A Guide to Protocol and Etiquette for Official Entertainment: Department of the Army Pamphlet 600–60

Book excerpt: This pamphlet provides the basics of proper protocol and etiquette for formal social settings, including state dinners. Using this information as a foundation, one should feel at ease in such matters as calling cards, introductions, invitations and responses, official dinners, seating and precedence, forms of address, and arranging visits for VIPs. Intended as a guide for officers, civilians will also find these guidelines very useful. Included are many helpful diagrams, charts and tables such as attire/occasion comparison data, dietary restrictions of foreign guests, titles and forms of address for American officials, seating arrangements, invitational form and forms of response to invitations. The appendices include such invaluable aids as a list of the correct official toasts to be rendered each head of state and a table of social precedence ranking anyone at all who might conceivably sit at an official dinner. This booklet is in fact an encyclopedia of social knowledge.