Download or read book America s First Clash with Iran written by Lee Allen Zatarain and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2010-11-22 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing account of the US conflict with Iran over the Persian Gulf during the Reagan era—and the groundwork it set for today’s tensions. In May 1987, the US frigate Stark was blown apart by an Iraqi jet fighter in the Persian Gulf, jumpstarting a major conflict with Iran that came to be known as the Tanker War. In America’s First Clash with Iran, author Lee Allen Zatarain employs Pentagon documents and firsthand interviews to reveal the full story of a conflict that may have presaged further battles to come. At the climax of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran was losing on the battlefield. Ayatollah Khomeini decided to close the Persian Gulf against shipping from Iraq’s oil-rich backer, the emirate of Kuwait. When the United States sent a fleet to the Gulf, raising the Stars and Stripes over Kuwait’s commercial tankers, a tinderbox was set off. The Iranians laid mines throughout the narrow passage and launched attack boats against both tankers and US warships. The US Navy fought its largest surface battle since World War II against the Ayatollah’s assault boats. As Saddam Hussein looked on, Iranian gunners fired missiles against US forces—actions which, if made known at the time, would have required the US Congress to declare war against Iran.
Download or read book America and Iran written by John Ghazvinian and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2021 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A history of the relationship between Iran and America from the 1700s through the current day"--
Download or read book Tanker War written by Lee Allen Zatarain and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In May 1987 the US guided missile frigate Stark, calmly sailing the waters of the Persian Gulf, was suddenly blown apart by an Exocet missile fired from a MiG fighter in the air force of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. A fifth of the ship's crew were killed and many others horribly burned or wounded. This event junpstarted one of the most mysterious and underwritten conflicts in America's history: "The Tanker War," which was waged for control of the Mideast's oil supply"--Inside cover.
Download or read book Guests of the Ayatollah written by Mark Bowden and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author of Black Hawk Down delivers a “suspenseful and inspiring” account of the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 (The Wall Street Journal). On November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by the revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans captive, and kept nearly all of them hostage for 444 days. In Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden tells this sweeping story through the eyes of the hostages, the soldiers in a new special forces unit sent to free them, their radical, naïve captors, and the diplomats working to end the crisis. Bowden takes us inside the hostages’ cells and inside the Oval Office for meetings with President Carter and his exhausted team. We travel to international capitals where shadowy figures held clandestine negotiations, and to the deserts of Iran, where a courageous, desperate attempt to rescue the hostages exploded into tragic failure. Bowden dedicated five years to this research, including numerous trips to Iran and countless interviews with those involved on both sides. Guests of the Ayatollah is a detailed, brilliantly recreated, and suspenseful account of a crisis that gripped and ultimately changed the world. “The passions of the moment still reverberate . . . you can feel them on every page.” —Time “A complex story full of cruelty, heroism, foolishness and tragic misunderstandings.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “Essential reading . . . A.” —Entertainment Weekly
Download or read book Unthinkable written by Kenneth Pollack and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines Iran's current nuclear potential while charting America's future course of action, recounting the prolonged clash between both nations to outline options for American policymakers.
Download or read book The Twilight War written by David Crist and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An important and timely book that should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding how the United States and Iran went from close allies to enduring enemies." -The Washington Post "Deserves a spot on the short list of must-read books on United States-Iran relations." -The New York Times The dramatic secret history of the undeclared, ongoing war between the U.S. and Iran. The United States and Iran have been engaged in an unacknowledged secret war since the 1970s. This conflict has frustrated multiple American presidents, divided administrations, and repeatedly threatened to bring the two nations to the brink of open warfare. Drawing upon unparalleled access to senior officials and key documents of several U.S. administrations, David Crist, a senior historian in the federal government, breaks new ground on virtually every page of The Twilight War. From the Iranian Revolution to secret negotiations between Iran and the United States after 9/11, from Iran’s nuclear program to the secretive and deadly role of Qasem Soleimani, Crist brings vital new depth to our understanding of “the Iran problem”—and what the future of this tense relationship may bring.
