[This Leaflet Points to the Escape Road From Communist Control]
- Title:
- [This Leaflet Points to the Escape Road From Communist Control]
- Alternate Title:
- [Escape Road From Communist Control]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Zayac, Richard
- Other Creators:
- Eighth U.S. Army, First Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company, Korea
- Date:
- 1952
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2478.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2478_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Communism & Cold War
Other War & Peace
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 26 x 20 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This large leaflet was produced by the U.S. Army during the Korean War to encourage Chinese soldiers to defect and show them how to do so successfully. The collection includes a number of similar items (for others, Search > "leaflet"), but in most instances we know little of the details about who prepared them or how. In this particular case, we have a good deal of information from a lengthy memoir by retired Sergeant Major Herbert A. Friedman, "The First Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company - Korea 1953," psywarrior.com/KW1stLoudspeakerLeaflet.html, accessed May 17, 2021.
The map was drawn by a young artist in the "Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company," PFC Richard Zayac. It was produced on September 2, 1952, at a time when forces in the ground war were essentially in stalemate. The message was aimed at a specific, named Chinese military unit and intended to appeal to the ordinary Chinese soldiers who resented the Communist Party. The heading at the top of the map side of the leaflet (ID #2478.01) translates as "This leaflet points to the escape road from Communist control."
Below the map is more detail: "Communist Party members of the 113th Division’s 339th Regiment are not invited to look upon this leaflet. This leaflet is given only to those true, hot blooded descendants of Huangdi to look upon." Friedman notes that Huangdi was an ancient Chinese mythological emperor, a cultural hero, and that "descendants of Huangdi" is idiomatic for "true patriots."
The map itself provides specific routes and topographic detail to guide potential defectors, and Friedman reports that these routes and landmarks were "actually reconnoitered by Zayac himself. He wanted to assure himself that the map depicted everything in its proper perspective." "Zayac’s recon remains one of those daring feats upon which legends are built." Moniz 2011.
The verso (ID #2478.02) provides more guidance, including the following: "Obstinate Communist Party members need not walk this road. True descendants of Huangdi, however, should clearly remember the map-pointed road. Walk along this road in the space of one night. The break of day will bring safety." Both sides show happy defectors being warmly welcomed by smiling American soldiers.
Zayac went on to a long and successful career as a commercial artist and painter in Michigan and Florida, but an article about him written more than 50 years after the end of the war included an illustration and discussion of this map. Moniz 2011.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.