Propaganda Banknote Leaflets
of the Vietnam War

SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.)

The genuine note depicts the Communist leader Ho Chi Minh on the front. The back depicts a group that includes a farmer, a worker, a woman and two children. This note is printed in a pale green ink on a poor quality cream colored paper. The United States produced a propaganda parody of this banknote that is of higher quality than the original. Using darker green ink on a bright, white paper, they reproduced the back of the genuine banknote showing the group of Vietnamese citizens. Serial numbers on the American leaflet are "XM019" and "BD047". The propaganda leaflet is slightly larger that the genuine note, measuring 156 x 89 mm instead of 150 x 80 mm. When turned over, in place of Ho Chi Minh's portrait, there is a propaganda message in black ink on a white background. The Vietnamese text begins, "Hay tham gia ba san-sang..." The title is, "PARTICIPATE IN THE THREE READIES." Beneath this, in three vertical columns are:

1. Ready to end the invasion of South Vietnam advocated by the Lao Dong Party. 

2. Ready to retain the rice that the Lao Dong Party takes to exchange for weapons from Communist China.

3. Ready to oppose all hardships that the Lao Dong Party imposes upon you to support the war of invasion of South Vietnam.

The Lao Dong Party is the Worker's Party, the name used by the Communist Party in North Vietnam.

North Vietnamese students took pledges known as the "three readies" to prove their patriotism and dedication. The actual three readies pledge is:

1. Ready to fight and fight valiantly, ready to enlist in the armed forces.

2. Ready to overcome all difficulties, to stimulate production work and studies, under any circumstances, whatsoever.

3. Ready to go anywhere and perform any task required by the Motherland.

The North Vietnamese press mentioned these banknote parodies in a the newspaper Hoc Tap, September 1967, in an article entitled "Resolutely Defeat the Psychological Warfare of the American Imperialists.":

Using airplanes and ships to fling leaflets and counterfeit money into the North is an im­portant psychological warfare trick of the American imperialists. According to them, the Ameri­can imperialists from April 1965 to the end of 1966 dropped in the North more than 400 million leaflets of all kinds, the contents of which were intended to distort our Party’s struggle line of resisting America and saving the nation, to distort the "three readys" movement of our youth, to distort the policies of our Party and Government, to divide our nation from the fraternal nations, to invent stories of troop movements to the South which are based with sickness and death, to create an impression of terror in the face of the destruction by American airplanes, to boast of "American airpower," to praise the false prosperity in South Vietnam, to propagandize the de­ceptive "peaceful negotiation" schemes of Johnson, etc.

Another propaganda banknote is a United States parody of National Bank of (South) Vietnam five dong note of 1955. This leaflet was authorized by the Ministry of Defense, Joint General Staff, Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam, and printed by the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare Office (US-MAAG), Saigon, Vietnam from 1964 to 1966.

Genuine 5 Dong leaflet

The genuine banknote depicts a farmer with a buffalo working a rice paddy on the front. The back depicts a peasant's thatched-roof cottage surrounded by vegetation near a body of water.

5 Dong Propaganda Leaflet

The propaganda leaflet has a back similar to the original but there are a number of changes in the text and design. For instance, at the top of the genuine banknote is "Vietnam," while the parody reads "Vietnam Cong-Hoa" ("Vietnam Republic"). Another change appears in the center of the vignette. Both the genuine and the parody depict a peasant cottage, but the parody places a woman waving and holding a small child in front of this cottage. This is an attempt to cause homesickness in the Viet Cong deep in the jungle far from home and family. Additional text has been added below the vignette in Vietnamese, "Return to reunite with your son and family, live in peace and happiness." At the bottom of the note, "NAM DONG" has been changed to "NGUON SONG MOI," ("New life"). This is a high-quality propaganda leaflet and three plates were made, one for each color of the note.

5 Dong Safe Conduct Message

The Leaflet has a safe conduct message on the front that begins, "Can bo cac cap quan dan chinh…" The message is printed in black on a white background. It is:

Military, civilian, and government cadres. This leaflet has the value of a passport. Military and administrative agencies, public and private associations, and people of all walks of life are requested to absolutely assist the bearer of this leaflet with means, food, and medicine, and guide him to the nearest Chieu Hoi (Open Arms, or Welcome-Return) agency of the government, which will take care of all procedures so that he can return and be united with his family. (Signed) Major General Nguyen Khanh, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council.

The parodies are smaller than the genuine banknotes. The propaganda leaflet measures l20 x 63 mm, while the banknote is 126 x 64 mm.

Major General Nguyen Khanh

Nguyen Khanh was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. In January of 1964 he assumed power and installed himself as Premier. He was a poor politician but a strong anti-Communist, which made him popular with the American government. Khanh was ousted in February of 1965 and went into a self-imposed exile in Palm beach, Florida. Khanh claims that in late 1964 he secretly opened negotiations with the Communist National Liberation Front to end the war. He maintains that General Maxwell D. Taylor, the U.S. Ambassador, found out about the negotiations and cabled Washington on December 31, 1964. Two months later, Khanh was gone. This could be true or it could be self-serving revisionist history.

The U.S. printed five million of these safe conduct passes. Aircraft dropped the leaflets and patrols carried them into Communist held areas. Troops left bundles of them wherever the enemy might pass or congregate. This operation, code named "Bogus Money," reached its peak during the Tet Lunar New Year period of 1966.

A problem arose when some of the finders of these leaflets began passing them off as genuine money. The five dong parody was so good that many storekeepers accepted it without question. This greatly troubled South Vietnamese small businessmen. An Army Special Forces officer told me that the leaflet was an extremely successful safe conduct pass. Many VC turned themselves in. The Special Forces liked the note so much that they offered to make up the small-business losses from their budget if the note were kept in use. An article entitled "How the bogus money backfired" appeared in the April 1965 issue of Coins. The unnamed author said "The bogus money started showing up in the South Vietnamese economy, going from hand to hand and gaining a certain amount of acceptance by storekeepers and merchants, presumably on the supposition that Uncle Sam or some other kind spirit would make them good." Eventually, the complaints were too numerous and the leaflet was withdrawn for political reasons.

Faded Parody

There is a second variety of this safe conduct pass. It is a poor copy of the parody with a faded, washed out look and fuzzy printing. It is more red than brown and appears to be a photographic reproduction of the original leaflet parody, but on a cheaper, thinner paper that allows some of the propaganda message on the back to show through. There is no evidence to indicate if this second variety is a privately made forgery or simply a second version of the safe conduct pass produced with inferior paper and production values. Many leaflets were produced in the field under combat conditions and it is possible that both versions are legitimate. Except for the quality, the notes are identical. Perhaps a field unit wanted to use the successful five Dong safe conduct pass and decided to reproduce it themselves. 2,500,000 copies of this second printing were prepared. A merchant seaman that shipped in and out of Saigon during the Vietnam War said that the first variety was available for a while, though in short supply. It then became impossible to find. Soon afterwards, the second variety was available for sale in great quantities. During a conversation with a military printer on the subject of the difference in quality of the notes, I was told that the first notes were probably produced on sheet-fed presses which feed one sheet at a time and tend to produce high quality products. The second leaflet might have been printed on roll-pass presses which are designed for speed, up to 40,000 sheets an hour. There seems to be some truth to this supposition because recently another source told me that the second faded variety was printed on Web Fed presses using only one plate and one color instead of the three plates of the original parody.

