the front?

Mike Fisher who is a veteran of Vietnam from 1971-1972 in the 544th transportation Company in Chu Lai, and D Company, 87th Infantry Regiment in Da Nang, wrote to tell me:

I got in the habit of smoking Ruby Queen cigarettes when I ran out of American smokes. I pulled security for the different cargo shipping areas in and around Da Nang. I was doing the work of an 11 Bravo infantry grunt, a lot of guard duty and roving patrols. There were several different boat ramps and the deep water pier for ocean-going ships. Sometimes I would get gate guard duty at the Bridge Ramp, Tiensha Ramp or the deep water pier. One of my duties was to work with the ARVN and civilians. I frequently spent a lot of time with them and some of the village elders, and would share food, drink and smokes. So I liked the Ruby Queens. They were very strong.

Leaflet 14a Front

Although not actual postcards or letters, there are two leaflets that appear to be stamped postcards. They are from the same series and are coded 14a and 14b which indicates that they were prepared to be dropped during the campaign against North Vietnam in early 1965. At first glance the two leaflets are similar, both addressed on the front with what appears to be a postage stamp. Both of the leaflets are addressed on the front to:

To a North Vietnamese Compatriot – North Vietnam

Leaflet 14b Front.

Leaflet 14b back

The fake stamps are cancelled “Viet Nam – Saigon – Cong Hoa.” The stamp on 14a is a parody of a genuine stamp honoring the sisters Trung Trac and Trung Nhi who resisted the Chinese invasion in 40-44 A.D. They are depicted riding on war elephants against the Chinese with a Republic of Vietnam flag in the background. The second stamp on 14b is a combination that depicts a map of Vietnam, The flag of the Republic and northerners heading south on a raft to escape Communism. The back of each leaflet contains the exact same message:

Dear Compatriot,

You and I are Vietnamese living on the soil of Vietnam. Circumstances, unfortunately, keep you in the North and me in the South.

When your communist rulers cut the country in two, close to one million of our compatriots fled the Communist Zone for the South. Since that sad day, we have been living peacefully, busying ourselves with rebuilding the country and establishing a free and democratic regime in the South.

Unfortunately, for the past ten years the Communists of the North have been waging war in the South with the aim of imposing Communist rule on the free part of our country. Men and weapons have been infiltrated to the South to destroy schools, hospitals, roads and bridges, and kill innocent civilians. In doing this, your Communist rulers claim to “liberate” the southern people. But, we have never asked them to “liberate” us. In fact, what do we want to be liberated from? We are happy with what we have and wish only to be left alone.

But, it is obvious that your Communist rulers are unmoved by our desire for peace.

Now, in face of stepped-up infiltration of men and weapons to intensify the aggressive was against the South, we are compelled to act in self defense. We are bombing the military installations and communication facilities which your Communist rulers are using to sustain their war of aggression in the South.

So, for your safety, please stay away from these targets.

My letter is short but my sentiments are immense. I am cordially yours.

The first record I have of this leaflet being dropped is 20 July 1965. American and Vietnamese aircraft dropped the leaflets over communication routes heading to Hanoi and Haiphong, as well as eight North Vietnamese cities. The leaflets were mixed with numbers 13 and 16 and a total of 3,360,000 of the three were disseminated. Another 520,000 of 14a and 14b were dropped on 30 July 1965 over Van Yen, Ba Don and Huong Khe. On 9 December another 480,000 were dropped over the Rao Nay Valley and Ba Don, Cuong Gian and Phu Kinh.

The Trung Sisters

Because the Trung sisters were national heroes in Vietnam, they were often placed on PSYOP leaflets and posters. The Trung Sisters led the first resistance movement against the occupying Chinese after 247 years of domination. Many temples are dedicated to them and their death is commemorated each year. Legend says that in 39 AD they gathered an army of 80,000, led by 36 women generals and within a year drove the Chinese occupiers from 65 cities. Because they had liberated their country, they were named co-queens. The Chinese returned with a huge force and after defeat on the battleground the sisters committed suicide by drowning themselves in 43 AD. A Fifteenth Century poem says about the sisters: “ All the male heroes bowed their heads in submission; only the two sisters proudly stood up to avenge the country.” The text on the poster is:

Oppose the Communists' aggression in defense of our liberties as descendants
of the Hong Lac race.

Do as the two Trung sisters of the Trieu family did.

Note: The sisters renamed their country Hong Lac during their reign. Some experts believe that “Hong” represented their clan and “Lac” the ethnic group from which the Vietnamese descended. Others think the Hong Lac race moved down from the north about 4,000 years ago. The term might be mythical in nature.

A Good Image for the Government of Vietnam and the United States

Leaflet 8N(2)-25-68

There are a great number of leaflets that try to glorify the image of the government of the Republic of Vietnam or the United States. This 1968 8th PSYOP Battalion leaflet depicts a peaceful scene of a rice paddy on one side and a Vietnamese man looking over the countryside on the other. It is meant to glorify the Vietnamese Government. The text is:

I am a citizen, born and living in Vietnam. I love my country. I love green rice fields, buffaloes grazing in the grass, birds singing beyond bamboo trees, thatched roofs with smoke in the sunset. You and we are brothers, born and living in Vietnam in the same native land. Why should we fight each other? Could we not support the same government? The Government of the Republic of Vietnam is the government of Vietnam and our government.

Leaflet 8(1)-9-115-68

This leaflet was prepared to lift the image of the United States. It depicts local Vietnamese going to a hospital to be treated by American medical personnel. It says in part:

Dear Friends.

There is no reason for you to suffer. If you are ill or in need of medical care join with the hundreds of Vietnamese civilians of Phu My District who receive expert medical attention from the medical aid station at LZ Uplift. Every day many people of the village of Phu My are treated by qualified medical personnel. If your illness warrants, you will be sent to Phu My Hospital for further treatment. If you can be treated by the 1st Battalion (mechanized) 50th Infantry aid station, we will provide you with medicine. Many patients return regularly for continued treatment. It is our desire to help our Vietnamese brothers. Bring your sick children to us so that our medical personnel can treat them.

Your brothers of the Ichiban Battalion.

That battalion name confused me. I knew from time in Japan that Ichiban meant “number one.” Why would an American unit have that name? A little research showed that it did in fact belong to the 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry, the 2nd Armored Division.

Leaflet 7-202-68

This 1968 7th PSYOP Battalion leaflet was also meant to build the image of the U.S. One side depicts an American soldier shaking hands with a Vietnamese and the other shows a Vietnamese working in the fields. The text is:

U.S. Soldiers are you friends; they help to secure you safety. When they come, if you run away, it is very difficult for them to distinguish innocent people from the Viet Cong. Do not run away; continue to do your work…

Self-Criticism

Leaflet SP-1431

The Communists never stopped propagandizing their own troops. Even in the jungles of South Vietnam the criticism sessions continued. The Communist political officer (Commissar) would criticize a soldier, then the men would criticize, and finally the soldier was supposed to point out his own weaknesses in self-criticism. It was believed this led to a more dedicated and loyal Communist. In fact. Many of the soldiers blamed these meetings as their reason for going Chieu hoi. This leaflet uses that belief as its theme. A second common theme was "what do you choose?" Often, PSYOP troops would print a leaflet showing a peaceful scene and a warlike scene and ask the Viet Cong or NVA which he would choose. The text on the front is:

Which way of life would you prefer?

Mutual caring and trust in the ARVN, or mutual spying and reporting in the VC?

The back is all text:

Do you like having other members in your team spying on what you do? Even when you are in the toilet?

- Do you like when others report your innocent words, so your superiors develop a mistrust of you?

- Do you like obligatory auto-criticism sessions even when you did nothing wrong?

IF YOU DO NOT

Abandon your team and return to the always welcoming Government of Viet Nam.

You can become a citizen in a free society. No more team and spying.

We find the same theme used on leaflet 4448

This is a meaningless TET which has brought along nothing but meaningless criticism sessions and deep frustration. What is TET when the Communist cadres make you attend self-criticism sessions while every Vietnamese family is preparing to celebrate. Why? Just to distract you from thinking of your families, wives and children on this occasion.

