Middle East - Diplomatic Relations with the U.S., Middle Eastern Politics - General & Miscellaneous, 20th Century American History - Relations - General & Miscellaneous, Middle East - Diplomatic Relations, Iranian Politics, Middle Eastern History - Modern

Payback

Name: Payback
Author: Pierre Salinger
ISBN: 9780080405643

by Pierre Salinger

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Overview

Many of the roots of todays Middle Eastern turmoil are found in the quiet U.S.-Iranian warfare that has flared intermittently since the fall of the Shah. The author explains: how Americas secret war with Iran led to the U.S. confrontation with Iraq; U.S. intelligences lack of preparation for the Shahs fall; the effects of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon; the centuries-old Iranian relationship with the Jews, which facilitated the secret triangle of U.S.-Israeli-Iranian collusion that emerged in Irangate; & Pres. Reagans intervention in Lebanon & whether it was doomed from the start.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

As a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor and later for ABC, Cooley has covered the Middle East and Africa since 1957. His theme in this important book is that during the critical years from the start of the Iranian revolution to the present, the U.S. has been ``paid back'' for its poor judgment and often disastrous policy errors in the Middle East. Cooley puts into context the attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the abductions of the CIA's William Buckley and AP bureau chief Terry Anderson, and other retaliatory acts during what he calls the Khomeini Decade. The book argues that from the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 until Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the Bush administration conducted ``a strange love affair'' with the Iraqi dictator, which climaxed with Desert Storm and its traumatic aftermath. The final payback, according to the author, was the terrible responsibility imposed on the Bush administration by the millions of Kurds fleeing massacre by Saddam's forces. The book is essential reading for its authoritative overview of the Middle East and the recent role of the U.S. in the region. Photos. (Dec.)

Library Journal

A two-decade-long U.S. support for the Shah of Iran entangled this country in internecine Middle East wars throughout the 1980s, argues award-winning ABC News correspondent Cooley. For Washington, the payback was costly (hostages, terrorism, etc.) and, posits Cooley, will continue to be so in the future. From Teheran to Beirut to Jerusalem to Kuwait, Washington was forced into Byzantine policies that damaged its fundamental principles. In this brilliantly articulated book, Cooley provides names, dates, and details galore. He ties together myriad successive episodes to reveal how far the United States strayed from its democratic principles. This book should be on every library shelf.-- Joseph A. Ke chichian, Rand Corp., Santa Monica, Cal.