There is also an unofficial use of the first variety of this leaflet as a party favor. The safe conduct text is replaced by "Good for one war story (unadulterated). This Chieu Hoi leaflet and a 5¢ piece entitles you to a war story from Colonel Jim (Paddy Rat) Keirsey concerning his exploits in South Vietnam / March 1964-March 1965." 150 copies were produced to give to attendees at a farewell party for the colonel upon his departure as commander of the 21st ARVN Division's advisory team. This note is illustrated and discussed in Vietnam Military Lore 1959-1973, R. A. Bows, Bows & Son Publishing, Hanover, Mass., 1988, pages 566-568.

In April of 1972, the United States renewed the bombing of North Vietnam. At the same time, they began dropping leaflets in the north as part of Operation Field Goal. Among the many leaflets that were dropped is a set of three banknote parodies. The U.S. wanted to take advantage of rising prices and inflation that was rampant in North Vietnam. Robert W. Chandler tells us that the plan backfired in War of Ideas: The U.S. Propaganda Campaign in Vietnam, Westview Press, Boulder Colorado, 1981. He says:

The ploy ‘boomeranged’ when Hanoi responded with a burst of specious charges that the U.S. was guilty of forgery and attempts to undermine North Vietnam’s economy. Domestically, the government said inflation was due to the bogus dong notes flooding the country.

While looking through a large lot of genuine Vietnamese banknotes at a New York City auction several years ago, I found no less than ten 1 dong notes bearing the serial number RE 412887 in pristine condition. The propaganda message had been neatly trimmed away and both the original owner and the auctioneer had been fooled. They were offering the notes as genuine. In 1973, a collector working in the Far East informed me that in many of the small stalls used by currency dealers in Manila, North Vietnamese one dong notes with the propaganda removed were being openly offered and sold as "United States counterfeits".

At any rate, the propaganda banknotes that were produced in the greatest number and are certainly the most famous are the parody-counterfeits of the 1, 2 and 5 Dong notes of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam. It would seem that "parody-counterfeit" is impossibility since the former must bear a message or a change of some kind so the holder realizes he does not have the genuine item, while the latter demands that the document be nearly perfect so as to fool the finder. How can these diametrically opposed concepts be brought together?

U.S. PSYOP experts produced North Vietnamese banknotes that would pass most casual inspections, but placed a tag off to the side bearing a propaganda message. The United States government approved mass production of North Vietnamese currency, but was always able to answer critics who stated that the notes were counterfeit with the comment "We don't counterfeit the currency of another nation. We just print propaganda parodies."   

The United States Military Assistance Command was responsible for producing about sixty million of the propaganda banknotes in the years 1965 through 1972. According to knowledgeable sources, the banknotes were first produced, under contract, in a Japanese printing house in Tokyo. In the latter stages of the campaign, the printing was moved to an American run printing plant in Manila and the finished banknotes shipped from there to the Defense Department's psychological warfare command in Okinawa. The final destination was, of course, Allied airfields in Vietnam, where the leaflets were bundled and loaded on aircraft to be dropped over enemy territory.  

PSYOP specialists called these notes "The inflation series." The campaign was meant to convince the Vietnamese that the cost of the war would lead to the destruction of their economy. American propagandists, when questioned, stated that this was not a form of economic warfare, and was in fact, simply another in a long line of PSYOP operations. They were quick to point out that the propaganda notes were just a shade lighter in color, the paper just a fraction thinner, and the length of the bill just a bit smaller than the original. In fact, measurement indicates that the forgery may be as much as 3/32 of an inch shorter than a regular banknote, hardly enough for the average person to notice. The fact that a message was added off to the side of the note was enough to allow them to say that no attempt had been made to counterfeit North Vietnamese currency. Within the letter of the law, they are correct in that statement. However, Secret Service agents who investigated a number of the banknotes which had the propaganda message removed, confiscated the bills on the premise that these were counterfeits and would have been accepted as regular currency by the Vietnamese people.

North Vietnam complained on a number of occasions, once stating that they had confiscated and gathered enough of the currency forgeries to completely fill a room. For instance:

The Hanoi International Service in English dated 9 October 1972 published an article attacking the American banknote propaganda entitled, “Vietnamese Lawyers condemn Nixon’s Money Counterfeiting.” Some of the comments are:

Vietnamese lawyers have strongly condemned Nixon who recently perpetrated a new crime of a particularly cowardly character against the Vietnamese people by counterfeiting banknotes of the State Bank of the DRV and introducing them into North Vietnam.

In an article carried in the Sunday issue of the Hanoi daily Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army), Lawyer Do Xuan Sang and Lawyer Pham Tranh Vinh wrote:

In order to avoid condemnation by public opinion, each false bank note carried a stub on which are printed calumnies against the DRV. This counterfoil can of course be easily separated from the counterfeit note itself.

Nixon’s machination betrays his perfidy. Unfortunately for Nixon, international law, as studied and practiced in the main countries of the world does not tolerate his deceit.

Nixon’s crime of money counterfeiting is not an isolated crime. It is part of the overall policy of Nixon with regard to the DRV, the Vietnamese people and other Indochinese peoples.

The making and introduction of false money obviously is a new rung in Nixon’s escalation, an attempt to sap the finances and monetary system and a grave violation of the economic life of North Vietnam.

The funny part about all of these North Vietnamese protests is that they were counterfeiting American currency about the same time. A captured document dated 12 November 1969 states in part that the Region Party Committee orders that individuals named Hao and Co are to continue counterfeiting US currency until further instructions are received because an all-out plan to disrupt the enemy’s economy is being formed.

Genuine 1 Dong Leaflet

Although the "inflation series" consists of just three denominations, there are a number of variations within the set. In fact, there are six different versions of the United States "Inflation Series" parody of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam 1 dong note of 1959 with attached propaganda messages in Vietnamese. The genuine banknote was authorized by the State Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi and printed by the Central Printing Factory, Shanghai, People Republic of China. The front depicts the War Memorial topped with the national flag. The back depicts farmers planting rice.

Parody Serial # TO 309592

The first variation of the one dong propaganda banknote is different from all the others in that the propaganda message tag is at the right of the front of the note. The parody bears the serial number TO309592 on the front, and shows a code "50" on the back. The message on the tab at the right front begins, "Dong tien cang ngay cang mat gia..." ("Money is worth less and less. As the war goes on, there will be less and less to buy. Prices will go higher and higher. Your savings will become worthless paper.")  The text on the back translates "Beware of another monetary reform such as that of 1959. You may lose all of your wealth, fruit of your sweat and tears."  The banknotes were printed in vertical sheets of 5.  The parody is a close reproduction of the original.

