FM 3-05.301: Psychological Operations Process — Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

TL;DR — The US Army’s PSYOP field manual — how influence operations are actually planned, targeted and measured.

⬇ Download the archived copy — kept here so the document survives its source going dark. US federal government work (17 USC §105).

Field Manual 3-05.301, August 2007. Distribution was authorised to US Government agencies and contractors only; it circulates publicly.

The manual covers the full PSYOP process: target audience analysis, objectives, product development and approval, dissemination, and — the part outsiders rarely see — how effect is supposed to be measured.

The most procedurally detailed influence-operations document in this collection. It is bureaucratic rather than sinister, which is itself the useful correction: persuasion at state scale is a staffing and approvals problem. Pairs with the GCHQ deck.

July 2023 thread: This thread posted the December 2003 edition (439 pages, FM 3-05.301 / MCRP 3-40.6A), archived beside the existing copy.

Where this came from

• Will Manidis’s “most underrated PDF” thread, July 2023 — routing record: The Most Underrated PDF on the Internet (July 2023)
• Tim Hwang’s “greatest, rarest PDF” thread

Recommended 2 separate times across the sources above.

250 pages. A copy is archived locally against link rot; the header links the original source.