# Public health under the Alliance for Progress, a 1964 USIA sheet for Mexico City

USIA poster 409b, dated 27 July 1964 and distributed in Mexico City, marks the third anniversary of the Alliance for Progress with seven uncaptioned photographs of health work around the Alliance emblem. The text reads "III Aniversario / Salud Publica / con / Alianza para el Progreso."

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      Alianza para el Progreso poster 409b, public health (Spanish poster distributed in Mexico City)

      Public health under the Alliance for Progress, a 1964 USIA sheet for Mexico City
      A July 1964 USIA poster for Mexico City marks three years of the Alliance for Progress with uncaptioned public health photographs. NAID 6949337.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Glittering generalitiesCard stacking
      DateJuly 27, 1964Made byU.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East seriesMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeJohnson AdministrationNARANAID 6949337; Record Group 306SourceUnidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosureSourceU.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Posters in Asia, Latin America, Middle East , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306) U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, July 27, 1964. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6949337, 306-PPB-409b).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  USIA poster 409b, dated 27 July 1964 and distributed in Mexico City, marks the third anniversary of the Alliance for Progress with seven uncaptioned photographs of health work around the Alliance emblem. The text reads "III Aniversario / Salud Publica / con / Alianza para el Progreso."

## What it prints

A large Alliance for Progress emblem sits at the center. A ring of small gold emblems, each repeating the Alliance name, frames seven photographs: a man holding up a vial in front of a crowd of families, a microscope in a laboratory, a nurse treating children beside a marked van, children drinking from cups, workers in a cane field, and a well being drilled. None of the pictures has a caption. Apart from the emblems, the only words are the heading.

III ANIVERSARIO

SALUD PUBLICA

CON

ALIANZA

PARA EL PROGRESO

Words on the poster, FRAME transcription. FRAME's English rendering: "Third anniversary / Public health / with / Alliance / for Progress" (machine translation, not verified by a fluent reader). U.S. Information Agency, 27 July 1964, NAID 6949337 (306-PPB-409b). Full record at propagandaarchive.org.

## Issuer and audience

The maker line is the U.S. Information Agency, in the National Archives series of posters distributed in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The language is Spanish and the distribution point Mexico City. A companion sheet in the same numbered set, 409a, marks the same anniversary; this page covers only the health panel.

## How to read it

FRAME tags the sheet glittering generalities and card stacking. Every image is a finished, successful act: a vial held up, a child treated, water found. There is no place name, no count, no budget, and no word about who paid or who did the work. A viewer cannot tell whether the nurse is Mexican, American, or from another country, or whether the well is in Mexico at all.

Clean water and vaccination are real goods, and nothing on the sheet suggests the photographs were staged. The problem is narrower: a government poster asks for credit without giving the facts that would let a reader judge it. A public health message that shows only the wins is advertising for the program, not information about health.

The same years produced health messaging that pushed the other way at home, when an industry argued for doubt about smoking; see Tobacco's "no proof" campaign. A direct health instruction from the same era, with an issuing ministry printed on it, is the Saigon tuberculosis poster Do Not Spit.

## Record and rights

National Archives, Record Group 306, NAID 6949337, item 306-PPB-409b, retrieved 4 October 2026. Public domain as a U.S. government work.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Alianza para el Progreso poster 409b, public health (Spanish poster distributed in Mexico City), 27 July 1964. U.S. Information Agency. National Archives, RG 306, NAID 6949337 (306-PPB-409b), retrieved 4 October 2026.

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/alianza-para-el-progreso-poster-409b-public-health-spanish-mexico-city-1964/