Parody Serial # RE 412887

A second variety of the same banknote is uncoded, and bears the serial number RE412887. The message on the tab at the left front begins, "Tam anh mot dong..." ("The picture of this one dong note is printed on this leaflet to remind the people of the North that it is the aggression of the Lao Dong Party that is destroying the prosperity of the country and your welfare.")  The longer text on the back translates "Please carefully observe your storage jar of rice. This year your storage jar of rice is perhaps only half of last year's storage jar of rice because now the open market price is high, while the rice sold at the official price is insufficient. The Lao Dong Party continues its aggression against the south, which has made your country and you poorer." The parody is a close reproduction of the original. The color of the parody is red-brown, closely matching that of the original. However, the serial number is printed in the same red-brown color, whereas the serial number on the original is printed in red.

These two one dong propaganda banknotes are of a higher quality than the remaining four, and there is reason to believe that they were used early in the war. We will discuss this in greater depth below. It is now known that banknotes were dropped on the north during the first bombing raids, then used again during the second series of bombing many years later.

1 Dong banknote with Error - Code # 4543 Horizontal

The third and fourth varieties of the 1 dong propaganda parody are coded 4540 and 4543 (horizontal). These notes were printed twice because of an error. The original leaflet description sheet is dated 20 July 1972. The theme is "Hardship of war – Survive the War inflation." The rationale is "To cause the target audience to think about the adverse effects of war upon the economy." The error was discovered and the leaflets were printed again with the same code numbers, but now vertical instead of horizontal.

The intended text on the front is "Hay coi chung mot cuoc cai cach tien te nua. Cac ban co the mat tat ca tai san, cong lao mo hoi nuoc mat cua ban." ("Beware of another money reform. You may lose all your wealth, fruit of your sweat and tears.") The intended text on the back is "Dang thi vung-phi tien cua dong-bao vao mot cuoc chien-tranh tuyet-vong. Khi chien-tranh con tiep-dien thi tan-pha que-huong dong-bao. Tien dong-bao de danh se tro nen vo gia-tri." ("The Communist Party is spending your money on a hopeless war. If the war goes on, there will be nothing for you to buy. The war is destroying your country. All your savings will be worthless.")

Corrected 1 Dong Banknote - Code # 4543 Vertical

Two errors in the Vietnamese dialect crept in – one detected and corrected at an early stage, and one that somehow escaped detection for over 30 years! The first error is the omission of the word "cach" between "cai" and "tien" in the first sentence on the front of the 1 dong with horizontal code numbers. This omission renders the sentence meaningless, and was corrected in the 1-dong notes with vertical code numbers. The second error, at best ambiguous, is the presence of "vo-gia" instead of the correct "vo gia-tri" at the end of the text on the back of all the notes. "Vo-gia" translates to "priceless" instead of "worthless," thus changing the meaning of the last sentence to "All your savings will be priceless."  Discussions with native Vietnamese and Vietnamese-speaking Americans reveal that, although Vietnamese would understand the intent of the message and would accept the error with mild amusement, the error would have been an embarrassment to the Americans had they known of it.  Perhaps this explains why the error has not been reported earlier.

How do these errors occur? Several American PSYOP officers in Vietnam during the war spoke of the impossibility of knowing exactly what their Vietnamese counterparts were writing on propaganda leaflets. A former Army Captain who was assigned to MACVSOG from February to August in 1964 said:

Are these people [Vietnamese nationals working with the Americans] on the other side really with us or against us? You never know that and I never knew, I don’t have any idea personally other than we tried to double test so-called known people that belonged with us but they were still Vietnamese. I’d write up the leaflets in English and take them over and get translated, and they’d say that means this, but did it really? I don’t know and the people back in Washington will never know.

A former Army Major assigned to MACVSOG OP33, which provided staff supervision to OP39 (PSYOP) from June 1969 to June 1970, adds:

However, since nei­ther we nor the US civilians in OP 39 were proficient in Vietnamese, the content, context, and scope of the various PSYOP products (radio broadcasts, leaflets, mail, etc.) were always sus­pect, in my mind. We really didn’t have a way of ascertaining the quality of the product that was being put out or the nu­ances in a political sense.

Genuine North Vietnamese 2 Dong Banknote

North Vietnamese 2 Dong Banknote Propaganda Parody Code # 4541

Genuine North Vietnamese 5 Dong Banknote

North Vietnamese 5 Dong Banknote Propaganda Parody Code # 4542

The United States "Inflation Series" parodies of the North Vietnamese 2 dong is coded 4541 vertically and 5 dong is coded 4542 vertically. These leaflets are only known with the corrected text and only one variety of each exists. The propaganda text is the same as the one-dong notes 4540 and 4543.

All the leaflet banknotes are close reproductions of the originals. The inking of some of the details in the central vignettes on front and back is deeper in the parodies, obscuring some of the fine detail in the originals. The parodies show a background of faint, closely-spaced wavy lines in the vignettes on both front and back. This corresponds closely with the 1 dong and 2 dong originals, but differs from the 5 dong original, which has no background.

An airman told me in regard to the banknote leaflets:

I was stationed at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam in early 1972 where I worked in the Munitions Maintenance Squadron where we received, stored and assembled bombs that were loaded on the B-52 bombers stationed there.  One night we got a call on the midnight shift to assemble some special drops that we called “B.S. Bombs” which had 2 and 5 Dong currency leaflets with the writing on the sides. I still have a couple of the bills (folded in half) in the same envelope I put them in during my stint on Guam.  I have rarely taken them out of the envelope and the color is still vivid like they were new.

Although this phase of the project occurred in 1972, there is reason to believe that it actually started much earlier. This information is still classified in part, and the following information has been gathered from private conversations. It appears that the banknote propaganda project originated in 1968 with the 4th PSYOP Group in Saigon. It was sent to the Pentagon for approval, funding, and execution. Samples of the parodies were sent back and forth between the Pentagon and Saigon until details of form and Vietnamese dialect were worked out. The Pentagon authorized printing to commence at the U.S. Information Agency's Carmelo-Bauerman Regional Service Center in Manila, and the leaflets were warehoused until used at the Machinato Base on Okinawa.

The timing and placement of the airdrops were determined by units under the 4th PSYOP Group in Saigon, so it would appear as if the operation were completely under the control of local operatives in Vietnam. The parodies were good enough so that when the propaganda tab was cut off the remainder could be passed as genuine, as intended by the producers. The North Vietnamese complained to the U.S. that the fakes were causing inflation, and the issue was debated in the United States Congress, where some congressmen objected to this method of fighting a war. However, the program continued until Senator Edward M. Kennedy became involved, whereupon the program was abruptly stopped. (This may have coincided with President Nixon's decision in 1969 to cease bombing of the North.). There is evidence in the left-wing press of the earlier drops and it is likely that the first 1 dong note, code 50 is the item that was dropped.

