"This book is the story of my experiences both living and traveling in seven countries of the Middle East during the years 1962-65, ... between 23 and 26 years of age. These experiences include a year of military service on a small U.S. Army listening post on the Black Sea in Sinop, Turkey, six months of residence among the locals in Aleppo, Syria, and two journeys amounting to several months of low-budget travel ... in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Egypt. My purpose ... was that I wanted American readers ... to know what it was like for me to experience, and survive in, the Middle East, communicating on an actual person-to-person basis with the Arabs, Turks, and others on their level as an equal, speaking their languages, and dealing and interacting with them as normal human beings in their usual environment in everyday living and travel situations. I wanted to show what the people were like, give some idea of the atmosphere and milieu of the countries they lived in, and also convey a reasonably accurate picture of their prevailing mentality and view of the world."--Introd.