# Go South to Avoid Communism: the 17th-parallel map poster of 1954

A Vietnamese-language poster distributed in Saigon, catalog date 5 August 1954, from the U.S. Information Agency series. A map of Vietnam split at the 17th parallel shows burning houses in a grey north and rice farming in a green south, under the line "Go south to avoid Communism" (NAID 6949142).

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      Come South poster, map split at 17th parallel (Vietnamese poster distributed in Saigon)

      Go South to Avoid Communism: the 17th-parallel map poster of 1954
      1954 Vietnamese map poster distributed in Saigon urges northerners to go south of the 17th parallel "to avoid Communism." No imprint on the sheet. NARA RG

## Techniques named on the archive record

Fear appealCard stacking
      DateAugust 5, 1954Made 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 StatesRegimeEisenhower AdministrationNARANAID 6949142; 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, August 5, 1954. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6949142, 306-PPB-225).
      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

  A Vietnamese-language poster distributed in Saigon, catalog date 5 August 1954, from the U.S. Information Agency series. A map of Vietnam split at the 17th parallel shows burning houses in a grey north and rice farming in a green south, under the line "Go south to avoid Communism" (NAID 6949142).

## What the sheet prints

The whole poster is a map. A line across the country is labelled with the parallel. Above it the land is grey: houses on fire under a star flag, and small figures running toward the line. Below it the land is green: farmers with a buffalo in rice fields, and a man with his arms held open beside a striped flag. The words split the same way, an order on top and a welcome below.

HÃY VÀO NAM ĐỂ TRÁNH CỘNG-SẢN

VĨ-TUYẾN 17

ĐỒNG-BÀO NAM-VIỆT DANG TAY CHỜ ĐÓN ĐỒNG-BÀO BẮC-VIỆT

[Translation] Go south to avoid Communism. 17th Parallel. South Vietnamese compatriots open their arms to await North Vietnamese compatriots.

FRAME transcription and machine translation, not verified by a fluent reader. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 6949142, local id 306-PPB-225.

## Who issued it

No imprint or credit is printed. The National Archives files the poster with the U.S. Information Agency posters for Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, Record Group 306, with a catalog date of 5 August 1954 and Saigon as the place of distribution. A Vietnamese reader would not have learned from the sheet that an American agency had a hand in it. The archive holds a related set from the same year under the name Operation Freedom.

## How to read it

FRAME tags the map fear appeal and card stacking, and the picture earns both. Every image north of the line is disaster; every image south of it is calm. A map that shows only fire on one side does not tell a family what the journey costs, what waits at the other end, or what it leaves behind.

The choice the poster urged was still a choice. Moving to escape a one-party state is an exercise of liberty, and people who made that move were not dupes for making it. The criticism is of the method: a decision that large deserved fuller information and a signed source, not a two-colour cartoon with no name on it.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Come South poster, map split at 17th parallel (Vietnamese poster distributed in Saigon). Catalog date August 5, 1954.

- U.S. National Archives, Record Group 306, Posters in Asia, Latin America, Middle East, item NAID 6949142, 306-PPB-225, catalog.archives.gov. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/come-south-poster-map-split-at-17th-parallel-vietnamese-saigon-1954/