There seems to be evidence of the banknotes being stockpiled prior to 1972. About 1985 a large cache of the banknotes suddenly came on the market. There were so many that some of us who specialize in such things started to make lists of the known serial numbers, which eventually turned out to be about 40 different for the 1 dong, 19 different for the 2 dong, and 17 different for the 5 dong. It was believed at one time that the serial numbers might have some significance and indicate the area that the notes were dropped. This could be used to show where a Vietnamese had been if he were found with such a propaganda forgery. However, this was never proven and is probably just idle conjecture. I only mention this sudden surge in the availability of the propaganda notes because there was a rumor going around at the time that Vietnamese peasants were digging through trash piles and the burn sites of old US bases and finding these counterfeits buried in sacks. This sounds like one of those old war story anecdotes so I never thought any more about it.

However, in October 2004 I received a letter from a former airman who had taken part in burning some of the banknotes. Former TSGT Bob Remel of the 35th Civil Engineering Squadron, 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, recalls what it was like to burn the propaganda leaflets at Phan Rang Air Base in Spring 1971. He was a member of the Base Fire Department and Crash Rescue team. He says:

As an Assistant Fire Chief I was in charge of a detail to destroy hundreds of thousands of the propaganda leaflets. They were packed in tight bundles and were extremely hard to burn. We dumped them in a large pit and used a 5000-gallon JP-4 jet fuel tanker truck to soak them. The fury of the fire and the wind caused a lot of loose leaflets to blow all over the area. I managed to run down several of them and sent them home to my wife.

Three of them were very interesting. They are counterfeit copies of North Vietnamese paper money in uncirculated condition with some kind of message on one end. All it takes is to cut off the message and you have real North Vietnamese money. All three have serial numbers with denominations of 1 dong, 2 dong and 5 dong.

When I mentioned this rumor of the Vietnamese digging up the leaflets to (now) CMSGT Bob Remel (retired) he agreed that it was possible. He said:

That is possible. We didn't as good a job as we might have. There were just too many bundles tightly packed and prepared to be dumped out of our PSYOP aircraft. The PSYOP troops were out there with us to be sure of the destruction of the notes and they thought everything was fine, but I knew there was no way all of it would be destroyed. There were just too many. I would guess that perhaps one third was unharmed and buried under the pile. After we were done burning a bulldozer covered up the pit.

It's hard to explain how large Phan Rang Air Base was. There were about 10,000 U. S. Army and Air Force and a South Korean artillery unit. There was even a compound of Viet Cong who had gone "Chieu Hoi," (come over to our side). The Vietnamese Air Force had two squadrons of AC-119s and we had two squadrons of newer model AC-119s. [Note: those 119s were often called "Flying Coffins" because they had an enormously big body and what looked like little tiny wings]. We also had five squadrons of F-100 Super Sabres. The Australians had Canberra bombers. I would say several hundred South Vietnamese worked on the base and no doubt knew where we burned the several hundred thousand counterfeit notes. We were out there almost all day. After we filled up the pit, we kept throwing more bundles into the fire, because the pit could not hold everything at one time. That's when I chased my souvenirs down. The wind blew them all over the area.

Dropping leaflets

The Reporter Dispatch, November 18, 1966 reported that "To cripple Communist savings, counterfeit North Vietnamese banknotes are dropped along with a message...Most are dropped in the Red River delta near Hanoi." In an East German cold-war polemic, Falschgeld als Waffen der USA, Ostsee Zeitung, Rostock, DDR, 9 December 1981, page 51,  Dr. Julius Mader reports that the first use of the banknote leaflets was August 1966, when 1.6 million leaflets were dropped. In eight airdrops between August and December 1966, 16,765,000 leaflets were dropped around Vinh, Ha Tinh, Tien Song, Nghi Loc, Linh Cam, Hanoi, Tran Hoa, and Hai Phong.

The remaining materials were warehoused in Okinawa until the program was resurrected by JUSPAO in 1972, when bombing of the North resumed. According to the designer of the leaflets, the 1 dong code-4540 leaflets are 190 x 71 mm and were designed to drop 1.4 ft per second, with a dispersal of 17% of the drift distance; leaflets would take nearly 5 hours to descend from 25,000 feet. The 1 dong code-4543 leaflets are 195 x 72 mm and were designed to drop 1.7 ft per second, with a dispersal of 26% of the drift distance; leaflets would take about 4 hours to descend from 25,000 feet. Thus the shorter leaflets drifted further, but were designed to overlap with the drift pattern of the longer leaflets. In order to achieve an even coverage on the ground, about twice as many of the longer notes were dropped in a mission. Massive numbers of 1, 2, and 5 dong parodies were dropped in 1972.

Nola Express, No. 121 (22 December 1972 - 4 January 1973), reports Hanoi as saying that drops occurred on 19, 21, and 26 October 1972.  Total production of the 1 dong parody from 1965 through 1972 was about 60 million. The New Republic of March 31, 1973 said that 60 million banknote leaflets were printed in the USIA's plant in Okinawa between the years of 1965 and 1972. Covert Action, July-August 1979 - Said that the Regional Service Center in Manila is the CIA propaganda plant that was the source of counterfeit Vietnam piasters that were airdropped in Vietnam. In private conversation an officer of the 7th PSYOP agreed. He said, "The dong notes were printed in the Regional Service Center (RSC) in Manila. Some of them could have been printed elsewhere. Okinawa controlled the printing at RSC and the Army Adjutant General Printing Plant in Japan. We produced a thousand tons of different leaflets a month at our peak." A U.S. Embassy official said when asked about the banknote leaflets, "The leaflets are similar to ones used several years ago during the first full scale bombing campaign." The Vietnam News Agency quoted Vu Thien, the director of the North Vietnamese State Bank who said that millions of the counterfeits had been dropped over the north during August and September of 1972. He called President Nixon an "international counterfeiter" who was trying to sabotage the North Vietnamese economy.   

Reproduced banknotes on EBay

We need to stop at this point in our discussion to point out that excellent reproductions of these notes exist and have been offered on the auction site EBay with the comment, “All items are reproduced copies of the originals. All have an old aged look and have original stains and marks.”

Reproduction

In this case the producer of the fake banknotes has added the word "reproduction." It is certain that within a short time the notes will be offered without the word, just as reproduced unmarked banknote leaflets from Desert Storm were offered by at least two different dealers after that conflict. I advise anyone purchasing such banknote leaflets to study them carefully, make sure they are guaranteed by the seller,  and preferably to buy items offered by veterans as “bring backs” from Vietnam.

We should mention that with all the talk of these notes being propaganda parodies and not counterfeits, that the United States government was counterfeiting Vietnamese currency at the very same time. Forgeries were prepared by OP-33, and were disseminated to the North by OP-34 and OP-35. The forgeries were prepared in Okinawa under the codename Benson Silk, which was a comprehensive propaganda campaign that included the placing of false radio messages into North Vietnamese radio broadcasts and the forging of currency.

