Don't fall for enemy propaganda is a Veterans of Foreign Wars poster illustrated by Jack Betts and catalogued at 1941. Two caricatured enemies, one in a Japanese-style cap and one under a swastika badge, whisper into a civilian's ears, and the text warns against propaganda aimed at Catholics, Jews or Protestants, then says "Hitler and the Japs are trying to get us fighting among ourselves" (NAID 514139).
Two whisperers and a man in a bowler hat
A note first: the sheet uses the slur "Japs," and the archive describes the figure in the Japanese-style cap as green-skinned. Both are reported here as printed.
The civilian in the middle is wide-eyed and wears a bowler. At one ear a green-skinned caricature in a Japanese-style cap whispers to him; at the other, a figure in a cap with a swastika badge does the same. The text lists three kinds of propaganda to refuse.
Don't fall for
ENEMY PROPAGANDA
- AGAINST OUR GOVERNMENT
- AGAINST OUR ALLIES
- AGAINST CATHOLICS, JEWS
or PROTESTANTS
Remember-Hitler and the Japs are trying
to get us fighting among ourselves
VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES
[signature:] ILLUSTRATED BY JACK BETTS
A good warning in bad company
The core message holds up. A foreign power that wants Americans fighting each other by religion is a real kind of threat, and telling citizens to refuse that bait is sound advice. Naming Catholics, Jews and Protestants in one line treats all three as equally American. That is the right instinct.
The same sheet then does part of what it warns against. It draws one enemy with green skin and names that enemy with an ethnic slur. The FRAME catalog tags name-calling and fear appeal, and lists race and ethnicity and religion among the themes. A poster against division by group cannot cleanly ask for unity while teaching contempt for a people. Who saw it, and what it changed, is not on the record.
The first item also deserves a second look. "Against our government" sits on the same list as attacks on religious groups. In a republic, criticism of the government is the ordinary business of citizens. The sheet does not say where the line falls, and a reader could take it to cover any complaint.
Who made it
The issuer is a veterans' organization, which the archive types as a movement, and the illustrator signed as Jack Betts. The archive's rights line records the sheet as a public-domain U.S. government work. A Think American poster on this site, Our Enemies' Orders to Their Spies, prints a similar charge that the Axis wanted to spread religious hatred. The anti-Japanese hub and the anti-Nazi hub hold related sheets.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Don't fall for enemy propaganda, catalogued at 1941. Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States; illustrated by Jack Betts.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-660, NAID 514139, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
