Vallentine Mitchell US-Iraq Bilateral Relations: Confusion and Misperception from 1967 to 1979

How did United States Iraq relations deteriorate into a double-feature war that destroyed Iraq's Ba'th regime, a secular sovereign government, and dragged the United States into an unforeseen chaos that has limited its willingness and ability to take part in other world affairs? The facts are well known, but until now there has been no serious academic study of the fundamental mutual misunderstandings between Iraq and the United States. Here Binah examines the perceptions, preconceptions and misunderstandings of both sides over a period of twelve years from 1967 (the Six Day War) to 1979 (the emergence of the Khomeini Islamic Republic in Iran), providing the key background to the fatal 1990 deaf-dialogue between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and American ambassador April Glaspie which led to the first Gulf war. The book deals with three main issues which are the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf, the Kurdish rebellion and the Arab Israeli conflict - including the increasing political involvement of the American Jewish community in matters relating to Israel and Jews in the Arab lands, as the influence of their organizations grew. While examining these issues, Binah bears in mind the over-arching concerns at that time of the Cold War and the international oil market. This thorough study provides a detailed and exact report of what happened alongside the broader discussion of why did it happen, giving the reader the framework for such an examination.