Download or read book The Sixth Crisis written by Dana Allin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-10 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There have been five central crises in America's post World War II encounter with the Middle East, and the Obama administration now faces a sixth. Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapons capability, and the prospect of Israel launching air strikes to stop it, are ingredients for a conflict that could ruin any residual hopes for fostering peace in the region. The Sixth Crisis explores the fraught linkages between the Iranian nuclear challenge, the increasing likelihood of an Israeli preventive strike, the continuing Israel-Palestine tragedy, and President Barack Obama's efforts to recast America's relations with the world's Muslims. It is the first full account of the situation since Obama took office. The authors, a former senior official on President Clinton's National Security Council Staff and a leading authority on international politics, lay out in clear and accessible detail the technical and political dimensions of Iran's nuclear program, and the ongoing diplomacy to stop it. They show how Israel's panic about Iran's nuclear threat--combined with its policy toward the Palestinians--is undermining Jerusalem's alliance with America. Tehran, meanwhile, is exploiting tensions between Arab regimes fearful of a nuclear Iran and an Arab public that is both angry about the plight of the Palestinians and resentful of Israel's nuclear monopoly in the region. The Sixth Crisis brilliantly illuminates this fateful juncture. The status quo is on an incline to disaster, and the hopes that President Obama has inspired are threatened by the toxic mixture of Israeli-Palestinian stalemate and Iran's nuclear ambitions. The time bomb of Iran's defiance and Israel's panic has the potential to spark a firestorm that would imperil US interests in the Middle East and engulf Obama's presidency. With the outcome of this unfolding crisis far from certain, The Sixth Crisis is required reading not only for policymakers, but also for anyone interested in world politics.
Download or read book Republics of Myth written by Hussein Banai and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does the rift between the US and Iran persist? Iran and the United States have been at odds for forty years, locked in a cold war that has run the gamut from harsh rhetoric to hostage-taking, from crippling sanctions to targeted killings. In Republics of Myth, Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, and John Tirman argue that a major contributing factor to this tenacious enmity is how each nation views itself. The two nations have differing interests and grievances about each other, but their often-deadly confrontation derives from the very different national narratives that shape their politics, actions, and vision of their own destiny in the world. The dominant American narrative is the myth of the frontier—that the US can tame it, tame its inhabitants, and nurture democracy as well. Iran, conversely, can claim two dominant myths: the first, an unbroken (but not for lack of trying) lineage back to Cyrus the Great, and the second, the betrayal of Imam Hussein, the Prophet's grandson. Both Iranian myths feature a detestable outsider as an enemy of the Iranian state and source of the nation's ills and misfortune. The two countries have clashed so severely in part, the authors argue, because their national narratives constantly drive them to do so. Drawing on newly declassified documents and discussions with policymakers, the authors analyze an array of missed opportunities over several decades to improve the US-Iran relationship. From the coup d'état that overthrew Iran's legitimate premier Mohammad Mosaddeq to the hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq War, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, post-9/11 antagonisms, and other points of conflict, each episode illustrates anew the weight of historical narratives on present circumstances. Finally, Barack Obama's diplomacy and Donald Trump's determination to undo the 2015 nuclear accord are explored—both examples of the enduring power of America's frontier narrative. Introducing new insights and knowledge in a highly readable narrative, Republics of Myth makes a major contribution to understanding this vital conflict.
