Becoming Enemies

U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979–1988

James G. Blight, janet M. Lang, Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, John Tirman

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781442208322
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Diplomacy & Treaties
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Becoming Enemies brings the unique methods of critical oral history, developed to study flashpoints from the Cold War such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, to understand U.S. and Iranian relations from the fall of the Shah in 1978 through the Iranian hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq war. Scholars and former officials involved with U.S. and UN policy take a fresh look at U.S and Iranian relations during this time, with special emphasis on the U.S. role in the Iran-Iraq War. With its remarkable declassified documentation and oral testimony that bear directly on questions of U.S. policymaking with regard to the Iran-Iraq War, Becoming Enemies reveals much that was previously unknown about U.S. policy before, during, and after the war. They go beyond mere reportage to offer lessons regarding fundamental foreign policy challenges to the U.S. that transcend time and place.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Part I: The United States and Iran: How “the Enemy Has Become Our Masterpiece”
• Prologue: Kierkegaard in the Desert
• Dramatis Personae
• Chapter 1: How It Came to This
• Part II: The Musgrove Conference: A Critical Oral History of the Origins of U.S.-Iranian Enmity
• Chapter 2: The United States Confronts the Islamic Republic
• Chapter 3: The U.S. Tilt toward Iraq
• Chapter 4: “A World-Class Rogues’ Gallery of Liars and Crooks”
• Chapter 5: “This Huge Crescendo of Pressures”
• Chapter 6: Khomeini Drinks the “Hemlock”
• Part III: Revelations: Perspectives and Interpretations
• Chapter 7: Missed Opportunities?
• Epilogue: Takeaways
• Appendix 1: Chronology
• Appendix 2: Annotated Excerpts from Declassified Documents
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Acronyms
• About the Authors