Instructions for American Servicemen in Iran During World War II

Shortly after the United States joined the Allied war effort following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a contingent of US Army soldiers unexpectedly found themselves being sent not to the Pacific or to Europe but to the Middle Eastern nation of Iran. There, amid the broiling heat of the desert sun and the bitter cold of mile-high mountain ranges, former American longshoremen, truck drivers, assembly line workers, and others toiled diligently to complete a critical wartime logistics mission in a strange and often perplexing land. Instructions for American Servicemen in Iran During World War II provides a thought-provoking glimpse into the Army’s efforts to prepare its soldiers to deal with the Iranians and their values and customs. In a new introduction to a facsimile of the Pocket Guide to Iran prepared by the US Army in 1943, Steven R. Ward, author of Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces, presents a brief overview of US Army operations in the Persian Gulf region that offers important historical context. The introduction focuses on the US Army’s Persian Gulf Command, which triumphed over great adversity to complete the critical missions of supplying the Soviet Union’s Red Army against Hitler’s war machine and buying precious time for American forces preparing to invade Europe. The pocket guide serves as a reminder of US efforts to prepare and indoctrinate American troops for confrontation with the Germans, cooperation with the Soviets, and interaction with the Iranians. It shows how the Greatest Generation took care to try to understand and avoid alienating the Iranians, upon whose good will and cooperation mission success ultimately rested. Ward’s new introduction, meanwhile, also applies some of the pocket guide’s cultural advice to contemporary issues surrounding US-Iranian relations to help readers more easily understand the complexities that often characterize interactions between the two countries.