A 1967 safe-conduct pass backed by seven flags

A yellow Chieu Hoi safe-conduct pass from 1967 shows the South Vietnamese flag flanked by the flags of the United States, Australia, Thailand, South Korea, New Zealand, and the Philippines. It says in English, Korean, and Thai that it is to be honored by all Vietnamese government agencies and allied forces.

What it prints

The pass is yellow. The flag of South Vietnam sits in the center. Around it are six more: the United States, Australia, Thailand, South Korea, New Zealand, and the Philippines. The heading is in Vietnamese. The promise is in English, then repeated in Korean and Thai.

GIẤY THÔNG-HÀNH

SAFE-CONDUCT PASS TO BE HONORED BY ALL VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND ALLIED FORCES

이 안전보장패쓰는 월남정부와 모든 연합군에 의해 인정된 것입니다.

รัฐบาลเวียตนามและหน่วยพันธมิตร ยินดีให้เกียรติแก่ผู้ถือบัตรผ่านปลอดภัยนี้.

Who made it

FRAME describes it as a Chieu Hoi program pass produced for the Government of Vietnam and its allies. The Naval History and Heritage Command, which holds it as accession 2009-7-32, catalogs it as issued by American forces and dropped from the air. The image is the obverse, shared on Flickr and Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0, retrieved 2 October 2026. FRAME classes the source as blurred; the pass does not name the office that printed it.

How to read it

A safe-conduct pass is an offer. The holder, an enemy fighter, is told that if he comes over with this paper he will be received rather than shot. The pass works only if he believes it. FRAME tags it transfer, and points to the row of flags as the device: the promise is staged as if every army he might meet had signed it. Printing the promise in Korean and Thai, the languages of two allied contingents, makes the same point to the soldiers who might be the ones receiving him.

The offer itself was a humane one. A war that gives the other side a way to stop fighting without dying is better than one that does not. What the pass cannot show is whether every unit behind those flags kept the promise every time; that is a question for the record of the war, not for the paper. The pass deserves to be judged by how it was honored.

The other side of the same war's leaflet work, an order to villagers inside a search cordon, is U.S. Marines Are Here to Help. A leaflet that hid its American authorship entirely is the Sacred Sword leaflet with Le Loi.