American Military Intelligence Interrogation Manuals, FM 30-15 and Interrogation: A Complete Manual, 1969-1987

Cold War Interrogation Manuals

Pamphlet

American interrogation doctrine publications from 1969 and 1987, documenting the movement of interrogation methods from official U.S. Army intelligence instruction during the Vietnam War into the commercial alternative publishing culture of the late Cold War. The earlier manual, issued by Headquarters, Department of the Army on 7 March 1969, establishes procedures for intelligence interrogation across “general war, limited war, and cold war situations,” including stability operations and counterintelligence environments. Eighteen years later, Burt Rapp’s Interrogation: A Complete Manual placed the subject before the civilian readership of Loompanics Unlimited, a Washington State publisher known for books on unconventional, controversial, and restricted forms of practical knowledge. The two publications preserve distinct stages in the circulation of American interrogation literature, first as institutional military doctrine and later as commercially available instruction encompassing both interrogation and resistance to it.

Archive of two softcover publications, 1969 and 1987, measuring 8 x 10 inches and 5½ x 8 inches respectively.

[1] United States Department of the Army. FM 30-15: Intelligence Interrogation. Washington, D.C.: Headquarters, Department of the Army, 1969. 8 x 10 inches. Dated 7 March 1969 and explicitly superseding FM 30-15 of 27 July 1967, the manual states that it “sets forth doctrine pertaining to basic principles of interrogation and establishes procedures and techniques applicable to Army intelligence interrogations.” Its chapters address the interrogation process, interpreters, polygraphs, treatment and evacuation of prisoners of war, processing enemy documents, screening and selection of subjects, field Army interrogation centers, tactical interrogations, interrogation support of stability operations, and preparation of interrogation reports. The manual also directs readers to Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and identifies its doctrine as applicable to counterintelligence and psychological operations. Its declared subjects include prisoners of war, deserters, civilians, and “other persons of intelligence interest,” placing interrogation within the Army’s larger system for collecting, evaluating, and disseminating intelligence during the Vietnam War.

[2] Rapp, Burt. Interrogation: A Complete Manual. Port Townsend, Washington: Loompanics Unlimited, 1987. 5½ x 8 inches. The table of contents moves from “The History of Interrogation,” “Interrogation in the Media,” and “The Psychology of Interrogation” through “The Interrogator’s Qualities,” “Interrogation Tactics,” “The Gestapo and Other Secret Police,” “Brainwashing,” “Soviet Interrogation,” “Interrogation Failures,” “How to Survive Interrogation,” and “Future Prospects.” Published by Loompanics Unlimited, the book transferred interrogation from the institutional language of military field manuals to a civilian instructional market, treating both the conduct of interrogation and methods for resisting it. Its organization also broadens the subject beyond intelligence collection into historical secret police practices, psychological coercion, and popular conceptions of interrogation.

The Army manual appeared during a period in which interrogation was embedded in U.S. counterinsurgency and intelligence operations in Vietnam. Its section on “Interrogation Support of Stability Operations” reflects an Army vocabulary in which interrogation extended beyond conventional battlefield questioning into conflicts involving civilian populations, insurgency, and political control. Its explicit references to prisoners of war, Geneva Convention obligations, counterintelligence, and psychological operations show the administrative and legal framework within which the Army presented interrogation to its personnel. Rapp’s 1987 manual belongs to a different information economy. Loompanics sold specialized practical literature directly to civilians, and Rapp reorganized a formerly professionalized subject around history, technique, coercive institutions, “brainwashing,” failures, and personal resistance to questioning. The resulting pair records the changing readership and presentation of interrogation knowledge across eighteen years, from a Vietnam era Army field manual defining intelligence doctrine to a late Cold War commercial manual teaching civilians about both sides of the interrogator’s table. Light handling and edge wear; Rapp volume with rubbing, toning, and wear to wrappers and extremities; Army manual substantially cleaner with minor handling wear. Overall very good condition. A compact documentary sequence tracing the passage of American interrogation literature from military intelligence doctrine into the civilian market for unconventional practical knowledge.

Item #23889

Price: $550.00