Inform on the Viet Cong

Leaflet SP-1094

There were dozens of different leaflets asking the people to inform on the whereabouts of the Viet Cong. Many offered rewards and we mention them in a different article. In this very early JUSPAO leaflet from about 1962 the people are asked to inform just for their own general welfare and that of the nation. The front of the leaflet depicts farmers being forced to give the Viet Cong their rice and receiving worthless promissory notes in return. The text is:

Denounce the actions of the Viet Cong. Do not let the Viet Cong steal your rice and kidnap your sons and relatives. Denounce Viet Cong actions to the Army of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam.

The back of the leaflet depicts Vietnamese Army troops asking a farmer to tell them where the guerrillas are located. The farmer points in their direction. The text is:

Did you see any Viet Cong today? How many of them were there? Where were they? How many weapons did they have? Help the Government's Army restore peace and tranquility to Vietnam. Tell the Army about the Viet Cong and where they are hiding.

The Viet Cong Don’t Care if you Live or Die

Leaflet 963

This leaflet depicts Vietnamese civilians being used as bullet shields and being forced to move ahead of Viet Cong fighters against multiple automatic weapons hidden in the jungle overgrowth. The text on the back is:

WHY?

Do you know why the Viet-Cong are so tensely hiding behind the people, increasing their acts of terror that cause suffering, death, and destruction to innocent people - including farmers, workers, grandmothers, children, and livestock from urban areas to remote rural areas.

Because they can no longer control or deceive the people like before. Their cruel acts of terrorism such as levying heavy taxes, sabotage, kidnapping, violating pagodas, coercing citizens, hiding in peaceful hamlets, and shooting at government troops to create a scene. There foolish shooting exposed their true colors.

Now the people have realized that the Viet Cong do not "liberate" anything. They only bring war and death to the country. The people also know that defeating the Communists is only a matter of time.

The Viet Cong are Liars

Leaflet SP-805

This early Vietnam War leaflet depicts armed Viet Cong forcing farmers and civilians to labor for them. The text on the front is:

Why does the Viet Cong coerce labor?

The back is all text:

BECAUSE THEY ARE LOSING

The ARVN and Allies are hunting them day and night, on land as in the water, that's why they have not a moment to rest and must hide like animals. For each killed cadre they must find a replacement. They coerce people more and more into working for them.

They lied to people that they would take them to education camps. Instead, they took them to labor camps where they forced them to dig shelters, not for people but for themselves.

THE VIET CONG ARE YOUR ENEMY. THE VIET CONG ARE OBSTACLES ON THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE'S ROAD TO PEACE.

Leaflet SP-979

We know from the Special Projects “SP” letters in the code, that this was a very early leaflet. The letters screamed “American” to the Vietnamese, so they were quickly removed from the leaflets. This one depicts a group of comments on eight sheets on the front. The comments on the front are:

- Victory in 1963.
- Land to the people.
- Fulfill the people's wish.
- Support soldiers' families.
- Victory in 1965.
- Rainy season campaign.
- General Offensive.
- Democratic countries' support.

Why did the Viet Cong not keep their promises?

The back is all text:

Because the Government of the RVN is winning

Communist leaders often brag about their great victories. Their promises about building schools, providing land, bringing about prosperity, were very attractive. They lured Viet Cong servicemen into believing their families are protected and supported.

But no such promise was kept.

Facing military defeats and disdain of the people, they will continue promising. But their constant defeats tell us there is no hope for them to keep such additional promises, as they blatantly defaulted on their previous promises.

So, you should know that the VC promises cannot be believed. What are you following them for?

Educate and Free your Children

Leaflet 1380

This leaflet depicts a large group of happy school children, some holding their books high for all to see. The text is very long so I will just translate some of the pertinent comments:

Happy Children attend Government of Vietnam Schools

Look at these happy children. They are part of a group of many hundreds of thousands who are attending Government of Vietnam Schools all over the country. They have a bright future ahead of them. The future will be even brighter when the Viet Cong puppets, Hanoi, and Peking finally realize the futility of their efforts to subvert the Government of Vietnam.

Viet Cong, you have been deceived and betrayed by your leaders. The people of Vietnam oppose the Communists and support the Government of Vietnam and its allies in their effort to make Vietnam a land of peace and plenty once again.

Give these young children of Vietnam a chance to build a happy life for themselves under a free and democratic government. Give yourself and your children the chance to find a good life in support of the Just Cause. Rally to the cause that will make a happy life for you and all the people of Vietnam.

Don’t Pay Your Viet Cong Taxes - Hide Your Rice

Many leaflets were prepared telling the Vietnamese people to hide their rice to refuse to pay taxes to the Viet Cong. In a letter to JUSPAO it is said that the American Ambassador wants to know what is being done about this problem by U.S. PSYOP specialists. In reply, the letter says that in 1968 at least six leaflets on that theme were printed and disseminated. It adds the ARVN have produced three such leaflets. The letter points out that many Vietnamese do not want to pay those taxes, but an AK-47 can be very intimidating. The letter ends by saying that the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) organization will be brought in on the problem and asks for suggestions from the ambassador.

Looking at my own files that cover mech of the Vietnam War, but certainly are not close to complete, I see 24 leaflets on the theme of Save your Rice and 3 leaflets on the theme of Don’t pay VC Taxes.

Leaflet 713

This leaflet depicts armed Viet Cong stopping sampans in a local waterway and farmers on the in a nearby hamlet and stealing their rice and goods. The text on the front is:

Why do the Viet Cong collect Double taxes?

The text on the back says in part:

Because they are losing on all fronts.

Because the Viet Cong needed money and rice to exchange for weapons to invade the South.

Because many VC soldiers and cadres have been killed so they must collect more money and rice to offer to their Chinese masters to ask for Chinese troops to invade the South.

Because the rice production in the North was not enough to feed the Viet Cong and Chinese troops who are stationed in the South. That is the reason the Viet Cong had to increase tax collection to send rice and money to the North.

Down with the Viet Cong who plunder the rural people

Let us send and store our rice at our relatives who are living in government owner New Life Hamlets so that the Viet Cong cannot steal our rice.

Leaflet 806

This is an early Vietnam leaflet, coded in the 800s. By the end of the war the JUSPAO leaflets will be coded as high as 4600+. Very early we were asking the farmers to hide their rice and not let the Viet Cong take it. Of course, this was probably a foolish request. To deny the Viet Cong could easily lead to their death. Some leaflets are more thoughtful and tell the farmers to hide their rice in pots buried in the ground. This leaflet depicts a Viet Cong fighter confiscating just about all the rice a poor famer has grown. The text is:

Why Have the Viet Cong Collected Such High Rice Taxes?

Because they are losing the war! The Viet Cong are in a dire need of rice. In the North, their Chinese masters are constantly demanding rice in exchange for weapons and ammunition. In the South on the other hand, they are running into big trouble trying to supply their troops with rice as Government's troops find and confiscate their rice deposits daily. In the North, the Chinese are impeding the old Ho Chi Minh; in the South, the hungry Viet Cong are extolling the people to push them into the same misery they are experiencing.

 

Leaflet SP-807

This leaflet shows Viet Cong kicking and harassing Vietnamese civilians. The text on the front is:

WHY DO VIET CONG KILL INNCENT, UNARMED PEOPLE?

The back is all text:

BECAUSE THE VIET CONG ARE LOSING THE WAR.

The people know that the Viet Cong are being defeated on the battlefield, that they are being hounded and pursued by day and by night. The Viet Cong with to show their "might" and do it by attacking defenseless unarmed people. The Viet Cong murder to save face. The masks have been ripped from the faces of the Viet Cong; these "friends of the people" will murder innocent civilians to keep their hold on the people. But the people know the truth – and that truth will be death for the so-called National Liberation Front.

