North Vietnam War-Front Art

NORTH VIETNAM issued in 1967 several stamps depicting life on the war-front during the Second Vietnam War. Shown here are six stamps from that year, although I hasten to add there were many more issued throughout the war.
 

Vietnam War artists from both the North and the South risked their lives to capture many different aspects and events of the War in various media including paintings, drawings, and sketches. Nguyễn Toan Thi, a guerrilla artist in the South, who after the War became the Director of Hô Chí Minh City Fine Arts Museum, recounts his experiences as follows:  “Art classes were held outside in the forest until our schools were bombed: classes were then held underground. Art teachers and students shared the same trenches. We fought and sketched together, to record spontaneous and realistic images of the battlefield and our life in the forest. Our headquarters were not like a mini-Pentagon. The administration, soldiers and artists lived in nylon and canvas tents under the forest trees … We moved camp every two or three days… As a guerrilla artist, I was fully engaged in the fighting. Unlike artists who were civilians…”  (Nguyễn Toan Thi, “Memories of a Guerrilla Artist”, in Buchanan 2008.

 Stamps:

4. (bottom left) - "Fight till the end". Silk painting. Artist: Cố Tấn Long Châu. Báo Ảnh Việt Nam, 1967