To tell you the truth

Prop•a•gan•da - Pronunciation[prop-uh-gan-duh]–noun: information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

Propaganda has been a time-honoured tool in times of war - intended to encourage and inspire the troups and to demoralise the enemy. I remember the images of planes 'bombing' the enemy territory with pamphlets, scattering paper indiscriminately across the countryside in the hope that the words contained therein would sway the opinions of soldiers and/or civilians.

Propaganda movies, press releases, books, magazine articles, etc etc.

And propaganda art.

This form of the tool was widely used in Vietnam before, during and after the American war. Artists were essentially ordered to paint posters that demonstrated a particular message that was sent out by the party machine. These posters were then hung up in public places for all to see.

The really old ones were done with pastel or cheap paints that rub off easily today. Later ones were painted with better quality materials. Sometimes the artist would sign them. Other times not.

Over the past 5-10 years, collectors have started to buy up originals. Scouts have hunted out posters from around the provinces, finding originals tucked away in public offices, dusty cupboards and drawers.

We are probably a bit late with coming in to the market, but we have started off our collection with the following four posters.































The captions mean, in order:

. "Vietnamese Youth Can Defeat Any Enemy"

. "Gallant Fighting. Glorious Winning" - Celebrating the 200th USAF plane shot down.

. "American Enemy Determined to Lose. Vietnam Determined to Win" - Celebrating the 1000th USAF plane shot down

. "Hold tight to your guns and protect the achievement of the revolution"

We are pretty convinced that the first one is authentic and that it was painted in 1970 by a well known artist named To Lien. However, we are not so sure about the other three - but we hope to find out soon.

Hillary is arranging to meet up with the guru of Vietnam propaganda art, a guy named Dominic Scriven. He is a businessman here in Vietnam with several companies to his credit, including an investment bank called Dragon Capital. Over the past five years he has bought up hundreds of originals. He has popularised the art form by setting up a business called Dogma, which is based on copying the originals and reproducing them on clothing, accessories and of course - as cheap posters.

So, we are hopeful that Dominic may be able to assist us authenticate our current posters and to make sure we collect a few more originals. We'll let you know what we find out.