 

Leaflet SP-808

This leaflet shows a young boy being forcibly taken away from the family to be impressed into the Viet Cong. When I say "impressed," I mean the same sort of kidnapping that went on in Continental days when the British Navy would stop American ships and take sailors and force them into the British Navy. On the left we see the boy taken; on right we see the corpses of dead Viet Cong on the field being eaten by vultures. The text at the left and right is:

TODAY

TOMORROW

WHY DOES THE VIET CONG FORCE YOUNG BOYS INTO THEIR SERVICE
WHEN FORMERLY THEY TOOK ONLY OLDER VOLUNTEERS

The text on the back is:

BECAUSE THE VIET CONG ARE LOSING THE WAR!

The Viet Cong regular troops have suffered huge losses in dead and wounded on the battlefield. They need replacements. More and more Viet Cong are returning to the Government cause, creating gaps in the Viet Cong ranks. Replacements are needed to fill these gaps. Viet Cong “human wave” tactics require many people to be sent to their deaths – young people, imperfectly trained, badly armed, make good bullet shields for the northern cadre of the Viet Cong. And if these young conscripted soldiers in the Viet Cong ranks should live for a little while, then the Viet Cong take them from their hamlets and villages, send them far away to other provinces, to die and rot unburied, or to be buried in shallow unmarked graves in the jungles and swamps of the highlands.

Leaflet 1059

The leaflet clearly targets the highland tribes. The text on the back is in several native languages.

The savage Vietcong have destroyed hamlets, burned houses, and killed people creating countless crimes on our beloved land. Therefore, those who are serving in the Viet Cong are betraying the people and the country and will meet their inevitable death.

Compatriots are urged:

• Do Not to let the Viet Cong steal your paddy and rice.
• To construct fences and closely guard your hamlets to prevent the infiltration of Viet Cong elements.
• To immediately report to the local military and administrative authorities when the Viet Cong appear at your hamlets.

Leaflet SP-1150

This leaflet depicts a group of Viet Cong kicking a farmer away from his rice and preparing to steal it. 800,000 copies of this leaflet were printed in June 1966. The text on the front is:

Do Not Pay Viet Cong Taxes

Dear Compatriots,

The Viet Cong murderers have failed on all battlefields. Their supply routes and rice caches were all destroyed by our troops. Hence the Viet Cong Viet Cong don't have enough food for their soldiers and cadres.

However, before their death, the Viet Cong will rob people of their wealth using illegal taxes.

Without food the Viet Cong will die like fish without water. To enjoy peace, we must firmly refuse giving rice to the Viet Cong.

- Report to the authorities or the army all undercover Viet Cong or those who came to collect taxes.
- Hide your money and rice.
- Unanimously refuse donating money and rice to the Viet Cong.
- Migrate to safe areas to avoid the Communists.
- Support the authorities and the army in destroying the bloodthirsty Viet Cong.

Come South and Find a Wife

Leaflet 2486

We find several American leaflets that hint that a good Communist soldier who defects in the South might find love. Curiously, the United States did the same thing in a highly classified secret operation that dropped leaflets over North Korea about the same time. The North Koreans spies and saboteurs infiltrated south and some American leaflets showed them other spies that had been captured or defected, found love and got married. The Nationalist Chinese on Taiwan often sent leaflets to mainland China by balloon showing defectors that had married Taiwanese women.

JUSPAO leaflet 2486 depicts North Vietnamese defector Tran Quang Huan and his South Vietnamese wife Cao Thi Chau. This leaflet was found by Sergeant Jim Hackbarth, a member of the 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry, in 1970. He said: “It is still smudged with the Red Dirt that was abundant around Quan loi.” The text says in part:

FORMER NORTH VIETNAMESE SOLDIER MARRIES SOUTH VIETNAMESE LADY

Tran Quang Huan, a former North Vietnamese soldier who rallied is photographed with his Southern wife Cao Thi Chau. Mr. Huan and his wife live in a village established by more than 100 former North Vietnamese soldiers who are now free citizens in the Republic of Vietnam.

The back of the leaflet is a long message explaining all that will be given to the defector, including over $10,000 in Vietnamese banknotes to build a house, buy furniture, etc.

Leaflet 4529

This leaflet features a more formal wedding of a Hoi Chanh to a South Vietnamese woman. The text on the front is:

A Returnees wedding at the Thi Nghe Open Arms Center

The long text on the back says in part:

BUILDING UP A NEW LIFE

A returnees’ wedding ceremony was solemnly held at the Thi Nghe Open Arms Center in the presence of the Center’s director and other returnees living in the center. This is one of many weddings organized by the Thi Nghe Open Arms Center to help the returnees. Of both sexes, get married in order to build a new life in the “Great Family of People.”

Hoi Chanh Really do Wed

I probably have a dozen leaflets that depicts Hoi Chanh marrying pretty women, sometimes South Vietnamese women, sometimes North Vietnamese women or Viet Cong women that have also gone Chieu Hoi. Curiously, American leaflets to North Korea also sometimes feature such weddings. This would seem to indicate that marriage is a very good PSYOP theme. I wondered if these leaflets were just propaganda. Then I found a photograph and note from Don Rochlen who attended such a wedding, and it became clear that love does happen in Chieu Hi Centers. Rochlen adds:

Taken at the wedding of Loi, my North Vietnamese soldier and schoolteacher, poet, and friend. Loi stands between me and the priest. All the other men are also defectors from the North Vietnamese Army. Isn’t his bride a lovely, if somewhat frightened, little doll? This was one week before the Tet Offensive of 1968.

The Orlando Evening Star of 23 October 1969 tells of an American campaign that used a pretty Viet Cong female defector to bring in defectors. When an 18-year-old Viet Cong female named Nguyen Thi Man rallied to the Republic of Vietnam, PSYOP troops decided to use her on loudspeaker surrender appeals. She talked in a sexy voice to her former comrades inviting them to come over to the government side. Six of the eight men in her squad went Chieu Hoi. Apparently, she had convinced almost the entire squad that she was their girl.

Sometimes the American propagandists gave the romance a little push. Why not tell the enemy fighters that their wives were cheating on them.

Leaflet 4315

Some time you find a leaflet you just like. There is nothing fancy or special about it, but the concept of theme is so devious that you just admire the person who thought it up. This leaflet is an example. Many leaflets to the Viet Cong tell them to come over to the Republic of South Vietnam and they will be welcomed, and in some cases, they are depicted meeting or marrying a girl from the south. This leaflet adds a little motivation to that theme.

The front of the leaflet looks like the newspaper Tien Phong, a communist publication. In it we hear the complaint of a valiant soldier who finds that while he was at the front, his wife got pregnant and had a baby. It seeks to lower the morale of the soldier by warning him that while he is suffering at the front, his wife might be having affairs with the slackers at home.

HELLO! THIS IS TIEN PHONG!

The following is a translation of a column entitled HELLO! THIS IS TIEN PHONG! Which appeared on page 3 of the 7 January 1971 issue of Tien Phong, the official newspaper of the Ho Chi Minh Lao Dong Youth Group:

CAN WE MAKE UP?

Question: Previously my wife and I were in love and treated each other equally. Because of the anti-U.S.  task, I had to go far away. Though we were apart, we encouraged each other through letters. Recently, I was allowed to return home and found that my wife had a child by another man and that the child is four years old. I was very hurt. Some of the neighbors advised me to forgive her and make up, but many others advised me to cut her off. I am a young party member and, in these circumstances, I don’t know what to do to sort things out. I hope that you will give me some advice so that I may resolve this problem in the most ethical manner.

Duong Ngan

The text on the back is

NORTH VIETNAMESE CADRES AND SOLDIERS.

The party has forced you to leave your family and go and fight in South Vietnam, while your wives, staying at home, must carry out the “Three Responsibility policy.” It is not known how the party has taught them the “Three Responsibilities,” but the facts are that some of them have born children to other men. This would not matter much should you die on the battlefield. But what would you think of it, fortunately, you live to return home to your wife and children, and found yourself cheated by your wife like Duong Ngan?

Do you think it is worthwhile to sacrifice your lives and family happiness for a causeless war while the people of south Vietnam were living a free, happy, and prosperous life?

The "Three Responsibilities" for production while husband or sons are away, is for the family so that the husband or son can serve with peace of mind – the responsibility to serve in combat when required.