Download or read book Bitter Friends Bosom Enemies written by Barbara Slavin and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2009-01-06 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With lucid analysis and engaging storytelling, USA Today senior diplomatic correspondent Barbara Slavin portrays the complex love-hate relationship between Iran and the United States. She takes into account deeply imbedded cultural habits and political goals to illuminate a struggle that promises to remain a headline story over the next decade. In this fascinating look, Slavin provides details of thwarted efforts at reconciliation under both the Clinton and Bush presidencies and opportunities rebuffed by the Bush administration in its belief that invading Iraq would somehow weaken Iran's Islamic government. Yet despite the dire situation in Iraq, the Bush administration appears to be building a case for confrontation with Iran based on the same three issues it used against Saddam Hussein's regime: weapons of mass destruction, support for terrorism, and repression of human rights. The U.S. charges Iran is supporting terrorists inside and outside Iraq and is repressing its own people who, in the words of U.S. officials, "deserve better." Slavin believes the U.S. government may be suffering from the same lack of understanding and foresight that led it into prolonged warfare in Iraq. One of the few reporters to interview Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as his two predecessors and scores of ordinary Iranians, Slavin gives insight into what the U.S. government may not be taking into account. She portrays Iran as a country that both adores and fears America and has a deeply rooted sense of its own historical and regional importance. Despite government propaganda that portrays the U.S. as the "Great Satan," many Iranians have come to idolize staples of American pop culture while clinging to their own traditions. This is clearly not a relationship to be taken a face value. The interplay between the U.S. and Iran will only grow more complex as Iran moves toward becoming a nuclear power. Distrustful of each other's intentions yet longing at some level to reconcile, neither Tehran nor Washington know how this story will end.
Download or read book The Iran Primer written by Robin B. Wright and published by US Institute of Peace Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive but concise overview of Iran's politics, economy, military, foreign policy, and nuclear program. The volume chronicles U.S.-Iran relations under six American presidents and probes five options for dealing with Iran. Organized thematically, this book provides top-level briefings by 50 top experts on Iran (both Iranian and Western authors) and is a practical and accessible "go-to" resource for practitioners, policymakers, academics, and students, as well as a fascinating wealth of information for anyone interested in understanding Iran's pivotal role in world politics.
Download or read book All the Shah s Men written by Stephen Kinzer and published by Wiley. This book was released on 2004-08-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length account of the CIA's coup d'etat in Iran in 1953—a covert operation whose consequences are still with us today. Written by a noted New York Times journalist, this book is based on documents about the coup (including some lengthy internal CIA reports) that have now been declassified. Stephen Kinzer's compelling narrative is at once a vital piece of history, a cautionary tale, and a real-life espionage thriller.
Download or read book The Iran Iraq War written by Pierre Razoux and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 679 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1980 to 1988, Iran and Iraq fought the longest conventional war of the twentieth century. The tragedies included the slaughter of child soldiers, the use of chemical weapons, the striking of civilian shipping in the Gulf, and the destruction of cities. The Iran-Iraq War offers an unflinching look at a conflict seared into the region’s collective memory but little understood in the West. Pierre Razoux shows why this war remains central to understanding Middle Eastern geopolitics, from the deep-rooted distrust between Sunni and Shia Muslims, to Iran’s obsession with nuclear power, to the continuing struggles in Iraq. He provides invaluable keys to decipher Iran’s behavior and internal struggle today. Razoux’s account is based on unpublished military archives, oral histories, and interviews, as well as audio recordings seized by the U.S. Army detailing Saddam Hussein’s debates with his generals. Tracing the war’s shifting strategies and political dynamics—military operations, the jockeying of opposition forces within each regime, the impact on oil production so essential to both countries—Razoux also looks at the international picture. From the United States and Soviet Union to Israel, Europe, China, and the Arab powers, many nations meddled in this conflict, supporting one side or the other and sometimes switching allegiances. The Iran-Iraq War answers questions that have puzzled historians. Why did Saddam embark on this expensive, ultimately fruitless conflict? Why did the war last eight years when it could have ended in months? Who, if anyone, was the true winner when so much was lost?
Download or read book The Secret War with Iran written by Ronen Bergman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-09-09 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For twenty-six years, Iran has waged an international terrorist war while the intelligence services of the West, led by Mossad and the CIA, have waged a relentless, mostly clandestine counter-jihad in return. Though Iran has become a quietly looming threat, little has been revealed about this intelligence-based war. Now, Ronen Bergman, Israel’s leading reporter and analyst of intelligence affairs, has written a full account of this secret war. He connected the dots of the long history of Iranian backed terrorist attacks, and revealed for the first time many classified operations against the Iranian terrorist network, including details about collaborations between Israel’s Mossad and the CIA and FBI; thrilling Mossad operations, the successful recruitment of top insiders of Iranian intelligence, who have disclosed a wealth of information about Iran’s nuclear program as well as it’s terrorist activities; and the use of ultra-sophisticated surveillance equipment to penetrate and damage Iranian targets. From the Iranian proxy Hizbollah’s planning of terrorists attacks from apartments in New York City, to Iran’s training of an army of work Iraqi insurgents in the techniques of suicide bombing and the making of improvised explosive devises, he showed Iran has steadily waged war against the West.
