"Well, we think the broadcasts did have some effect, because we see the antiwar movement in the U.S. building up, growing and so we think that our broadcast is a support to this antiwar movement"
About this Quote
Propaganda rarely admits it’s propaganda, but Hanoi Hannah does something more interesting: she frames influence as solidarity. The line is built on a calculated modesty - “some effect” - that reads like plausible deniability while still claiming a win. Then she pivots to the real pitch: the antiwar movement is “building up, growing,” and the broadcast isn’t steering Americans so much as cheering them on. It’s not conquest; it’s companionship. That’s the seduction.
The intent is tactical. During the Vietnam War, her radio segments aimed at U.S. troops and listeners back home, weaponizing morale and doubt. By pointing to protest activity in the United States, she’s doing two things at once: legitimizing dissent (“look, it’s already happening”) and nudging it toward inevitability (“it’s growing”). The subtext is a quiet threat dressed as reassurance: your own society is splitting, your own people are turning, and we’re helping that fracture widen.
Calling the broadcast “a support” is also a moral repositioning. She isn’t cast as an enemy trying to break Americans; she’s recast as an ally to an American conscience, as if Hanoi and U.S. protesters are co-authors of the same story. It’s a clever inversion: the foreign voice becomes the voice of American democracy, while U.S. leadership becomes the out-of-touch aggressor.
What makes the quote work is how it blurs agency. If the antiwar movement is already “building,” then the broadcast can claim credit without taking blame - and can claim empathy without surrendering strategy.
The intent is tactical. During the Vietnam War, her radio segments aimed at U.S. troops and listeners back home, weaponizing morale and doubt. By pointing to protest activity in the United States, she’s doing two things at once: legitimizing dissent (“look, it’s already happening”) and nudging it toward inevitability (“it’s growing”). The subtext is a quiet threat dressed as reassurance: your own society is splitting, your own people are turning, and we’re helping that fracture widen.
Calling the broadcast “a support” is also a moral repositioning. She isn’t cast as an enemy trying to break Americans; she’s recast as an ally to an American conscience, as if Hanoi and U.S. protesters are co-authors of the same story. It’s a clever inversion: the foreign voice becomes the voice of American democracy, while U.S. leadership becomes the out-of-touch aggressor.
What makes the quote work is how it blurs agency. If the antiwar movement is already “building,” then the broadcast can claim credit without taking blame - and can claim empathy without surrendering strategy.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|
More Quotes by Hanoi
Add to List