Sometimes the American propagandists gave the romance a little push. Why not tell the enemy fighters that their wives were cheating on them.

The Vietnamese People Can Vote for their Leaders

 

Leaflet 3638

This leaflet depicts Vietnamese people voting for their leaders. The text on the front is:

PEOPLE IN VILLAGES AND HAMLETS VOTING FOR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES.

The back is all text:

There is a significant development that makes a decisive turning point for the people of Vietnam in the countryside. Elections of village councils and hamlet chiefs are being carried out in accordance with democratic principles. All citizens can select their elected representatives by writing the name of their chosen candidate on their votes to elect government officials of the local administrations.

Friends remaining on the other side. This fact has proved to you that only under a democratic regime can people enjoy the full rights of their citizenship.

Coming back to the people of Vietnam, you will enjoy all the rights of citizenship, and the freedom to leave a peaceful and happy life.

Some odd leaflets produced by the 7th PSYOP Group

We can usually make certain comments about leaflets that are generally true, for instance the most desired size for leaflets was the standard 6 x 3-inches. That had the most efficient spread on the ground and was very precise. The average weight of the paper was 20 pounds, not unlike stationery. Most leaflets were in black and white, some rare ones in full color, and many had perhaps a touch of color on one side or the other to get the attention of the enemy soldier on the ground. Then, every now and then we come across some that make us wonder.

There is a small sheet of leaflets that were meant to be dropped together as a mix. The label on the uncut sheet is "MACV 272." There are six leaflets in all coded from 4559 to 4564. Instead of the standard 6 x 3-inch size they are 6 x 2-inches. The paper is much thinner, perhaps 16 pounds. The problem with thinner paper is that the back of the leaflet sometimes bleeds through to the front as in 4564 below. The leaflets will probably drop faster and cover more ground. If weight was a problem, more of the leaflets could be placed in bombs or artillery shells, carried in aircraft, and disseminated to the enemy. Because of the smaller size, the printing is smaller, and the enemy might have trouble reading the leaflet. Some of the leaflets have blue color, some have red color, some have color on one side and black and white on the other, and some leaflets have both red and green color. There seems to be no order to it. I depict two examples below. Clearly there was some reason the leaflets were made this way but I have no idea why.

Leaflet 4563

Two North Vietnamese Army soldiers watch their comrades, wounded, and injured, returning to camp. The front is red, the back is blue. One says to the other:

Over there are the remnants of a battalion returning to the base area after a "brilliant victory" in the South. If we continue to win such "victories," there will be none of us left.

The back is all text:

The more the Lao Dong Party prolongs the war, the more likely it is that the young generation of North Vietnamese will be destroyed. Refuse to serve the Lao Dong Party's plot to take over the South by choosing one of these two ways:

1. Go home if possible.
2. Find some way to stay in the rear.
3. After you reach South Vietnam, remember that the people will receive you with open arms if you decide to come to them in peace as a brother.

Leaflet 4564

This leaflet depicts North Vietnamese soldiers receiving medical care from a South Vietnamese doctor. The front is blue, the back has a red title, The text on front and back is:

Most Communist soldiers were already sick when they were captured in South Vietnam. Even though they became prisoners-of-war, they were lucky because they received good care.

When your leaders say that North Vietnamese army soldiers will be treated cruelly or killed if they are captured in South Vietnam, they are lying. Many Communist soldiers have been captured by the South Vietnamese army and its allies, and they are still alive. If the prisoners of war become sick, they are given good medical care.

The All-Seeing Eyes

Leaflet 19-29-67

The concept that the Government sees all and knows all was a very powerful PSYOP weapon. In later wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the USA prepared leaflets depicting a staring pair of eyes, or aircraft and even space satellites that watched the battlefield. The concept was to terrify the Guerrilla and make him think his every secret movement was being watched. In Vietnam, the 19th PSYOP Company prepared a series of leaflet targeting enemy units that had the same basic text in and told the enemy that they were under surveillance and even mentions the names of some unit leaders. Leaflet 19-13-67 targeted the B1004 Platoon; 19-28-67 targeted the Omon Company; 19-29-67 targeted the Thot Not Company; and 19-30-67 targeted the C-29 Company.

All the leaflets show a giant government soldier looking down at tiny Viet Cong guerrillas by a campfire. 100,000 leaflets were printed in black and white. The text on the front is:

Greeting to the Thot Not Company

The Republic of Vietnam warns you that you are being watched

Your activities and that of Platoon Leader Hai Cong and Assistant Platoon Leader Ba Chien are being clearly noted by the Biet Kich…Our agents are everywhere!

The text on the back is the usual surrender message with offers of good treatment and open arms upon their return.

Note: Thot Not is a type of palm tree, and also a place name - the name of a district in the Can Tho area in the Mekong Delta. I assume the Viet Cong in the company came from that area. Biet Kich means "Commando." It is the term that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army used for CIDG troops, the Civilian Irregular Defense Group. The CIDG program began in late 1961 as a counterinsurgency experiment in the central highlands of South Vietnam.

Flags as PSYOP

   

Leaflets 2107A, B and C

The United States often prepared patriotic flags of the Allies to be disseminated among the people. In October 1967, JUSPAO prepared three flags coded 2107 A, B, and C which depicted the flags of the Republic of Vietnam, the Republic of Korea and the United States of America. Each flag was 7 x 10-inches in size and printed on 50-pound offset paper.

COMPATRIOTS!

We don’t know much about this leaflet that depicts the flag of the Republic of Vietnam since we do not see a code number. There is a message on the front which we translate here:

COMPATRIOTS!

The Viet Cong are now embarrassing and humiliating our Fatherland. Following orders from Communist China, they are exploiting you all. Drive them out of your hamlets and neighborhoods. Do not allow them to use your homes to shoot at the government's army and its aircraft.

The Viet Cong are losing. The government's army will continue to seek out and destroy them until our national flag flies over every hamlet and every single home.

Leaflet 6T/DV/241 172/KH

We don’t know much about this Republic of Vietnam flag leaflet except it has a very long and mysterious code and the letters DV which indicate it is a Vietnamese Army leaflet. We also know from the text that this is late in the war, the Americans are leaving, and the Vietnamese are taking over. Encyclopedia.com mentions that at the beginning of 1970, 450,000 American troops were stationed in Vietnam. By the end of 1971, only 157,000 remained. As American soldiers departed, South Vietnamese forces assumed control of American bases and other installations scattered throughout the country. By early 1972, almost all U.S. ground forces had been withdrawn from Vietnam. Of the 95,000 U.S. military personnel remaining in the country, only 6,000 were combat troops. This decline in U.S. troop strength prompted North Vietnam to launch a massive invasion, called the Easter Offensive, into South Vietnam in the spring of 1972 in hopes of winning the war once and for all. Nixon, meanwhile, reacted angrily to the Easter Offensive. The North Vietnamese have never been bombed like they're going to be bombed this time. On April 4, he authorized U.S. air strikes and artillery fire against Communist targets from U.S. warships located in the South China Sea. This U.S. air campaign also included targets in North Vietnam. By some estimates, the North lost 100,000 soldiers and 450 tanks in the assault, which failed to capture any major cities of strategic significance.

The image on the front is the Vietnamese flag in full color, though the printing seems just a bit sloppy. The text on the back is:

Dear Compatriots,

At the end of March 1972, the Communists, in violation of the Geneva Convention of 1954, sent troops across the 17th parallel. Using 14 divisions supported by tanks and heavy artillery, they openly invaded the territory of the Republic of Vietnam. In reaction to this madness, the ARVN have valiantly repulsed their invasion tactics on the Quang Tri, Binh Long, Kontum, and Binh Dinh battlefields with resounding victories admired by the entire world. Defeated in the South, bombed and blockaded in the North, the Communists have been exhausted and on the verge of collapse. Knowing they cannot win militarily; they have begged the United States for a cease-fire. On the other hand, they cunningly dispersed their forces into smaller units on the hamlet level to conduct terror, assassination, and land confiscation.

Facing this situation, please be firmly confident in the just national cause and the army, determined in chasing them back to the North for the final victory. Only then shall we enjoy a just and enduring peace. The Communists are in their death throes, while we have an absolute advantage.