The United States Air Force Special Operations Squadrons used the code name Stray Goose for the air-dropping of the banknotes. This operation encompassed an operation in which MC-130 Combat Talon planes flew unescorted to drop leaflets and North Vietnamese currency over Hanoi and Haiphong. The program was active for several years during the 1960s and ended in 1969.

The forgery operation was so secret that even the MACVSOG Command History, Annex B 1971-1972 describes it as a program where the Psychological Studies Branch blanked out the NVA radio frequencies and inserted false information. They use the term "scripts." It was "script," but not the kind they imply. The desription is:

North Vietnamese Army script inserts (discontinued August 1970)

Combat Magazine defined Benson Silk in a feature on “Military Terms of the Modern Era.” They said:

Benson Silk is the codename for clandestine introduction of counterfeit North Vietnamese money into enemy territory; said funds were accountable, and were signed-out prior to each mission. The intent of this project was not to destabilize the North Vietnamese economy (which was already quite artificial and extremely vulnerable), but to plant a sum of money, in a camp or on a corpse, large enough to create mistrust, engender suspicion, and demoralize the soldiers.

Vietnamese agents under the supervision of the CIA took the forgeries into the North. The literature reports three missions to the North involving the forged currency: In 1961 an ARVN major refused to carry the forged notes because they would unduly compromise his cover. In June 1963, a large container containing 4 million dong in forged North Vietnamese currency was dropped with an infiltration team; the container and the money were captured by the North Vietnamese.  In August 1963, 4 million dong in forgeries was included in the supplies of a seaborne attempt to infiltrate; the North Vietnamese were waiting in ambush for the agents. No samples of these forgeries have surfaced, and little is known at present of these operations. The currency forgery component of the Benson Silk project was top secret, and was not even mentioned in the SOG's official history. The project was discontinued in August 1970.

The forging of North Vietnamese currency is mentioned in three books. The first is SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam, John Plaster, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997. The author says, "It wasn't very difficult to forge North Vietnamese paper money, which lacked modern counterfeiting safeguards...Cutting technically perfect plates and printing North Vietnamese "funny money" proved a snap for Okinawa based experts who'd mastered their craft duplicating all sorts of foreign documents and credentials." The author later told me that the counterfeits were classified top secret, and he had to sign a "classified document control hand receipt" each time he was issued the banknotes. This is one of the rare acknowledgments by any American officer that he actually handled counterfeit currency. The forgeries are also mentioned in Secret Army, Secret War, Sedgwick D. Tourison Jr., Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1995 and Hazardous Duty, Major General John K. Singlaub, Summit Books, New York, 1991. Singlaub's report includes the following:

Psychological warfare operations were supervised by OP-33 of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Studies and Observation Group (MACV/SOG). The commander of the group was LTC Tom Bowen. His shop specialized in ingenious deceptions that ranged from counterfeit North Vietnamese currency....

Richard H. Schultz mentions the banknotes in The Secret War Against Hanoi, HarperCollins, NY, 1999. Talking about SOG missions against North Vietnam he says:

Other activities included a variety of black radio operations; insertions of leaflets in gift kits; fraudulent letters mailed to North Vietnamese officials and citizens from third countries; forged North Vietnamese currency; and booby-trapped items planted in Laos.

He seems to contradict himself later in the book when he says:

Finally, there was a limited counterfeiting project. However, Washington had serious anxiety about going too far with it. According to Bob Andrews, “I know forged currency was discussed, but higher headquarters told us, ‘Don’t do that,’ That was a political no-no.”

Of course, it is quite apparent that Washington might have said it was a bad idea, but clearly, North Vietnamese currency was forged and disseminated.

The book Running Recon, Frank Greco, Paladin Press, Boulder, CO, 2004 mentions other currency forgeries under Operation Benson Silk. He says:

North Vietnamese Army Ho Chi Minh Trail money. Another PSYOP program involved the counterfeiting of various enemy currency, code-named "Benson Silk." These counterfeit bills were intended to be used in the enemy's supply systems in Laos (their version of the PX and commissary), somewhat like our military payment certificates.

Greco depicts 2, 5, and 10 Xu Truong Son military commodity coupons. Howard A. Daniel III mentions the background of these coupons in Democratic Republic of Viet Nam Coins and Currency, The Southeast Asian Treasury, Dunn Loring VA, 1995. Some selected comments of the author are:

During the Indochina and Viet Nam Wars, the People's Army of Viet Nam (PAWN) moved south and north on an extensive networks of trails and paths, which was named the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail went directly through the DMZ into the south, and west of it into Laos, then Cambodia, and at many points across the western border of the Republic of Viet Nam and well into it. The trail effectively followed the Truong Son mountain range, which was geographically considered as the "backbone" of Viet Nam. The PAWN Group 559 building and maintaining it was named the Truong Son Corps.

As more and more personnel were stationed for longer and longer tours along the trail, there was a need to give them an opportunity to buy personal items. Nothing fancy and usually very primitive, but some of the rations and rest stops had small stores built within them and the personnel started being paid part of their pay in military coupons.

Ho Chi Minh Trail 1 Xu Commodity Coupon

Ho Chi Minh Trail 2 Xu Commodity Coupon

Ho Chi Minh Trail 5 Xu Commodity Coupon

Ho Chi Minh Trail 10 Xu Commodity Coupon

The coupons depicted above were issued by the Ministries of Finance and Defense, Hanoi. It is believed that they were used between 1962-1966. A different set of coupons was used from 1966 to 1973. These coupons are very scarce today and in excellent condition can sell for well over $100. Clearly, if the U.S. was able to distribute massive amounts of the counterfeit coupons among the PAWN moving south during the war they could have destroyed the entire system built up along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

A former operator says:

Yes, Benson Silk was a MACVSOG PSYOP that counterfeited NVA scrip. It was a minor mission, which as I recall, was carried out by regular SOG recon teams. On occasion the team was given handfuls of the phony scrip, and if they had an opportunity to plant it on dead bodies or in caches they stumbled on, they did so. It was apparently meant to confuse the enemy rather than to have any lasting effect on the Communist economy. Hope this helps. There is not much about the program in the documents--probably not because it was so secret but because it was so minor.

A retired US Army Special Forces NCO who was a trail watcher has stated that he still has samples of the 1, 2 and 5 Xu counterfeits of the first series.

Allied government agencies prepared and printed almost all of the propaganda banknotes of the Vietnam War. However, one small combat unit overprinted a captured banknote as a souvenir of its Vietnam service.

On 29 April 1970, a Joint American and Vietnamese force took part in a 63-day cross-border incursion into Cambodia. 6000 ARVN soldiers launched an attack into the Parrot's Beak area of Cambodia, supported by U.S. warplanes and artillery. The plan was to catch the Viet Cong by surprise, disrupt their military operations, and capture their Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN). This mobile headquarters was located somewhere in the corner of Tay Ninh Province near the Cambodian border. COSVN, under the leadership of the Lao Dong (Communist) Party, was in charge of all Viet Cong activities.

