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A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East--from the Cold War to the War on Terror - Paperback | Diverse Reads

A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East--from the Cold War to the War on Terror

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A spellbinding narrative account of America in the Middle East that "reads almost like a thriller" (The Economist)

The Middle East is the beginning and the end of U.S. foreign policy: events there influence our alliances, make or break presidencies, govern the price of oil, and draw us into war. But it was not always so—and as Patrick Tyler shows in A World of Trouble, a thrilling chronicle of American misadventures in the region. The story of American presidents' dealings there is one of mixed motives, skulduggery, deceit, and outright foolishness, as well as of policymaking and diplomacy.

Tyler draws on newly opened presidential archives to dramatize the approach to the Middle East across U.S. presidencies from Eisenhower to George W. Bush. He takes us into the Oval Office and shows how our leaders made momentous decisions; at the same time, the sweep of this narrative—from the Suez crisis to the Iran hostage crisis to George W. Bush's catastrophe in Iraq—lets us see the big picture as never before. Tyler tells a story of presidents being drawn into the affairs of the region against their will, being kept in the dark by local potentates, being led astray by grasping subordinates, and making decisions about the internal affairs of countries they hardly understand. Above all, he shows how each president has managed to undo the policies of his predecessor, often fomenting both anger against America on the streets of the region and confusion at home.

A World of Trouble is the Middle East book we need now: compulsively readable, free of cant and ideology, and rich in insight about the very human challenges a new president will face as he or she tries to restore America's standing in the region.

ISBN-13: 9780374532000

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Farrar - Straus and Giroux

Publication Date: 02-16-2010

Pages: 656

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

PATRICK TYLER has reported extensively from both the Middle East and Washington for The New York Times and The Washington Post. A Texan, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Prologue: America in the Middle East 3

1 The Arab Awakening: Eisenhower, Nasser, and Suez 19

2 The Six-Day War: Johnson and Israel 64

3 Nixon and Brezhnev: Cold War and International Terror 107

4 Nixon and Kissinger: Yom Kippur-The October War 135

5 Jimmy Carter: Camp David and the Struggle with Menachem Begin 176

6 Carter and the Shah: Khomeini's Revolution 210

7 The Shame of Lebanon: Reagan's Warriors in the Middle East 249

8 The Iran-Contra Affair: The Clash of Saudi and Israeli Influence 308

9 Nebuchadnezzar-Land: Saddam Hussein and the Persian Gulf War 352

10 Bill Clinton: Tilting at Peace, Flailing at Saddam 402

11 Clinton: Flight from Terror; Lost Peace 457

12 George W. Bush: A World of Trouble 525

Afterword 555

Notes 567

Acknowledgments 617

Index 621