A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East--from the Cold War to the War on Terror

By Patrick Tyler

Book Overview

The White House and the Middle East-from the Cold War to the War on Terror The Middle East is the beginning and the end of U.S. foreign policy: events there influence our alliances, make or break presidencies, govern the price of oil, and draw us into war. But it was not always so-and as Patrick Tyler shows in this thrilling chronicle of American misadventures in the region, the story of American presidents' dealings there is one of mixed motives, skulduggery, deceit, and outright foolishness, as well as of policymaking and diplomacy.Tyler draws on newly opened presidential archives to dramatize the approach to the Middle East across U.S. presidencies from Eisenhower to George W. Bush. He takes us into the Oval Office and shows how our leaders made momentous decisions; at the same time, the sweep of this narrative-from the Suez crisis to the Iran hostage crisis to George W. Bush's catastrophe in Iraq-lets us see the big picture as never before. Tyler tells a story of presidents being drawn into the affairs of the region against their will, being kept in the dark by local potentates, being led astray by grasping subordinates, and making decisions about the internal affairs of countries they hardly understand. Above all, he shows how each president has managed to undo the policies of his predecessor, often fomenting both anger against America on the streets of the region and confusion at home. A World of Trouble is the Middle East book we need now: compulsively readable, free of cant and ideology, and rich in insight about the very human challenges a new president will face as he or she tries to restore America's standing in the region.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374292892
• ISBN13: 9780374292898
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 2.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 2.0" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

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No president is spared

Patrick Tyler's approach is dispassionate and concise, and it's clear he has done his homework. Americans who have any interest in the Middle East must read this book or their understanding of their own leaders will be incomplete. The only president who comes out looking OK is Eisenhower. The rest of them are a sad lot and a couple of them were outright disasters, and Tyler doesn't care how politically popular they are or how much trouble he is likely to get in from their apologists. His sole purpose in this book is to offer the reader a clear-eyed, non-partisan view of America's top officeholder. I recommend this book to the smartest people I know.

Baltimore Sun

baltimoresun.com 'A World of Trouble' examines U.S. diplomatic history in Middle East Tyler's 'A World of Trouble' is a history of America's attempts to attain peace in the region By Tim Rutten The Los Angeles Times February 8, 2009 : A World of Trouble By Patrick Tyler Farrar, Straus and Giroux / 640 pages / $30 Patrick Tyler is a veteran foreign and Washington correspondent who more recently has applied his formidable reporting skills and narrative gifts to diplomatic history. His latest effort, A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East - From the Cold War to the War on Terror, couldn't be more timely. President Barack Obama has already appointed former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who was instrumental in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, as his special Middle East representative and given a White House interview to an Arab-language television network. Clearly, the new chief executive plans to add the Middle East to his daunting, ambitious agenda, particularly the fulcrum question of how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. Tyler's strikingly readable new history argues that Obama inherits a decidedly mixed, though mainly unhappy, diplomatic legacy. The author's impressive research combines a careful combing of archival sources and memoirs in multiple languages, as well as wide-ranging original research. In Tyler's view, it adds up to a history of miscalculation, inattention, stuttering and almost inadvertent progress undone by contradictory aims, exhaustion and distraction. His choice of opening anecdote - and this is a writer with a novelist's eye - leaves no doubt that Tyler intends this book to be urgently instructive. His prologue begins: "Night had long since fallen over central Saudi Arabia in early 2004 when George Tenet came trudging out of his bedroom in Prince Bandar bin Sultan's palace and asked for scotch whiskey." Tenet, then CIA director, had just gotten off one of his secure phones after learning from aides that the White House essentially planned to blame him and the agency for the faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Unable to sleep, though he'd taken a pill, Tenet emerged from his room clad only in boxer shorts and T-shirt, surprising Bandar and an aide, who were watching television. After downing most of a bottle of Scotch, Tyler writes, and raging against "the Jews" (read, neoconservatives) in the Bush administration, Tenet decided to go for a swim in his underwear while continuing to ramble angrily, smoke a cigar and drink more liquor. Bandar and his aide, worried the CIA director would drown under the influence of medication and alcohol, hovered nearby at a poolside bar. It's a compelling and - for the reader, at least - sobering story, replete with direct quotations. Characteristically, Tyler balances the portrait of an indiscreet and vulgarly self-pitying CIA chief with a fascinating account of Tenet's extremely successful efforts to ramp

An excellent and enlightening panorama

Not just a well-told tale that takes you deep into the history, places and players that have involved America in the middle east, this book smartly reveals the incredibly complex matrix from which today's problems emanated. Tyler's rich character portraits bring life to the names and figures that have been reported on and analyzed before, but not really brought alive for the reader until now. If you read only the opening chapter, you will know more about the personality and character of George Tenet than any other reporting has offered. It's a great piece of historical reporting woven into a fast-moving, very informative and entertaining book. Very highly recommended if you have any interest in knowing what the middle east is all about or if you just want to understand why this part of the world so heavily shapes American policies.

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer

As a 20 year Navy veteran, I've often stated "history repeats itself" and this book tells us why. Power, corruption, naive aspirations, incompetence, risk takers, spiritual quests, political ransom, blood letting, heroics, leadership, major accomplishments, scheming, and simple minded childish behavior it's all here. We call them Mr. President. Highly recommended, make sure you have plenty of time off, you won't put this one down! This will probably change your opinion of our role in the Middle East, it has mine. You be the judge.