During the incursion, the Allies found and confiscated large concentrations of weapons, ammunition and documents. They also discovered a large cache of banknotes. Among them was a stock of the unissued Central Committee of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam 50 xu banknotes, printed in the Central Printing Factory, Shanghai, People's Republic of China, for use in areas under Viet Cong Control. The National Liberation Front intended to issue the banknotes after the successful Tet uprising of 1968. However, Tet was a military disaster for the VC and the people's popular uprising never took place. Tet cost the Viet Cong its best shock troops. The final count of Communist dead is unknown; there are published estimates of 38,794 with another 6991 captured.

Although ARVN forces made up the majority of troops involved in the Cambodian raid. American helicopters provided air transportation, liaison, medical evacuation, and close fire support. One of the aviation units was the 173rd Assault Helicopter Company (AHC). The 173rd AHC was attached to the 11th Aviation Battalion (Combat) for the Cambodian raid. The 173rd took part in 14 campaigns. It received 8 battle decorations including the Valorous Unit Award, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with palm, and Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal. The radio call sign of the 173rd AHC was "Robin Hood."

Viet Cong   Banknote Overprinted by "Robin Hoods"

 

Members of the helicopter company "liberated" some of the banknotes confiscated during the raid and overprinted them as souvenirs with the text "Compliments of / 173rd AHC / The Robin Hoods." They might have been simply souvenirs of the raid, or they might have been used in some cases as "calling cards" to be placed on the bodies of dead Viet Cong. Whatever their use, they are the only known type of propaganda banknote prepared by a small unit in Vietnam.

Viet Cong 1000 Dong Public Bond

Our South Vietnamese allies also produced propaganda. They parodied a Viet Cong 1000 dong Public Bond. In Democratic Republic of Vietnam Coins and Currency, Howard A. Daniel III, says that the issuing authority for the genuine bond was the "Ministry of Finance, and National Liberation Front Central Committee." The front of the genuine bond is printed in brown and depicts a group of Vietnamese peasants planting rice. The back is printed in blue and has a map of Vietnam and two Vietnamese in a small boat on a river.

ARVN Bond Parody Receipt

These "receipts" were used as payment for rice taken from Vietnamese peasants. Barry Zorthian, director of the Joint United States Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO), told me that the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) prepared the propaganda parodies. He added:

Incidentally, it is somewhat difficult to maintain an accurate record of all leaflets published in Vietnam. Each military command has the authority, and most of them have the resources to publish their own leaflets according to the tactical situation. We in Saigon are aware of those which are published for national dissemination, but we do not always have all those on file which have been used by individual commands or local Vietnamese Information Service offices. The troop bond is a case in point.

Chandler agrees. He says in War of Ideas:

In spite of some lower-level coordination, the Americans and South Vietnamese conducted their own private communications programs with only minimal and superficial integration and cooperation.

The parody has a registration number H/05320 on the front. The back is all text with a propaganda message in Vietnamese beginning "Tien Ho Chi Minh. Cong phieu nuoi quan cua Viet Cong..." The propaganda text is "Ho Chi Minh money. Viet Cong troop support bonds are but worthless trash. Don't use Ho Chi Minh money. Boycott Viet Cong troop support bonds to safeguard your own interests and property. Down with the Viet Cong's looting the people's money and property by the use of public bonds."   Both the genuine and parody measure 125 x 60 mm, are dated "1964," and have an additional 40-mm data tab at left for entering information acknowledging receipt of a "contribution" (tax) of rice. The tab asks for Name, Address, Province, District, Village, Value of 10 kilos of rice, and date sold.

The status of the original Viet Cong "bond" has been a source of confusion, primarily because the word "phieu" can be translated as bond, coupon, receipt, ticket, etc. All text on the original and parody is in Vietnamese. The original appears to be a receipt for rice, and has no value as currency despite the deceptive claim on the back of the bond that, "In the event of loss of a bond, please immediately inform the local Front Committee of the name, registration number, the value, and the place in which the bond was purchased, so that it can be considered for redemption. Price of ten kilos of rice____, Address of bond purchaser ____." This technical data was reassuring, but the Communists never redeemed any of these so-called "bonds."

ARVN Propaganda Leaflet depicting Viet Cong Bonds - Front

ARVN Propaganda Leaflet depicting Viet Cong Bonds - Back

The South Vietnamese also produced a an aerial propaganda leaflet that depicted three such Viet Cong "bonds" on the front, including at top the 1000 dong Public Note number H/05320 described above, a receipt for a loan in the center, and at bottom a receipt for a loan identified as a "receipt for 100 GVN piasters cash donation (to the revolution) by a province front committee." The back has anti-Communist propaganda. The leaflet bears the code number DV158AH301165. "DV" is thought to represent Quan-Doi Viet Nam Cong-Hoa (Army of Republic of South Vietnam); the "1165" probably indicates that the leaflet was prepared in November of 1965. The leaflet is printed on poor quality paper, measuring 130 x 203 mm. The certificates depicted at the center and bottom of the leaflet each have a receipt section attached to the main note; both sections of the notes bear an official People's Liberation Army seal for Province Binh Dinh, and both sections of each note displaying the same text. The texts for the certificate in the center of the leaflet translate "South Viet Nam Liberation Army. Loan Certificate. The People's Liberation Army of Province Binh Dinh certifies that Mr., Mrs. ____ residing at ____ Village ____ District ____ has lent the People's Liberation Army the mount of _____ to use in the process of liberating Viet Nam. When Viet Nam is liberated, the amount owed will be paid in full." The certificate at bottom has texts that translate "South Viet Nam Liberation Army district 5. Donation Certificate to the Liberation Army. Certified that Mr., Mrs. ____ Address ____ Village ____ District ____. Amount donated to the People's Liberation Army: 200 dong. Day of ____ Month ____ Year ____. No. 3184."

The back is all text, “Who still believes in the Communist paradise? Who still believes in the beauty of the principal of Communism? There are many forms of evidence of fellow countrymen brutally deprived of properties for which they have labored hard with their sweat and tears. Examples are “Feed the Army notes,” “Cards of Approval of Communism,” notes which depend on whether the people are rich or poor, and other things. The Viet Cong have openly robbed their countrymen of food and clothing. Here is the paper evidence that they openly robbed people. Down with the Viet Cong.”

Parody of North Vietnamese 50 Dong National Bank of Vietnam note

One of the most interesting and mysterious banknote leaflets is an alleged propaganda parody of North Vietnamese 50 dong National Bank of Vietnam note of 1951 with the front replaced by a line drawing of a peasant squatting and wiping himself with a genuine banknote and a scalloped text "Cong dung duy nhut cua giay bac ho-chi-minh" ("The only use for the paper money of Ho Chi Minh"). The front of the genuine note depicts Ho Chi Minh at right, and this is vaguely discernable in the note the peasant is holding. The back of the genuine and parody shows the bank name and a view of peasants working the fields. If a genuine wartime item, it is certainly "black," and possibly was produced by the South Vietnamese Army.

