Although interested in all propaganda media my primary interest is in the written word. I study:

• aerial leaflets, which could be single sheets, newspapers, small booklets, postcards, currency notes....
• dropped artifacts bearing messages including cigarette packets, matchboxes, plastic bags....
• postal items such as postal stamp forgeries and propaganda stamps and labels.

Leaflet dropped by the Japanese over American troops during the battle to liberate the Phillipines. On the reverse is a plaintive message "Darling, can't you find a way to come back to me? I miss you so. I send all my love , and my kisses are on the other side of this card". The quality of leaflet production, especially the use of colour, was far ahead of the Americans at this time.

My aim is to research, write and promote interest in this field and, as a basis for this, I am trying to build a reference collection of original material from all wars this century, especially:

 

I invite you to take a look at my account of the use of leaflet propaganda in the Vietnam Wars

Can you help? Please e-mail me if you have:

• information or anecdotes about the production, dissemination, and effects of aerial leaflets;
• leaflets to exchange or sell.

Readers who are interested in leaflet and other forms of propaganda are recommended to visit the web pages of the Psywar Society.

April 2003