Please be determined:
    - not to supply the Communists
    - not to harbor the Communists
    - not to remove the national flag
    - not to listen to Communists' incitement
    - to denounce the undercover Communist agents

People of the national side must defeat the Communists so freedom and democracy can prevail.

 

Leaflet 6-127-68

50,000 copies of this 4 x 5-inch Vietnam flag leaflet were prepared by the 6th PSYOP Battalion in May 1968. It was requested by the II Field Force. The text on the back is:

Support your Government

The Government of Vietnam and Allied Forces have once again shown their strength and power to bring peace and prosperity to the people of South Vietnam. Since 4 May 1968 more than 3,000 enemy have died while trying to bring death and destruction to our homes and cities. We, the people, must stand behind and support our elected government to rid our beautiful and productive land of these enemies. do not let the North Vietnamese Army or Viet Cong use your homes or towns as a battle ground because the Government of Vietnam and Allied Forces will be forced to return all fire received from the Viet Cong. To prevent this from happening you must protect your family by telling the Government of Vietnam and Army of Vietnam Forces where the enemy is hiding. This way they will be destroyed before they come to your villages. Support your government and peace will once again return to our land.

Uncoded Vietnam Flag Leaflet

This is obviously an early leaflet, probably about 1965 since it has no code. The PSYOP companies, battalions, and Group were not yet deployed to Vietnam. The front is the national flag of the Republic of Vietnam, the back has three paragraphs of text. They say:

1. This is a gift from provincial administrative organs and military units to you, dear compatriots.

2. The provincial authorities are supporting you in getting a more satisfying life.

3. Please support the elements and the command chain of the 41 CT Zone in developing our province to avoid sabotage by the Viet Cong.

Leaflet 308

Not all the flag leaflets were fancy with flags in full color. This very early 246th PSYOP Company leaflet depicts the flag of the United States and the Republic of Vietnam. 50,000 copies were requested by the Vietnamese 10th Division. The leaflet was called “We come as friends,” and was aimed at civilians. The on front and back is:

We are American soldiers operating with the Government of Vietnam forces and other allied units to destroy the Viet Cong and their bases, and to help the Republic of Vietnam achieve inevitable victory over Communist aggression.

We want you to be able to lead a free life from Viet Cong terror and a life of happiness. Help us by providing information about the Viet Cong.

Poetry as PSYOP

Leaflet SP-2263

There are dozens of Vietnamese-language propaganda leaflets using poems. The tradition of poetry is long and respected in Vietnam and a poem is the perfect way to send a propaganda message to the enemy. Leaflet SP-2263 is depicted in the JUSPAO November 1968 publication Communicating with Vietnamese thru Leaflets that says:

This leaflet uses poetry as a medium of communication. In fact, some of the best leaflets ever used in Vietnam have consisted of emotion-provoking poems, with suitable illustrations related to the thematic content of the poem.

Poems frequently express nostalgia, sorrow and longing more effectively than is possible in prose. But the poetry must be good, or it will be scorned.

Do not use amateur poets; employ or use material from popular and well known poets.

The leaflet shows a sobbing mother at top left and her son in the South below. On the back the son is shown dead and alone in the jungle. It was prepared in November 1967 for distribution in I, II and III Corps areas. Some of the long text is:

From the day I left you, mother,
to follow my companions on the trip to
Central Vietnam through Laos,
I have endured the hardships of
climbing up the green mountains
And marching through rain and shine,

Although with my young age
life should blossom like a flower.
For the sake of peace I don’t mind
Enduring hardships and danger.

For several months I marched during
the day and rested at night.
My shoes’ heels have worn out
And my jacket's shoulders
Were rubbed thin through which the cold slips in…

A small box at the lower left in the back of the leaflet contains the text:

The above letter in poetry form was found on the body of a dead soldier of the Hanoi regime killed in the battle of Duc Co.

What is interesting about this poem is that it was memorized by a Vietnamese officer heading south. He mentions it in a debriefing after being captured, although his memory is a bit different from the official translation and he is probably paraphrasing some parts. This comment is from the debriefing of 2LT Nguyen Van Thong, a soldier in the 320th Regiment, 1st PAVN Division, who fought in Kontum Province in March-April 1968. PSYOP troops must have hated the first part where he says their leaflets are not very good, but cheered at the second part where he admits he memorized the poem on one leaflet:

I have seen very many PSYOP leaflets but they are very poor and we laugh at them. They make no impressions on the soldiers of the NVA. The quality of the writing is very poor and not good Vietnamese. The Americans should let the Vietnamese write them as they know how to put the story, or what you want said into poetry, the Vietnamese are a very poetic people. I know and all the men in my unit know the lines of a poem used by South Vietnam and we thought of it often. The best way to tell of good will is by a poem. The South Vietnamese poem that we remember is for our mother. It goes like this:

Since I have been away from you following my friends to Laos and then to Central Vietnam through the mountain areas, being sunburned by the sun in the coastal area, I have suffered all kinds of hardships.

The youth age similar to a blossom flower, due to the cost of peace we are not afraid of the difficulties.

During six months of day movement and night rest I’ve worn out my boot soles and shirt collars by the cold weather…

DIARY OF AN INFILTRATOR

This poem is also found in the December 1966 United States Mission in Vietnam (Saigon), 30-page booklet: Diary of an Infiltrator. All the entries in the “diary” are direct quotations in translation from the Vietnamese. Extracts from several hundred captured diaries were screened to produce this composite. Most of the diaries were taken in the Highlands and cover the period from July 1965 to August 1966.

Leaflet 4365

I did not want to depict this leaflet because it is all text. However, we are mentioning dairies here and there were a whole series of JUSPAO leaflets that featured passages from the diaries of dozens of dead NVA and Viet Cong soldiers. I feel that I should show at least one of that series here. I will depict the back of the leaflet where the actual page from the dairy is reproduced. The front says in part:

COMMUNIST CADRES AND SOLDIER OF NORTH VIETNAM

Friends, read the lines of a North Vietnamese soldier’s diary and you will understand the fate of your comrades-in-arms who have been wounded. The thin silhouettes of weak and sick men on the road back to the North were really a pitiful site.

The back of the leaflet basically gives the facts and says that this is an excerpt by Vu Cong Hoan who has a sweetheart named Tran Thi Kiem Hoan in Tu Ne Village who is a student. The dairy entry says in part:

I go up and down along the ravine and am very tired. I see batches and batches of skinny and weak men going from the South to the North, especially the disabled soldiers. How terrified and fed up with the war I feel…I feel so very tired. I keep on sneezing and do not feel well at all. My mind is full of thoughts for my family and my darling. As I look at my darling’s picture I miss her so much.

A soldier tells his wife in leaflet 4388:

Rice and food are abundant in South Vietnam but we haven’t eaten a grain of rice in months. It is very hard to have no rice and very little other food at all

Other entries are sadder. Leaflet 4399 has a dying soldier saying:

All I have left is 700 piasters, a Movado wrist watch and a Pilot fountain pen. You can have my American cigarette lighter, but in deference to the wishes of a dead man please send the rest to my son.

Korean War Leaflet 1118

What is particularly interesting about this Vietnam War leaflet is that the face of the woman is exactly the same as a leaflet printed by U.S. forces in the Korean War. I can hardly think of another case where the same image was used by U.S. forces in two wars.   That leaflet, dated 26 October 1951 and coded 7009 was entitled “Needless death.” It targeted Chinese troops in Korea and depicts a dead soldier thinking of his mother. It was also produced in the Korean language coded 1118. Some of the text is:

NEEDLESS DEATH

Why must 1 be forced to die? If only I had acted earlier I could have escaped. When the Communists saw that I could no longer fight they left me to die alone. If my mother knew, how she would weep. I wonder how they will tell her. How sad she will be?

Perhaps my comrades will be wiser than I was – if I could only tell them!

THERE IS NO NEED TO DIE – GO OVER TO THE UN LINES – EASCAPE, SAVE YOUR LIVES!

