Cauldron of Turmoil: America in the Middle East - Hardcover

Rubin, Barry M.

9780151161287: Cauldron of Turmoil: America in the Middle East

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151161283 ISBN 13: 9780151161287

Publisher: Harcourt, 1992

Discusses America's tangled role in the Middle East and traces the roots of the Persian Gulf War back to the oil boom days of the 1970s

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From Publishers Weekly:

Middle East expert Rubin (Paved with Good Intentions) covers much ground here. He traces the origins of the Khomeini and Saddam regimes and shows how the world's most radically antiAmerican states vied to auction their souls to the devil-i.e., get the Americans on their side during the Iran-Iraq war-then describes how the Saudis and Kuwaitis tried much the same approach (with greater success) during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Rubin analyzes Saddam's reasons for invading Kuwait, including his expectation that the rest of the Arab world would rally behind him, and goes on to explain why President Bush allowed the Iraqi dictator to survive Desert Storm, concluding that this ill-considered mercy was wrong on all counts. In Rubin's view, it is still unclear whether the Gulf War was a great victory or merely a lastminute salvaging of a disaster that originated in gross incompetence by U.S. leaders. His informed discussion of American involvement in the Gulf deepens our understanding of the process by which that region has become the main focus of U.S. policy crises, a place where the reputations of presidents Carter, Reagan and Bush have been severely tested.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

In this severe assessment of American foreign policy in the Middle East, Rubin posits that the U.S. victory came despite Washington's many mistakes and excessively generous tolerance of incompetent as well as unpopular regimes. He attributes this success to U.S. ability to formulate a coherent approach that power was more important than popularity. This is a rather sophisticated version of the instant book. It draws on credible anecdotes, although the text is peppered with gratuitous comments ("Some regimes would continue hitting their heads against the wall, albeit less hard"). Also, Rubin's assertion that successive American presidents were naive do-gooders who, when faced with aggressive dictators, accepted far more than was necessary, is questionable. For larger international affairs collections.
- Joseph A. Kechichian, Rand Corp., Santa Monica, Cal.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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