The American presence in Basra during the World War Era, and under the British colonial umbrella, was tangible in commerce and education. The most concrete manifestation of this presence was the Arabian Mission (an American protestant missionary organization), represented by its schools: the School of High Hope for boys and the School of Women’s Hope for girls in and around Basra. During the first twenty years of the schools’ operation (1912-1932), both schools were tailored toward elite Arabs, and both were successful in maintaining steady enrolment numbers. In addition, the two founders of the schools, John Van Ess and Dorothy Van Ess, gained influence of a kind and extent not generally available to foreign missionaries. However, with the great transformation in Iraq’s political life and the formation of the new state, foreign schools, including High Hope, lost their appeal and were viewed as an imperial tool. Nevertheless, John Van Ess continued to influence Iraqi education’s demography, funding, and pedagogy through his extended relations with the power brokers in the region. The Van Esses, after the nationalization of the Iraqi education system in the 1930s, focused their efforts toward a neglected class of the society. They established evening classes, clubs, and literacy courses in deprived rural settlements around Basra. While American missionary literature praises the effort of Van Ess and considers his involvement in the national education system his legacy, Iraqi nationalists and historians belittle it and consider him an imperialist figure. This paper seeks to provide a balanced analysis of Van Ess, the schools he established, and the subsequent influence of both on education in Iraq. It consults a variety of sources--some of which have not been studied closely--that yield a mix of perspectives on the American missionary and his contribution. Furthermore, the paper highlights an early chapter of the American-Iraqi affairs that is often neglected or buried under the plethora of literature on British-Iraqi relations.