This manual, as our readers know, reproduces and illustrates for the armed forces the essential provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The pilot edition of 10,000 copies in 1969 was sent by the ICRC to Governments and National Red Cross Societies. The booklet was revised according to their comments and published in pocket-size format. In 1971, and again in 1972, the English, French, Spanish and Arabic versions issued totalled 150,000 copies; 6,000 copies of a Portuguese version were also published.