Edit: Turns out the caption I’d found attached to this image was probably imperialist bullshit, so I updated it.
From @CommunistFFWhen :
iirc, those symbols were used by US soldiers who wanted to signal their intention to surrender/lay down arm or sth and NV soldiers knew not to shoot them Source
Original title of post: A North Vietnamese Army officer laughs at the peace symbol necklace of a captured American soldier, 1973
I had no idea there was more to it. Especially the peace envoy that worked with the north Vietnamese to get this as an official thing. Incredibly cool