 

Leaflet 78T

Leaflet 78T is bright red on the front and depicts happy scenes of life in North Vietnam. The back is blue and depicts a sad North Vietnamese soldier thinking of death and destruction in South Vietnam. This leaflet was dropped on troops coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The text on the back explains that the poem printed on the leaflet was written by a North Vietnamese soldier to his mother, Mrs. Tran Thi Phan of Hai Duong. The soldier was killed in the battle of Duc Co and his soul is still blaming the Communist Party for sending him south to die. The poem is printed as a legacy and warning to other young men who have been sent south to die. The poem is very long at 40 lines. Note that the poem is identical to 2263 above. I quote some selected lines here:

A POEM TO MOTHER

(A North Vietnamese Youth Spills out his Heart)

From the day I left you, O mother, to follow my companions in this trip through Laos to Central Vietnam.
I have endured the hardships of climbing up the giant mountains, and marching through rain and shine.
Although at my young age life could have blossomed like a flower, enduring hardships and dangers, for several months I marched during the day and rested at night.
The bottoms of my shoes have worn out, and the cloth on my shoulders has worn thin and the cold slips in.
Often my hands trembled while laying a mine, because later I saw people blown up and blood sprayed around.
Whose blood was it?
It was the blood of our people, those like mother and me.
That night my eyes were filled with tears, and my sleep with nightmares.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Dave Underhill of the 7th PSYOP Group told me about the use of poetry for psychological operations:

The Vietnamese loved poetry. We reproduced a poem written by an enemy soldier that was taken from his body on the field of battle.  It was based on his experiences in the war and the fact that he had been deceived by the authorities.  It was a very sad and sentimental poem.

When I was in Laos to write a strategic leaflet program for the American Embassy, a Central Intelligence Agency representative mentioned the leaflet. He said it was a very powerful leaflet and every prisoner taken could recite the entire poem from memory.  He wanted to know who produced it.  When I mentioned that our organization had produced it, he wanted to obtain the leaflet in quantity. I was able to immediately divert to him a shipment of several million copies that was destined for IV Corp, an area where there were few North Vietnamese regulars. The CIA representative was appreciative and impressed with our efficiency.

We produced several nostalgic poem leaflets for use at Tet in the 6x3 size for use throughout Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail area. My Vietnamese advisor (while I pulled a tour at the MACV PSYOP Directorate, Leaflet Development Section) helped develop poetry leaflets.   He was Catholic, a former college professor, and had to flee North Vietnam when the French left.  After US troop withdrawal we hired him and placed him in charge of leaflet development.

Note that this poem was considered so important that it appeared on several different leaflets in black and white and in color, and in various sizes such as 3 x 6-inches, and 5 x 7-inches.

A JUSPAO document dated 18 September 1969 is entitled “Poem by North Vietnam Deserter.” The document states that the poem was written by a Hoi Chanh who did not ask for money. The poem, written by Hoai Thanh was entitled “Letter to my Comrade at Spring time.” The letter says in part: “I suggest that this be considered for use on radio, television, magazines, newspapers and leaflets. This, after all, is a nation of poets. The single most effective leaflet dropped in the past was the soldier’s poem to his mother. [The writer might be describing the poem above]. This appears to be more of the same.” A few lines from the six-stanza poem:

For I know that your heart is bleeding and your weeping soul longs for life at springtime.
Oh come dead liberation soldier, do not deny that which is most precious to you.
My heart aches as I write to you for we are both so far from our native land.
Together we came to face death on the battle field but it was for the benefit of just the few…

What is amazing is that upon his capture, North Vietnamese Army 2nd Lieutenant Nguyen Van Thong, Leader of a Reconnaissance Platoon, mentioned American propaganda when interviewed by Military Intelligence. He said in part:

I have seen lots of the PSYOP leaflets but they are very poor and we laugh at them. They make no impression on the soldiers of the NVA...The quality of the writing is very poor and not good Vietnamese. The Americans should let the Vietnamese write them as they know how to put the story or what you want said into poetry; the Vietnamese are a very poetic people…The best way to tell of good will is with a poem. All of the men in my unit knew the lines of a poem used in South Vietnam and we thought of it often. The poem that we remember is for our mother.

The poem of course was the one on 78T. The North Vietnamese apparently picked it up walking down the trail and found it so moving that they memorized it.

Leaflet T-44

I looked through my files for an example of what Dave was talking about in his last paragraph and here is a Tet-themed poetry leaflet dropped along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I note that some other poetry leaflets dropped over the Ho Chi Minh Trail about the same time are: T-42 (New Year’s Day); T-43 (Longing for the North); T-50 (Village Gate); T-52 (My Native Village) and T-53 (My Home). All were obviously produced to invoke nostalgia and homesickness.

Leaflet T-44 depicts a lonely wife and child watching other children play at a Tet celebration. Some of the text is:

Sincere Appeal

I burn the incense and think of you
Spring returns and cites your merits
Father died in prison leaving mother sad
You left when you were only fourteen
How could you know what revolution is?

Taking advantage and speculating in politics
Merchants of slaves with black market prices
Caught in a trap which tightens the more you struggle
If you are mad then stand up and cry
I suffer to see our people as insensitive as stone

To give an example of how much Vietnamese loved poetry we need only look at a catalog of Viet Cong leaflets disseminated in 1962 and filed in a United States Information Service booklet entitled National Liberation Front Propaganda. A brief look at some of the enemy leaflets discloses: A poem aimed at a soldier away from home and family; a poem entitled “A Mother’s Words” to her son in the army; Three poems taken from a collection called “The Bright Road” from the wife of a guerrilla to her husband; A book of poetry entitled “Slash the Barbed Wire” about Vietnamese trying to escape from government Strategic Hamlets; A poem entitled “A Mother’s Heart”; A passionate poem that includes the words “How inhumane is Diem and the United States, how tyrannically they betray the people, how miserable are the peasants and works”; A poem from the wife of an ARVN asking him why he supports the wrong side; and a poem dealing with the cruelties of war entitled “The Rice Field is the Reason for Existence.” I could add many more, but this should give the reader an idea of the Viet Cong’s use of poetry in propaganda.

Bomb Warnings

Leaflet SP-867

This is a very early leaflet, probably dropped about 1965. It is a bomb-warning leaflet telling the people that their area is about to be bombed and they should leave. The front depicts an attack by aircraft at the left and the safe and healthy civilians leaving their area and being greeted by the ARVN at the right. The text on the front of the leaflet is:

At left Top and bottom:

Area of Operations/Bombing Area
You Should Leave This Area to Save Yourselves

At right bottom:

You Should Protect Your Lives and the Lives of Your Family Members

The text on the back is:

URGENT

TO THE PEOPLE OF LONG TOAN DISTRICT

Long Toan District has been a free-fire zone for several months. Now, to save you, the people, from the Viet Cong and to be able to quickly win final victory, the Government is starting to intensify the bombing of the Long Toan area.

To protect your lives and property, the Government asks that you immediately leave your homes and move to Long Khanh or Long Vinh. At these locations the Government will greet you and will give you food, medicine, clothing, and money to rebuild your lives.

The Government is trying to protect you. You should leave immediately and move to the designated secure areas. This is your last chance to protect yourselves. The Government will not guarantee to protect your lives and property if you remain in this area.

Lieutenant Colonel, Vinh Binh Province Chief

Undermining Morale

Leaflet 4372

To be honest, just about every aerial propaganda leaflet was designed to undermine the enemy’s morale. But some were more specific and used that term as a theme. Leaflet 4372 is an example. It tells the North Vietnamese draftee that he was unlucky being called up for the army while others are dodging the draft, but he can change his luck by coming over to the Republic of Vietnam where he will have many benefits and can return home healthy and uninjured after the war. The leaflet front depicts the soldier coming over to the Republic, being well treated and medically cared for, and finally returning home to his family. The text on the front is:

TO OUR FRIENDS THE NORTH VIETNAMESE REGULAR SERVICEMEN: SHOULD YOU SURRENDER:

1. Your life will be guaranteed.
2. You will be provided ample food and health care.
3. When the peace will be restored, you'll be able to return to your family if you wish to.

