I came across these images today by using the Online Public Access page of the US National Archives.
Apparently the US Information Agency created these posters in 1953.
Written in English, Malay (in Arabic script), Tamil and Chinese (someone correct me if I have any of the languages wrong), they present an image of a multiethnic and determined military. Is that really what things were like in 1953?
As far as I know, at that very moment Malaya was in the midst of a war. Known as “The Emergency,” this was a brutal 12-year war between the military wing of the Malayan Communist Party (mostly Chinese) and Commonwealth forces, which included Australians, Gurkhas, troops from the King’s African Rifles. . . the list goes on.
Seeing these posters made me want to know more about the Malayan military at that time. And I also want to know more about what the US Information Agency was up to.
I’ve seen references here and there about that agency’s activities at that time, but it would be really interesting to get a more holistic view of the things that that the US Information Agency tried to do throughout Southeast Asia in the 1950s.
I am working on the USIS/USIA part, but it may take me a few years.
Yea, I had no idea that they did stuff in Malaya. That’s interesting.