Front

Back

Genuine Laotian 200 Kip Banknote

Front

Back

Pathet Lao 200 Kip Propaganda Banknote

The Laotian government may have also printed a propaganda banknote, but it is more likely that the C.I.A. is the source. As the communist guerillas in Laos slowly gained ground in their battle against the government forces, they issued their own banknotes for use in the occupied areas. These notes are found in denominations of 10 and 20 dong, and 50, 100, 200 and 500 kip. The 200 Kip depicts soldiers and transportation of war material on the front. The back shows a textile factory and the That Luang Temple. The genuine 200 Kip note is handsomely produced, deep green in color with serial numbers at the lower left and right front side in red. Shortly after these notes appeared, another similar note was found printed just a shade lighter green and without serial number. What made this new note especially interesting was that on the back, in place of Lao Temple, a portrait of Ho Chi Minh was substituted. When these notes first appeared, it was believed that they were genuine Pathet Lao notes. Another story surfaced in 1977 when the Bangkok Post headlined a short article "Ho banknotes were faked". The story explained "The Laotian 200 kip note bearing a portrait of the late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh that was published in the Bangkok Post of June 16th was actually counterfeited by the former Vientiane government to mislead the people in the liberated areas, Mr. Kach Kitthavong, Charge d'Affaires of the Laotian Embassy, said yesterday." The Royal Lao government printed these notes in an attempt to convince the Pathet Lao that they were fighting for Vietnam and not for their own cause. It is reasonable to assume that the Lao people might have reacted negatively to a Vietnamese leader prominently placed on their revolutionary currency.

Persistent rumors have identified the CIA as the originator of this parody, although the report mentioned above placed responsibility with the Ex-Royal-Laotian government. Possibly both parties collaborated. In a March 1992 Public Broadcasting system Nova program, "Making a dishonest buck," William Wofford, a pilot of Air America, the unofficial CIA airline, displayed two notes that he dropped in 1970 on the Laotian city of Xam Nua (Samneua), where, in limestone caverns, the Pathet Lao housed their national headquarters, a munitions factory, and a cadre training school. Nova asserted that the notes were probably of CIA origin. One of these notes was the 200 kip parody with Ho Chi Minh. Wofford told me later that he flew one such currency flight about 1969-1970, which originated in the CIA's super secret Long Tieng base. The complex, designated Lima Site (for Laos) was known as LS-20. The pilots routinely alluded to it as "Twenty alternate." The currency drop occurred on the way back from a regular mission over northern Laos. Wofford flew a DeHaviland DHC-4, designated by the USAF as the C7A Caribou, a two-engine propeller-driven utility transport capable of a 7000-pound payload. He said that several hundred pounds of banknotes were dropped. A "kicker" pulled a lanyard to start a fuse which would blow the bags of money apart in midair. Christopher Robbins mentions the plot in Air America, G.P. Putnam's Sons, NY, 1979. He says:

Another top secret Agency project involved dropping millions of dollars in forged Pathet Lao currency in an attempt to wreck the economy by flooding it with paper money.

Genuine Laotian banknote dropped over North Vietnam by U.S. aircraft

It appears that the second note that Wofford dropped could have been genuine Laotian currency. The United States Air Force Museum “History of the 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron” mentions a leaflet drop of 6 February 1966. It states that a flight of five F-105D's flew over the highway and railroad midway between the cities of Thanh Hoa and Thai Binh about 50 kilometers north of Hanoi. On this mission the fighter-bombers dropped canisters containing propaganda leaflets and genuine Laotian 500 kip notes. It is difficult to understand what purpose the dropping of the banknotes accomplished, unless it was to make sure that the local people looked for them out of greed, thus putting them in contact with the propaganda leaflets. Curiously, the Museum points out the fact that the banknotes depict American aircraft being shot down by antiaircraft artillery.

During the Vietnam War US ground and air forces were covertly and overtly active in nearby Laos.

The United States prepared a number of propaganda leaflets to the Pathet Lao and Lao civilians depicting Royal Laotian currency and offering rewards for the return of American and Laotian pilots. The leaflets were mostly black and white but often had a touch of red where the symbol of Laos was depicted and rewards were mentioned. The notes were prepared in two sizes, standard 3 x 6-inch leaflets and 6.29 x 11-inch handouts.

Leaflet .31

Leaflet .31depicts the exact same banknote that the Lao government parodied. The front of the leaflet depicts the back of the Pathet Lao 200 Kip Propaganda Banknote in black and white with the propaganda text diagonally:

This currency is counterfeit and has no value – it cannot be used

The back is all text:

The communists have printed this fake currency.   This currency has no value at all.

It cannot be used in exchange for other currency.

The communists force people to distribute the fake currency for them.

People who are not educated and don’t know the rules of law and are asked to deliver the currency. The government warns, “Do not accept it or be tricked by the communists.” 

Anyone who receives or is asked to distribute the currency should notify the local Police Chief.

The whole Lao citizenry hates the fake money and the communists who print and distribute the fake money. The next generation will inherit the problem. [If the economy is destroyed because of the distribution of counterfeit currency]. 

The Royal Kingdom of Laos National Military

Leaflet .110 (front)

Standard leaflet .110 (the larger size is coded .111) depicts a stack of 1000 kip banknotes with Laotian three-headed Erawan elephant national symbols from Hindu mythology at the left and the right. The national symbolism comes from the 14th century kingdom whose name translates to "Land of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol." The text is:

With wealth you can make wonderful things.

For information on Royal Laotian or U.S. prisoners of war or for assisting Royal Laotian Air Force or U.S. pilots back to the government.

Leaflet .110 (back)

Souvanna Phouma is depicted on the back. The text is:

Souvanna Phouma, Prime Minister, Royal Lao Government.

The Royal Lao Government promises to pay you:

100,000 kip for information on the location of Royal Lao Government or U.S. prisoners held by the Pathet Lao or North Vietnamese Army.

1,500,000 kip for assistance to Royal Lao or U.S. pilots returning to the government.

You need not keep this paper to collect the reward.

Leaflet .112 (front)

Standard leaflet .112 (larger size is coded .113) depicts a stack of 1000 kip banknotes with Laotian three-headed Erawan elephant symbols from Hindu mythology at the left and the right. The text is:

Reward.

A cash reward will be given to those who provide information concerning U.S. and Laotian prisoners, or who assist Royal Laotian and U.S. pilots in returning to the government.

Leaflet .112 (back)

Souvanna Phouma is depicted on the back. The text is:

Souvanna Phouma, Prime Minister, Royal Lao Government.

The Royal Lao Government will give a reward of:

100,000 kip to those who provide information concerning U.S. or Laotian prisoners of the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese Army.