The back is all text:

NORTH VIETNAMESE SOLDIERS!

The youth of North Vietnam are needed by their families and loved ones. The young men of North Vietnam are needed to build a prosperous society. Many young people in the North know this and have honorably chosen to avoid the draft, and their friends and relatives know this and are helping them.

You have been unlucky; you have been conscripted and sent South to wage war and to bring destruction to the South Vietnamese society. There is still an honorable way out for you to participate in the task of building a better Vietnam.

You can report to the Government of Vietnam forces when the opportunity comes, or you can put yourself in a situation where you will be captured when you encounter Government of Vietnam forces and/or officials. You will return home at the end of the war if you choose.

Other leaflets in the same series are 4383 showing the hardships of coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, 4385 showing a Viet Cong sitting alone in the jungle thinking of his family, and 4390 which talks about the lack of supplies during the rainy season. As the reader can guess, there were a great number of leaflets designed to lower the morale of the enemy forces in Vietnam.

Illiteracy

 

SP-958

The simple fact is that many of the Vietnamese could not read. During the Vietnam War, numerous leaflets were prepared without text so that any finder could easily understand the message. The above leaflet is a case in point. It was prepared by JUSPAO about early 1967 and depicts the various forces helping South Vietnam on the front. We see the marching troops of The Republic of Korea, Australia, the United States, the Republic of Vietnam and New Zealand. The back of the leaflet depicts a helpless member of the Viet Cong being forced forward at gunpoint by China. These were simple images and any finder should have understood the message unless they did not recognize the flags and Communist symbols; and I am sure there were many such Vietnamese. In those cases, the leaflet images would have no meaning at all.

Leaflet 244-030-68

This leaflet was prepared by the 244th PSYOP Company in 1968. It was made for Viet Cong that could not read. On the front the VC are defeated in a battle and a badly wounded fighter returns to his base camp and finds that they have left without him. The back shows an alternative scenario. The Viet Cong fighter surrenders and receives immediate medical care.

This leaflet was one selected by the Department of Defense to be evaluated for effectiveness by a test group of about 1,757 Vietnamese civilians, Hoi Chanhs (former Viet Cong who had defected) and North Vietnamese and Viet Cong prisoners of war. The leaflets were judged as very effective, moderately effective or ineffective in a publication entitled The Effectiveness of U.S. PSYOPS Leaflets: A Scale for Pretesting published 7 January 1969. The former Viet Cong questioned about this leaflet found it very bad, counter-effective and unintelligible.

Don’t let them send you to the Battlegound

Leaflet SP-868

This leaflet is in the form of a 3-panel comic. The comic shows a South Vietnamese family studying a Viet Cong letter telling them that their brother is being sent north to central Vietnam to fight. I assume this is up by the DMZ. The brother finds himself miserable and hungry in in the combat area they call “Central.” In the last panel his wife holds their baby, sad and alone. This is a very strange leaflet. Most of these leaflets talk about NVA troops going south to die. This is the first one I ever saw that mentions going north to die, even if still in South Vietnam. It is signed by the 4th Tactical Region. I believe that is the IV Tactical Zone which would make it the most southward zone of the four. The most northward is the I Tactical Combat Zone. I asked my Vietnamese expert about this, and he said:

Central Vietnam is traditionally considered to be between the Thanh Hoa province in the North to the Binh Thuan province in the South. Within the Republic of Vietnam, it was from Quang Trị (DMZ) to Bình Thuan (Phan Thiet).

300,000 copies of this leaflet were prepared by the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office in 1965. The text on the three panels is:

Tomorrow Brother Six will be sent to fight in the far Central [South Vietnam].

Three months later, Brother Six got sick,
hungry and lacking clothing in the harsh climate of the Central [South Vietnam].

While his wife and child are longing for him at home.

The back is all text and I translate the first few paragraphs:

THE CENTRAL WILL BECOME A GRAVE TO THE VIET CONG.

To compatriots having husband or sons in Viet Cong local or partisan forces.

The battles in the Central have become fiercer than ever, with entire VC regular regiments destroyed in the recent battles of Dirc Co, Chu Lai, and Phu Cu.

To replace those grave losses, the commanders of the so-called "Liberation Front of the South" are attempting to lure or to coerce the men in the local forces into fighting in the Central in place of the dead.

Dear compatriots,

Please think it over and do not let the Viet Cong cadres lure or coerce your husbands and sons into a deadly path.

Do adamantly fight not to let the Viet Cong send your husbands and sons to the Central Vietnam, as it will be a land with no return.

The Headquarters of the 4th Tactical Region.

The Phoenix Program

The Vietnam War Phoenix Program is controversial to this day. Supporters say that it was a legal and closely controlled US-Vietnamese intelligence program aimed at destroying the Viet Cong infrastructure, while the critics say that it was an illegal system of arresting, torturing and murdering innocent Vietnamese civilians. Numerous books have been written on the subject so I have no intention of defending or attacking the program. I will just offer some general information and the reader can study the subject at his/her leisure.

Ken Welch spent over seven years in Vietnam working first in Intelligence positions and later in the Phoenix Program. He explains the Vietnamese name of the program with some humor in Tiger Hound: How We Won the War & Lost the Country, Outskirts Press, Inc.:

The Phoenix Program was designed to neutralize the Viet Cong Infrastructure (VCI): the communist party members and cadre that recruited, proselytized, and attempted to form a shadow government to take over the legitimate government. “Phoenix” was an American term referring to the mythical bird that rose from the ashes; in this case, the name symbolized rising from the ashes of Tet 1968. There was no such bird in Vietnamese myths so the Vietnamese translation was “Phung Hoang,” which was somewhat relative in Chinese but, in Vietnamese, was a mythical bird of love and marriage. I wondered aloud. “Are we eliminating love and marriage for the communists? They would certainly die out then.”

Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) Directive 381-41, dated 9 July 1967, inaugurated the Intelligence Coordination and Exploitation (ICEX) program to Attack the Viet Cong Infrastructure (VCI). In late 1967, MACV replaced the name “ICEX” with “Phoenix,” after a mythical bird that appeared as a sign of prosperity and luck and a near translation of the South Vietnamese name for the program, “Phung Hoang” (All-seeing bird”). In Chinese and Vietnamese mythology the Phung Hoang is a good omen of marital happiness, peace and good fortune.

The Phung Hoang Advisor Handbook

The Phung Hoang Advisor Handbook adds:

In accordance with Article 4, the President of Vietnam in decree number 280-a/TT/SL, 1 July 1968, promulgated the Phung Hoang Program. The intent and aim of the program is to utilize existing civilian and military agencies in a systematic and coordinated effort to destroy the Viet Cong infrastructure throughout Vietnam.

The U.S. military described Phoenix as operations against the Viet Cong infrastructure to include: the collection of intelligence; identifying their members; inducing them to abandon their allegiance to the Viet Cong and rally to the government; capturing or arresting them in order to bring them before province security committees or military courts for lawful sentencing; and as a final resort, the use of reasonable force should they resist capture or arrest where failure to use such force would result in the escape of the suspected Viet Cong member or would result in threat of serious bodily harm to a member or members of the capturing or arresting party.

Phoenix was the U.S. government’s largest and most systematic effort to destroy Viet Cong’s political and support infrastructure which was thought to number somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 throughout South Vietnam. It provided increased support, advisers, and funding to police and territorial forces. Soon after the introduction of the program all 44 provinces and most of the districts had American Phoenix advisers. By 1970 there were 704 U.S. Phoenix advisers throughout South Vietnam. The Phoenix Program eventually had interrogation centers in every one of South Vietnam’s 235 districts and 44 provinces, card sites, and computerized indexes. The program was supported by about 500,000 local militia and Provincial Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) strike forces.

The manner in which a suspect was to be investigated was very specific. For instance, once a suspect Viet Cong member was identified, two index cards were prepared in both alphabetic and village/hamlet files. Then a target folder was prepared which listed his habits, contacts, schedule, and modus operandi. The target folder required careful preparation and contained the “VCI Target Personality Data Form” and the “Offender Dossier.” This data was used as evidence when the Viet Cong member was brought to justice.

