Anti-American Art

Here, from an English-language Chinese magazine cover of 1965, is another propaganda image. An unarmed South Vietnamese woman single-handedly grabs the rifles of two ghostly-pale caricatures of US soldiers while anti-war protesters rage in the background. Her steely-eyed countenounce reflects determination and bravery. From the early days of the Vietnam war this image seems more allegorical than later images, which came to focus on the large number of American aircraft downed over Vietnam.