# Communist Destruction vs Government Construction, a Kachin-language poster

A Kachin-language poster distributed in Rangoon, catalog date 27 July 1954, in the U.S. Information Agency series. Four ink drawings of communist destruction face four of government work: a wrecked bridge and a rebuilt one, seized food and relief food, a burning village and new houses (NAID 6948997).

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      Communist Destruction vs Government Construction, Kachin (poster distributed in Rangoon)

      Communist Destruction vs Government Construction, a Kachin-language poster
      A 1954 Kachin poster for Rangoon in the USIA series sets four drawings of communist destruction beside four of government rebuilding. NARA RG 306, NAID

## Techniques named on the archive record

Card stackingFear appeal
      DateJuly 27, 1954Made byU.S. Information Agency, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East seriesMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeEisenhower AdministrationNARANAID 6948997; Record Group 306SourceUnidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosureSourceU.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed 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, 1954. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6948997, 306-PPB-125).
      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 Kachin-language poster distributed in Rangoon, catalog date 27 July 1954, in the U.S. Information Agency series. Four ink drawings of communist destruction face four of government work: a wrecked bridge and a rebuilt one, seized food and relief food, a burning village and new houses (NAID 6948997).

## Two columns, eight drawings

The archive describes the sheet as two columns of four ink drawings each. On the left: a wrecked bridge, armed men with star armbands taking food, villagers fleeing a burning village. On the right: a rebuilt bridge, a reception camp, relief food handed out, new houses. Each drawing has a caption in Kachin, in Latin letters.

MYIT MANG HKRUM AI GAW AWNG DANG NINGHPANG RAI

KUN-MYU-NIT NI A JAHTEN SHARUN LAM.

MUNGHPAWM MYEN MUNG ATSUYA A MUNG GRAM LAJANG AI LAM.

[...]

Headline lines as transcribed in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked; the record warns that small-print captions were read from a reduced image and may contain letter errors. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 6948997, local id 306-PPB-125.

The archive gives no verified translation. It reports the National Archives title for the contrast, communist destructive activities on the left and government constructive programs on the right, and says the eight captions describe the drawings in the same order. This page does not translate the Kachin further.

## Who made it

Only the U.S. Information Agency appears in the maker line, with the sheet filed in its series for Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The archive classes the source as unidentified and the audience as "Foreign public." There is no artist's name and no print run; the record adds that signboards inside the drawings are not transcribed.

## How to read it

FRAME tags it card stacking and fear appeal. The method is the split frame: every harm is assigned to one side and every benefit to the other, and no scene is sourced. A reader cannot tell from the poster which bridge, which village, or which year is meant. Nothing on it can be checked, so the poster asks for trust.

The language matters here. This is a Kachin sheet, made for Kachin readers, and the archive files it as distributed in Rangoon. The record does not say how it reached them. Other U.S. Information Agency sheets on this site argue against communism in pictures, among them the 1954 Saigon poster split at the 17th parallel, which sets a grey north against a green south, and the Thai sheet Communism Destroys Religion. The hub and gallery have more.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Communist Destruction vs Government Construction, Kachin (poster distributed in Rangoon), 27 July 1954. U.S. Information Agency, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East series.

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 306, NAID 6948997 (306-PPB-125), retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/communists-destruction-vs-government-construction-kachin-1954/