1,500,000 kip to those who help Royal Laotian and U.S. pilots who are downed or being detained by the Communists to return to the government.

You need not keep this paper to collect the reward.

U.S. reward leaflet .114 for Laos

U.S. reward leaflet .114 for Laos is made up of two identical cartoons that appear on both the front and back. The only difference is that the text on one side is written in Vietnamese, the other side in Laotian.

The first illustration (at left) depicts a downed Allied pilot meeting villagers. The second illustration (at right) depicts the pilot and a friendly villager meeting a government officer who rewards the villager with a cash payment.

The text at top is:

1,500,000 Kip Cash Reward.

1,500,000 kip: A cash reward to those who help Royal Laotian and U.S. pilots who are downed or being detained by the Communists to return to the government.

100,000 Kip: A cash reward to those who provide information concerning U.S. or Laotian prisoners captured by the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese Army.

French Anti-Communist overprint Viet Minh banknote

The French prepared numerous forgeries and propaganda banknotes during their fight against the Viet Minh. They forged at least three different denominations and overprinted banknotes with at least four propaganda messages. Some of this is told in The French Secret Services, Douglas Porch, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, NY, 1995. The author says, "In 1949 the Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre-espionage (SDECE) flooded the rebel zones with Ho Chi Minh piasters."

Anti-Communist overprints were placed on Viet Minh banknotes by French military forces and allegedly dropped by aircraft over Viet Minh forces. It is believed that they could be used as safe conduct passes. I described these in greater detail in "Propaganda overprints on the wartime currency of Viet Nam," I.B.N.S. Journal 26, No. 1 (1987).

Some of these overprints are in block letters in dark ink and can be easily read, others are very pale and difficult to read. The first is a four-line overprint that begins "Chieu chieu ra dung ngo..." ("I am standing by the door of our house at sunset. I am sad and lonely as I look at our Motherland. Since you went to the Maquis our home is desolate. Our old mother, our children and me, we think of you."). A second five-line overprint (dark and thick) begins "Em la dong bac cu ho..." ("I am Uncle Ho's note but I am very worried about my fate. I am valued at 100 dong but not worth 1 dong. My old friends, notes of Indochina, do you understand me?") A four-line overprint (thin and light) begins "Hoi anh chein si bung bien..." ("Oh guerillas, soldiers in the Maquis, please return to your homes where your sad old mother, your wife, and your weak children have waited a long, long time."). The final four-line overprint (thin and light) begins "Nha Be nuoc chay chia..." ("The water flows in two directions at Nha Be for those who go to Gia Dinh or Dong Nai. Quickly return to a righteous cause and come home to reunite with your family so your aging mother will be at peace.").  These banknote leaflets were used around Gia Dinh near Saigon, and the texts are from common songs and poems.

Front - Genuine Banque de Indochine 1 piaster

Front - French Communist parody of Banque de Indochine 1 piaster

Back - Genuine Banque de Indochine 1 piaster

Back - French Communist parody of Banque de Indochine 1 piaster

Curiously, there is also an anti-war banknote leaflet from France. This leaflet parodies the Banque de Indochine 1 piaster note printed for use in Indochina from 1942-1945. The original color of the banknote is violet. The French Communist Party produced a leaflet which was similar to the banknote on the front, although the color is now a politically correct Communist red. The leaflet was mentioned in Bulletin Du Centre De Documentation Pour L'EtudeDu Papier-Monnaie, fourth quarter, 1953. The Bulletin says, "The French Communists had a reproduction of the Bank of Indochina 1 piaster printed, the type showing junks on the front and Buddha on the back. The leaflet is printed in red and black on white paper. It bears the serial number "C 621981" and the front has few changes from the genuine banknote. The back (Buddha side) has text at the top, "To whom does the crime profit?" Text at left and right of the leaflet is changed to "We must put an end to the Indochina war" and "It is necessary to negotiate with Ho Chi Minh." At the bottom of the genuine note there is an anti-counterfeiting statement. The communists changed it to "The Penal Code punishes anyone dealing with the blood of the people in war contrary to the constitution."

 

 

Is this worth the Slaughter in Vietnam?

There were other political groups producing propaganda banknotes with propaganda text against the Vietnam War. A British pacifist organization printed a parody of the United States $1 Federal Reserve note of 1963 with serial number L99678438A. The front of the note is unchanged, but on the back the large "ONE" in the central panel has been removed and replaced by the English-language text, "Is this worth the slaughter in Vietnam?" These political banknotes are extremely rare and exist in at least two variations.

Is this worth all the murder and slaughter in Vietnam?

I depicted one in 1970 through the courtesy of the United States Secret Service that had the text slightly changed and within a black border, "Is this worth all the murder and slaughter in Vietnam?" I wrote about this second variation in a Coins magazine article of February 1970, entitled "Political Propaganda Slogans Projected on Paper Money."

Three British pacifists managed to sneak into the Air Force Base at Wethersfield in the United Kingdom in summer 1966. The young men eluded the security officers at the Strategic Air Command base and commenced to hand out leaflets to the passing airmen. These handbills were excellent reproductions of United States one dollar bills. One hundred thousand copies of the fake banknotes were produced. The printer was found and charged with forgery. Ten thousand copies of the banknote were mailed to the United States but the Federal Bureau of Investigation intercepted the shipment and confiscated them all.

 

 

Viet Cong Overprint on Banque De L'Indochine Banknote

Translation: "Long Live Ho Chi Minh"

The Viet Minh retaliated by overprinting banknotes with their propaganda, but that is another story.

 

 

Hell Bank Note

There is a long tradition in the Far East of burning fake banknotes upon the death of a family member or friend to give the departed spirit money to spend on the other side. These notes are often very fancy and depict various world leaders as a form of prestige to the dearly departed. This Ho Chi Minh Hell Bank note is from such a set. We mention it only because it is often offered to collectors as a rare Vietnam propaganda note. It is nothing of the sort. Sets of 10-15 different notes could be bought at outdoor stalls all over Asia for just a few pennies.

Reward Label on Russian Banknote

Before we leave the discussion of propaganda banknotes in Vietnam, we should mention that even after the war was over they still appeared from time to time. Between the years 1987 and 1989 there were several attempts by POW/MIA activists to disseminate genuine banknotes in Vietnam and Laos either with handwritten, stamped or printed messages offering rewards for the safe return of an American prisoner of war.The currency was used as the media of propaganda because it was believed that as they were passed from hand to hand more citizens would read and possibly react to the reward offer. One message printed in English and Vietnamese on a gummed label placed on a Russian 5-ruble banknote is:

$2,400,000 REWARD for American Prisoner of War delivered to International Red Cross.

We discuss this postwar operation in greater depth in our article “Reward Leaflets of the Vietnam War.”

We have touched very briefly on this interesting subject. The overprinted banknotes alone probably number in the hundreds. This should be considered nothing more than an introduction to the subject.

Readers who wish to speak to the author are encouraged to contact him at sgmbert@hotmail.com.