General estadunidense Douglas MacArthur (1942), Boris Artzybasheff's portrait for Spanish readers

A 1942 Spanish-language poster published by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs in Washington. Boris Artzybasheff's colour portrait shows General Douglas MacArthur in a gold-braided cap on a blue ground with a red border, captioned with his title as commander in the Southwest Pacific.

A name and an office

The caption gives a name, a rank, and a command, and stops. Artzybasheff painted MacArthur in colour, in a cap heavy with gold braid and carrying the American eagle badge, against a blue ground inside a red border. The archive reads the poster's appeal as coming from the rank, the insignia, and the national emblem, with no argument beyond the name and the office.

General estadunidense Douglas MacArthur

Comandante en Jefe

de la Zona del Suroeste del Pacífico

Portrait by Boris Artzybasheff

Publicado por el Coordinador de Asuntos Interamericanos, Washington, E. U. A.

Who published it

The sheet names its publisher in Spanish: the Coordinador de Asuntos Interamericanos in Washington, that is, the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. The artist credit is printed in English. The National Archives keeps the copy with its World War II foreign posters in Record Group 44, and the record lists it as a public-domain federal work. Its audience field reads "Foreign public" and its purpose field "Persuade or win support." The record gives no print run and no list of countries where it was sent.

How to read it

The archive tags transfer: the general's standing, his uniform, and the eagle stand in for any claim about the war. A Spanish-speaking reader learns who MacArthur is and what he commands, and nothing else.

It is also an honest piece of foreign messaging in one narrow sense. The publisher is printed on the face of the sheet, so a reader abroad could see that the message came from an office in Washington. Christy's La Visión Eterna, another Spanish-language poster in the same National Archives series, prints no sponsor at all. The same office's Libertad de Palabra by Alexey Brodovitch uses a cracked swastika instead of a face. Roosevelt's own portrait carried production targets on "America Will Build 60.000 War Planes". For the administration of the year, see the Roosevelt administration essay.