Download or read book October Surprise written by Gary Sick and published by Three Rivers Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The explosive book that sparked a congressional investigation is now in paperback and updated with new testimony from key participants. Naval veteran Gary Sick was the principal White House aide for Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-81 and is the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran. Photographs.
Download or read book Reset written by Stephen Kinzer and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-06-02 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of Overthrow offers a new and surprising vision for rebuilding America's strategic partnerships in the Middle East What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in this paradigm-shifting book. Two countries in the region, he argues, are America's logical partners in the twenty-first century: Turkey and Iran. Besides proposing this new "power triangle," Kinzer also recommends that the United States reshape relations with its two traditional Middle East allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. This book provides a penetrating, timely critique of America's approach to the world's most volatile region, and offers a startling alternative. Kinzer is a master storyteller with an eye for grand characters and illuminating historical detail. In this book he introduces us to larger-than-life figures, like a Nebraska schoolteacher who became a martyr to democracy in Iran, a Turkish radical who transformed his country and Islam forever, and a colorful parade of princes, politicians, women of the world, spies, oppressors, liberators, and dreamers. Kinzer's provocative new view of the Middle East is the rare book that will richly entertain while moving a vital policy debate beyond the stale alternatives of the last fifty years.
Download or read book The Lonely War written by Nazila Fathi and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summer of 2009, as she was covering the popular uprisings in Tehran for the New York Times, Iranian journalist Nazila Fathi received a phone call. "They have given your photo to snipers," a government source warned her. Soon after, with undercover agents closing in, Fathi fled the country with her husband and two children, beginning a life of exile. In The Lonely War, Fathi interweaves her story with that of the country she left behind, showing how Iran is locked in a battle between hardliners and reformers that dates back to the country's 1979 revolution. Fathi was nine years old when that uprising replaced the Iranian shah with a radical Islamic regime. Her father, an official at a government ministry, was fired for wearing a necktie and knowing English; to support his family he was forced to labor in an orchard hundreds of miles from Tehran. At the same time, the family's destitute, uneducated housekeeper was able to retire and purchase a modern apartment -- all because her family supported the new regime. As Fathi shows, changes like these caused decades of inequality -- especially for the poor and for women -- to vanish overnight. Yet a new breed of tyranny took its place, as she discovered when she began her journalistic career. Fathi quickly confronted the upper limits of opportunity for women in the new Iran and earned the enmity of the country's ruthless intelligence service. But while she and many other Iranians have fled for the safety of the West, millions of their middleclass countrymen -- many of them the same people whom the regime once lifted out of poverty -- continue pushing for more personal freedoms and a renewed relationship with the outside world. Drawing on over two decades of reporting and extensive interviews with both ordinary Iranians and high-level officials before and since her departure, Fathi describes Iran's awakening alongside her own, revealing how moderates are steadily retaking the country.
Download or read book Debating the Iran Iraq War in Contemporary Iran written by Narges Bajoghli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-12-18 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) is a cornerstone of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s existence. It entrenched the newly established regime and provided the means for its consolidation of power in the country following the 1979 Revolution. Officially recognized as the "War of Sacred Defense", the Iranian government has been careful to control public discourse and cultural representation concerning the war since the since wartime. Nearly 30 years since the war’s end, however, debates around the war and its aftermath are still very much alive in Iran today. This volume uncovers what some of those debates mean, nearly 30 years since the war's end. The chapters in this volume take a fresh look at the far-reaching legacies of the Iran-Iraq War in Iran today – a war that dominated the first decade of the Islamic Republic’s existence. The chapters examine the political, social and cultural ramifications of the war and the wide range of debates that surround it. The chapters in this book were originally published in Middle East Critique.
