The Cartoonist

On a stage, a formally-dressed Paul Hasluck introduces a dancer (U.S. President Lyndon Johnson), wearing a dress labelled American Bombing. Watching, Ho Chi Minh (labelled Nth Vietnam) shouts ‘Take it off!’

Reluctant strip-tease

The Herald, 12 October 1967

President-elect Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam was planning to enter peace talks with the North’s Ho Chi Minh and had offered a bombing freeze. Australia’s External Affairs minister Paul Hasluck had been vocal in his support of the continued bombing of the North, as had US President Johnson.