Art is a symbol, capturing the human sides of any feat - be it love, sickness, life, even war. The Vietnam War (1955-1975) was a time when artists were more than needed, just like any time today, recording the movements of the military in the opposing country’s land, but art was also used as a tool of propaganda, to gain support for the war, or the very opposite - to have people resist the cause for war. Art was a strong voice for stating one’s view of this international conflict. Posters encouraging men to enlist for the war were posted throughout America. “Patriotism means no questions.” was one of the tag lines from a set of posters. American propaganda during this time sent a strong message by the government, as if saying “listen to the …show more content…
This particular aspect shows how Vietnamese played a major role in the war, participating in guerilla warfare as well. These art pieces were also created while the fighting took place, giving them “character, urgency and style all its own,” says Richard Di San Marzano, curator of the Dogma Collection of Vietnamese propaganda art. He tells a story of how these artworks stood out; 1965, resources were scarce, so artists would draw on the backsides of already-printed posters or of how Vietnamese artists actually signed their posters, which helped him track some of them down. "I wasn't conscious that this was the making of propaganda art," said Pham Thanh Tam, an artist Di San Marzano interviewed. "I simply thought of it as a means to help the public understand." But unlike the Americans, the Vietnamese had no real or known protest art. The conflict brought them sorrow, but they also wanted their peace - hence the other name for this war: Resistance War Against America for the Vietnamese. This resulted to propaganda being more widely spread than protest. Despite that, it does not necessarily mean that everything the Vietnamese locals made was propaganda. The drawings and paintings of these soldiers seldom showed violence - for they had seen so much bloodshed and had suffered so much already, they wanted to capture tranquil memories of their comrades and loved