Irene Gendzier's critically acclaimed, wide-reaching analysis of post-World War II U.S. policy in Lebanon posits that the politics of oil and pipelines figured far more significantly in U.S. relations with Lebanon than previously believed. In 1958 the United States sent thousands of troops to shore up the Lebanese regime in the face of domestic opposition and civil war. The justification was preventing a coup in Iraq, but recently declassified documents show that the true objective was to protect America's commercial, political, and strategic interests in Beirut and the Middle East. By reevaluating U.S.-Lebanese relations within the context of America's collaborative intervention with the Lebanese ruling elite, Gendzier aptly demonstrates how oil, power, and politics drove U.S. policy and influenced the development of the state and the region. In her new preface, Gendzier discusses the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the remarkable continuity of U.S. foreign policy from 1945 to the present.
Price: $40.00
Pages: 520
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Series: History and Society of the Modern Middle East
Publication Date:
07 November 2006
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780231140119
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
HISTORY / Middle East / General, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Security (National & International)
Notes from the Minefield is history at its best.
Irene L. Gendzier is professor of political science at Boston University and author of Development Against Democracy: Manipulating Political Change in the Third World.
List of Maps and Illustrations
Preface
Preface to the 2006 Edition
Part I. The Setting of U.S. Policy
1. The Dynamic of Collaborative Intervention
2. U.S. Postwar Policy and the Middle East
3. Learning Lebanon: A Primer
Part II. Formative Years in the Evolution of U.S. Policy: 1944–1952
4. Alternating Currents of Criticism and Conformity
5. The Foundations of U.S. Policy, PACLIFT: Petroleum, Aviation, Commerce, Labor, Intelligence, and the Friendship Treaty
6. Altered Circumstances and the Design of U.S. Political Strategy
Part III. The Eisenhower Administration and the Sham'un Regime: A Policy of Information and Consent
7. Pressure Points and Priorities
8. Lebanon: The "Bridgehead in the Orient"
9. Realities of Power in the "Rear Area"
10. Our Man in Beirut
Part IV. Intervening Before Intervention
11. Civil War, May 1958
12. Doubt, Deliberation, and Preparation
Part V. The Minefield Explodes: U.S. Military Intervention
13. 11,000 Sorties in Search of a Target
14. By Mutual Consent: July–October 1958
Epilogue: 1958 in Retrospect
Notes
Bibliography
Index
