Reviews for The twilight war : the secret history of America's thirty-year conflict with Iran
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
An encyclopedic account of the ongoing military and diplomatic conflict between the United States and Iran. Since the fall of the shah in 1979, Iran and the United States have been thorns in each other's sides. Iran seeks recognition as a regional power and as a champion of Shia Muslims throughout the Middle East, but its policy toward America has often been driven by a "paranoia that the real goal behind U.S. actions was the overthrow of the Islamic Republic." America, for its part, has consistently "helped perpetuate the animosity [by displaying] a callous disregard for Iranian grievances and security concerns." The result has been an ongoing "shadow war" in which each side has inflicted grievous casualties on the other without quite falling into open belligerence, while missing numerous opportunities for rapprochement. In a monumental debut, senior government historian Crist presents a comprehensive narrative of this conflict from the ascendancy of the Ayatollah Khomeini to the present day. Drawing on extensive access to American government leaders and documents, Crist surveys his topic in thorough, if sometimes ponderous, detail, including coverage of the bombing of the Marine base in Beirut, the Iran/Iraq war, the arms-for-hostages scandal, the naval battles of the "tanker wars," Iran's involvement in post-Hussein Iraq and its present pursuit of nuclear ambitions. Completely in command of the competing interests and personalities at the highest levels of American policymaking, Crist has an equally impressive grasp of the ebb and flow of diverse viewpoints in Iranian religious, political and military councils. The battle scenes are edge-of-the-seat gripping, and the author is keenly insightful on the Byzantine diplomatic maneuvers, by turns farcical and dismaying, and the motivations of the politicians, clerics, Cold Warriors and con artists who have stoked the ongoing tensions between the two nations in spite of important common interests. Some casual readers may be turned off by the page count, but this is likely to be the authoritative history of the origins and progress of the Iranian policy morass for years to come.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
One of the world's oldest democracies and one of its newest theocracies have been on the verge of hostilities since 1979. The US broke off diplomatic relations with Iran during the hostage crisis that followed the fall of the Shah. They have not been resumed. In the last 30 years, the US has used military force to attempt a hostage rescue, provided assistance to both sides in the Iran-Iraq war, used naval power to keep the Persian Gulf sea lanes open to traffic, shot down an Iranian civilian airliner, suffered at the hands of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, opposed Iranian interference in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and actively monitored and manipulated the Iranian nuclear power program. Crist tells the convoluted story of US-Iranian conflict in a well-written, carefully researched, and lively book that sheds light on what he calls the "twilight war." Casual readers of the news over the last few decades will be reminded about how often the two countries nearly came to blows; serious students of history will be pleased to find the extensive interview quotes that give these episodes a richer context and explanation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduate students and above. R. A. Strong Washington & Lee University
Publishers Weekly
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In this well-researched book, historian and former marine Crist makes the case that the United States is already enmeshed in a hidden war with Iran that has raged unacknowledged for decades. This shadow war is characterized by espionage, assassination plots, and frequent eruptions of open hostilities, and exacerbated by egregious missteps and blunders by both sides. (Crist loses no time in labeling the American invasion of Iraq, for instance, as one of the "worst planned campaigns ever executed by the U.S. military.") Enriched by hundreds of interviews with key players as well as the author's own experiences in the Persian Gulf, this is a comprehensive and readable account of American-Iranian hostilities since the 1979 revolution. Crist reveals many previously unreported details of recent maneuverings, such as the provenance of the Stuxnet virus and the backstory of the bizarre case of Shahram Amiri (the nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. and then posted videos on YouTube claiming that he was being held captive by the CIA), but the broad outlines of the narrative are not nearly as "secret" as the subtitle implies. If there is a moral to this story, it may be that despite the furious machinations of the world's intelligence agencies, critical change points more often than not hinge on blind luck and happenstance. Agent: The Wiley Agency. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal
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Hostility and mistrust have characterized U.S.-Iranian relations since the 1979 Iranian revolution and hostage crisis. Crist, a senior historian for the federal government who has served as a marine in the Middle East, undertook extensive archival research and interviewed more than 300 American and Iranian government and military officers for this detailed narrative of diplomatic and military challenges since that time. His coverage ranges over numerous confrontations in the Persian Gulf, proxy skirmishes in Lebanon and other Arab countries, and tangled military interactions during the American occupation of Iraq. While accurate and balanced, Crist is critical of Iran's revolutionary support of anti-Americanism throughout the region and widespread encouragement of terrorist attacks on America and its allies. He portrays incompetence and arrogance among American military and civilian leaders and an inability and unwillingness to develop a realistic policy based on actual American interests and Iranian conditions. This is a long, complex book filled with details of military action and policy discussion, clear about ideological and personal in-fighting, and effective in portraying the individual actors. Crist is not optimistic about the outcomes and fears that hardened antagonisms heightened by Iranian nuclear research may yet lead to an actual war. VERDICT With important insights into Middle Eastern affairs and American policymaking, this is highly recommended for serious readers. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/12.]-Elizabeth R. Hayford, president emerita, Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
