Art of the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese View

As with many communist nations, the tradition of graphic propaganda in Vietnam predates its national independence. Propaganda art is hopelessly intertwined with the nation’s struggle to achieve and maintain its independence. In accordance with the Leninist dogma, propaganda assumes its rightful station as the sole validation and ultimate goal of all art.

Most Westerners are likely to find this description as distasteful as it is limiting. Yet, to look at any number of these works you’ll see that they convey something beyond the express rhetorical purpose. So, instead of asking why skilled and sensitive artists allowed their work to be relegated to a subordinate role, a more fruitful question might be: How did a political instrument ascend to a status where it has value outside its usefulness?

In August of 1945, the new communist regime led by Ho Chi Minh found itself in control of much of the country. However, soon it became clear that France had no real intention of granting the fledgling nation real independence, and the future promised a long and difficult struggle. The new government (at a clear military and financial disadvantage) realized the fight was hopeless without the support of the populace.

Art became an all-important front in a war that promised to be long and bitter. Its only role of art was to further the socialist agenda. This role put artists in a precarious position. Some fled. Others remained silent. Some brave souls stood their ground, and many of them were “re-educated.” Others changed. A militant regime headed towards totalitarianism seems an unlikely place for a blossoming of creativity. And still?

Combat art
And still there were places where it survived; one example can be found in combat art. Graduates from the new Vietnam Fine Arts School in Hanoi were sent into the field to fight and to paint what they saw. There were rules of course–both implicit and explicit. And despite restrictions, much of the combat art produced by these new soldier/artists was striking and honest. Fellow soldiers sat for portraits. Exhibitions were held in the jungle, paintings and sketches on rice paper were hung from a line between two trees. Sitting for a portrait, said the former Vietminh fighters and artists I interviewed, had an immeasurably consoling effect.

Propaganda posters
Upon leaving the military, many artists continued their careers in the service of the Ministry of Information. Their job was to produce propaganda posters. Because of limited resources and lack of printing technology most of the posters were simply copied from the original maquettes. Later, around the time of the war with the United States, posters were reproduced using monotone offset printing, and the colors were added by hand. Although the method of production was relatively inefficient, it was a source of employment for many artists.

As the years progressed so did the art of the poster. Initially posters very much resembled those from neighboring China and the Soviet Union. But before long, Vietnamese propaganda came into its own. Designs became more supple and less stodgy than their Soviet Bloc counterparts. A uniquely Vietnamese aesthetic quickly asserted itself: subject matter became specialized.

One of the first things people usually notice as they look at any number of propaganda posters is the prevalence of women in any number of endeavors. Originally the lone woman, tilling a field with a gun or simply holding her baby, was a pretty straightforward symbol for the nation. But as the war progressed along with its goals, the rendition of women in posters changed as well.

When the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) began its campaign of infiltration into South Vietnam, southern women were often depicted. A woman of the south can be identified by her checkered scarf. Later, when the goal of reunification was coming within sight, posters began to appear with two women, one northern and one southern, greeting each other or hugging like long-lost sisters.

Glorification of village life
Aside from the importance of the military battles, which would eventually come to an end, it was also of the utmost importance to the Communist party to maintain the moral of its people. Vietnam has always been a predominately rural nation. Many posters were designed for the purpose of wooing the peasants. And most of them had an overt and specific function: to fulfill the yearly agricultural quota.

These posters, however, also had an implicit goal, perhaps even more important than the stated one. The goal of each of these posters was to glorify the position of the peasant on whom the Party depended for support. Images were created to flatter their sensibilities. And it’s for this reason some of the most aesthetically pleasing, elegantly designed images appear alongside such dry and banal messages as “Increase pork production,” or “Five tons of rice per hectare.”

Good citizens
There are some posters that, even after translation, don’t immediately make sense to Westerners. Usually this is because the content in the work holds some sort of significance in Vietnamese culture that just doesn’t have a Western correlation. One such poster reads, literally: “Family, Conscience, Responsibility.” In the center of the painting, whose atmosphere is rendered almost menacing due to the color scheme of dreary grays, gray reds and black, we see a young girl. Behind her highly stylized face and shoulders, also in black, stands a house. On either side of the house sits a human figure, downcast. The house stands out as if its weight were supported by the shoulders of the young girl.

A Vietnamese artist explained it to me this way: these ideas—Family, Conscience and Responsibility—are the values in Vietnamese society regardless of government. They are the pillars that support the family, the ancient and primary social unit. And, so, they are the pillars that support the entire nation. And the weight of these ideas actually does lie on the shoulders of the young generation.