The "raised rifle" graphic

Lincoln Cushing, February 18, 2026

A great graphic gets picked up and used.
It started with a simple question about a poster I was cataloging:
When and where did that bold image of the Vietnamese combatant with a raised rifle come from?
I dug into my own collection, my digital archive, asked colleagues.

These are but a sampling of the many reiterations of the image.

The rifle with its flying sling is likely a PPSh-41 Soviet submachine gun, held aloft by a
Vietnamese combatant. Based on the level of detail in some of the versions, it certainly must be from a photograph, which
I have not been able to find. Given its early source in Cuba it's probably from a Vietnamese delegation there. If anyone knows, please tell me.

Thanks to all who helped research this string of examples, including Erik Martinez, Debra Lennard, Carol Wells, Robin Cherin, Vince Golla

1966
This Janurary 1966 (likely posted late 1965) Havana billboard and poster announcing the first conference of the international solidarity and anti-imperialist organization Tricontinental are the earliest known instances of the graphic I call the "raised rifle."

1967-1968
By March 1967 it reappears in a poster by OSPAAAL, in June in a special Vietnam issue of the Cuban magazine Cuba International.
It traveled to the United States by December 1968, appearing on the cover of SDS New Left Notes. The Chilean radical
folk music group Quilapayun used it on the cover of their 1968 album "X Vietnam"

1969
"Vietnam will win" was made by Bay Area artists Robin Cherin and Steve Rees, and "We will win" appeared as a broadside in
the 11/18/1969 issue of the underground newspaper Dock of the Bay. Source image was likely from New Left Notes (note cropped rifle butt), the newspaper revision retained the cropped lower arm which originally made space for "Vi"

1970
By 1970 the image has "gone viral," appearing in a poster against ROTC by Los Angeles' Peace Press, "U.S. Out of Asia," (most likely produced at UC Berkeley), "Support our troops in South East Asia," Rupert Garcia's enlarged face in "Fuera de Indochina!" A long-haired Berkeley radical fist replaces the Vietnamese combatant in "Berkeley will win!"

1968 revisited
"Italian street 1968", by USSR artist Pyotr Tarasovich Maltsev (1907-1993)

Image sources:

1966 billboard, "Notes on Solidarity: Tricontinentalism in Print" at the James Gallery, The Center for the Humanities, NY
1966 Tricontinental conference poster, via Erik Martinez
1967 OSPAAAL poster from Richard Frick collection
1967 CUBA magazine via Erik Martinez
1967 Quilapayun album from Discoteca Nacional Chile
1969 "Vietnam Will Win" courtesy Robin Cherin, now in Docs Populi Archive
1969 "We Will Win" Docs Populi Archive
1970 ROTC via Center for the Study of Political Graphics, #19696
1970 "U.S. Out of Asia" - University of British Columbia Social Protest Collection
1970 "Support our troops" via Freedom Archives collection (Berkeley) , digital image by Docs Populi
1970 "Fuera de Indochina!" via Docs Populi Archive
1970 [circa] "Berkeley Will Win" via Freedom Archives collection (Berkeley), digital image by Docs Populi
"Italian street 1968" from Soviet Art - USSR Culture

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