The program operated within a system of rules. Special laws (An Tri) allowed the arrest and prosecution of suspected communists, but only within the legal system. Moreover, to avoid abuses the law required three separate sources of evidence to convict any individual targeted for neutralization. Once identified, the individual was placed in one of three categories: A for leaders, B for those in key positions and C for rank and file members. If a suspected person was found guilty, he or she could be held in prison for 2 years, with renewable 2-year sentences totaling up to 6 years.

The Communists struck back and repeatedly emphasized attacking the government’s pacification program and specifically targeted Phoenix officials. In the Vietnam War Almanac, Harry G. Summers Jr., says:

In a remarkable display of Chutzpah, the North Vietnamese, who had regularly used assassination as one of their tactics – executing an estimated 36,725 village officials and South Vietnamese civil servants from 1957 to 1972 – denounced Phoenix as an assassination program.

Was the program effective? Apparently it was. In Vietnam : A History, Stanley Karnow quotes the North Vietnamese deputy commander in South Vietnam, General Tran Do, as saying that Phoenix was “extremely destructive.” Former Viet Cong Minister of Justice Truong Nhu Tang wrote in his memoirs that “Phoenix was dangerously effective…in Hau Nghia Province west of Saigon the Front Infrastructure was virtually eliminated.” Nguyen Co Thach, who became the Vietnamese foreign minister after the war, claimed that the Phoenix program “Wiped out many of our bases in South Vietnam, compelling numbers of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops to retreat to sanctuaries in Cambodia.”

Officially, Phoenix operations continued until December 1972, although certain aspects continued until the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. Numerous printed products were prepared during this program, most in the form of “wanted” posters and leaflets. The 7th PSYOP Battalion produced many of them and placed the letter “P” at the front, apparently indicating poster. Examples are the “Wanted by the Government of Vietnam Security Agents” posters: “P7-905-71” and “P7-911-71.” The poster data sheets clearly state in most cases “ORIGIN: CPDS/Phoenix Quang Ngai.”

The Advisor handbook says in regard to publicity and communication:

Widespread popular understanding is essential to the success of the PHUNG HOANG Program. Various Government of Vietnam agencies that communicate with the population on a regular basis must be encouraged to provide meaningful publicity to the PHUNG HOANG Program…The communications media available through the Vietnam Information Service and POLWAR agencies includes face-to-face persuasion, posters, handbills, newspapers, leaflets, radio, television and motion pictures…PHUNG HOANG advisors are encouraged to coordinate with Province PSYOP advisors and Province PSYOP/POLWAR/Civic Action/ Vietnam Information Service Advisors to obtain publicity for the PHUNG HOANG Program….

Leaflet 7-514-68

Another special campaign was leaflets associated with the Phoenix program, the Allied attempt to destroy the Viet Cong by taking out their infrastructure in the local villages. The goal of the program was to identify the estimated 70,000 members of the Viet Cong, their leaders, cadre and supporters. The Government of South Vietnam called the program Phung Hoang (all-seeing bird) and the U.S. used the closest term available in English, “Phoenix.” The program struggled through 1968 to become effective, with difficulties in training fingerprint specialists, establishing methods to share information across provincial and district boundaries, record-keeping, and corrupt officials susceptible to bribery.

Leaflet 7-514-68 is entitled “THE DENOUNCING UNDERGROUND COMMUNIST SHEET.” It is a four page printed document written in three languages that allows an informer to identify a Viet Cong member secretly. Some of the questions that the informer answers are:

I know the location of Viet Cong weapons, ammunition, explosives or documents.
I know the infiltration route for the transportation of Viet Cong weapons.
I suspect that I know of a relation of somebody in the Viet Cong cadre.
I know the location of the Viet Cong Economic team.
I know a place that sells good and medicines to the Viet Cong.

Speaking of the 7th PSYOP Battalion, According to the Operations Report ­ Lessons Learned - Headquarters 7th Psychological Operations Battalion - period ending 30 April 1970, dated 11 May 1970:

An increase in rallier appeal leaflet requests and in the number of items developed in support of the Phoenix/Phung Hoang Program accounted for the increased support rendered by the battalion in March. During this reporting period, the 7th Battalion supported the Phoenix/Phung Hoang Program in its campaign to induce the local populace to report the location of the Viet Cong through the use of "wanted" posters.

The colored border on the standard poster design provided by 4th PSYOP Group, using the Vietnamese national colors to frame the photograph of the wanted Viet Cong infrastructure member was not used. It was determined after careful evaluation that persons living in rural areas, especially those who are illiterate, would recognize the national colors and gain the initial impression that the person pictured is a Government of Vietnam official or that he represents the Government of Vietnam. Posters with a colored border were used only in the production of general advertisements which called or the people to provide information on Viet Cong infrastructure. In one reported case, one of the posters led to the capture of a wanted criminal within 24 hours after it was posted.

I love that second paragraph. They were using a standard paper with the colors of the flag of the Republic of Vietnam; red and gold. Although the individual depicted was a terrorist, they worried that a farmer would see the colors and decide that the man was an official of some kind, a person to be respected. They saw the problem and solved it. Good thinking!

Leaflet 4-2-71

This Phoenix leaflet was prepared by the 4th PSYOP Battalion in 1971. It appears to have been prepared for the Vietnamese forces since it only mentions them in regard to information. The leaflet depicts the Phoenix symbol and the following text on the front:

THE PHUNG HOANG PROGRAM PROTECTS THE
PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF THE PEOPLE

Participate in the Phung Hoang program in order to isolate the Communist cadre, to destroy their underground organization, and concurrently, to be able to avoid the terrorist activities caused by them.

Report any information of terrorist activity to the National Police or National Security Forces.

Your identity will be kept absolutely secret.

Some of the text on the back is:

Dear Countrymen,

For many years you have had to endure great suffering because of dangerous Communist aggression. The greatest danger has been underground Communist cadre killing and terrorizing villagers.

The Government of Vietnam has launched the Phung Hoang Campaign in order to eliminate Communist leaders and their subordinates in local areas where you want to live an adequate and peaceful life. The Phung Hoang Campaign is an effort to seek and gather information that will lead us to those dangerous Viet Cong cadre...

Thus, to destroy the Viet Cong infrastructure and restore peace to your hamlets, you must cooperate with the Government in its effort to locate and capture these cadre, so it can eliminate them or appeal to them to rally to the Just National Cause…

Leaflet 4-3-71 has the identical image and text on the front but a different message on the back. It says it part:

The Phung Hoang Campaign is designed for the benefit of the people.  By participating in this campaign we will fulfill the following objectives:

Eliminate the underground Communist cadre. Destroy their organizations. Prevent Communist terrorism and acts of destruction. Help to restore peace and prosperity to the country.

Participate in the Phung Hoang Campaign by reporting all Communist activities to the nearest military unit or Government of Vietnam authority.

In January of 1971, MACV asked for examples of PSYOP effectiveness in the program. The received three pages of comments telling of successful Phoenix operations. Some of them are:

Binh Dinh Province. Five-minute TV spots each night on Qui Nhon television publicize wanted posters and key Viet Cong Infrastructure. Facilities permit a 35mm slide presentation accompanied by a taped narrative.

During the month, 16 bulletins with 1,465 Viet Cong Infrastructure names were published for 65 villages. Blacklists were obtained from all districts and the Viet Cong Infrastructure were exposed using tapes, leaflets, and posters.

Phu Bon Province. During the last week in December 2000 Phung Hoang illustrated cartoon booklets printed in the Rhade Montagnard dialect were distributed. 

Pleiku Province. A systematic plan provided visits to all villages which included an Armed Propaganda Team, a Cultural Drama Team, a Civic Action Team, Medical personnel, and the district Chief and other officials.

At the same time, probably to make the campaign seem more Vietnamese, the term PHOENIX was eliminated and the only term to be used in correspondence was PHUNG HOANG.

Leaflet 4168

This Phoenix leaflet is interesting because it shows the symbol of the immortal bird at all four corners. A photograph on the front depicts Vietnamese troops and farmers looking at a bulletin board. The text is: