Category: Pocket Guides & Military Manuals

AS AN AMERICAN SOLDIER assigned to duty in Iran (once called Persia), you are undertaking the most important job of your life. There is no other war theater where military success by the United States and her fighting Allies will contribute more to final victory over the Axis.

You’ve heard a lot of talk in this war about life lines — the sea lanes and land routes by which military supplies flow into the combat zones to be turned against the enemy. Iran is much more than a life line. It is a major source of the power that keeps the United Nations’ military machine turning over — oil.

Download A Pocket Guide to Iran

YOU HAVE been ordered to Iraq (i – RAHK) as part of the world-wide offensive to beat Hitler.
You will enter Iraq both as a soldier and as an individual, because on our side a man can be both a soldier and an individual. That is our strength–if we are smart enough to use it. It can be our weakness if we aren’t. As a soldier your duties are laid out for you. As an individual, it is what you do on your own that counts–and it may count for a lot more than you think.
American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis (as the people are called) like American soldiers or not. It may not be quite that simple. But then again it could.
How To Beat Hitler. Herr Hitler knows he’s licked if the peoples united against him stand their ground. So it is pretty obvious what he and his propaganda machine are trying to do. They’re trying to spread disunity and discontent among their opponents whenever and wherever they can.

So what’s the answer? That ought to be pretty obvious, too. One of your big jobs is to prevent Hitler’s agents from getting in their dirty work. The best way you can do this is by getting along with the Iraqis and making them your friends. And the best way to get along with any people is to understand them.
That is what this guide is for. To help you understand the people and the country so that you can do the best and quickest job of sending Hitler back where he came from.
And, secondly, so that you as a human being will get the most out of an experience few Americans have been lucky enough to have. Years from now you’ll be telling your children and maybe your grandchildren stories beginning “Now when I was in Baghdad —–.”

Prepared by Special Services Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army, 1943

Digitized by Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University

Download Short Guide to Iraq (5MB)

 

CHINA has been at war for 5 years with her enemy and ours — the Japanese. She has met heavy defeats and won important victories. She has suffered more than 5,000,000 casualties in those years of war. Yet, today, the free people of China are still fighting, still holding a better armed foe.
You and your outfit have been ordered to China to help this gallant ally. Your job, fighting side by side with the Chinese, is to rid that country of the Japanese. No American troops anywhere have a more important assignment.
Two problems face you right away. You don’t know the language and you don’t know the people. That makes it harder to be a guest in China than in a country like England or Australia.
Nobody expects you to learn a language as complex as Chinese, although the glossary at the end of this book will enable you to learn enough to get along. To understand a people is something else again. It takes a blend of curiosity, common sense, and courtesy. You might well adopt as your motto one of the many proverbs that guide the Chinese in their own conduct. They say …
“When you enter a neighborhood ask what is forbidden; when you enter a country ask what the customs are.”
It is the purpose of this guide to tell you about some of these customs. It will only take about 20 minutes to read, but, by helping you to understand China and the Chinese people, it can add interest to your stay in their country and help you to do a better job for America.

Prepared by Army Information Branch, Army Service Forces, United States Army, 1943

Digitized by Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University

Download Pocket Guide to China (7MB)