Becoming Enemies

James G. Blight, Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) chair in Foreign Policy Development, Balsillie School of International Relations, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontariojanet M. Lang, research professor, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, OntarioHussein Banai, assistant professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College.Malcolm Byrne, Deputy Director, National Security Archive at George Washington University, Washington, DC.John Tirman, Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

By applying an innovative methodology ("critical oral history"), by engaging some of the most authoritative voices on the subject matter in a well-informed, candid, and insightful dialogue, and through their own trenchant analyses, the authors of this groundbreaking work provide a fresh perspective on the mindsets, misperceptions, and misguided policies by Iran, Iraq, and the United States, that helped start and prolong what became one of the bloodiest regional wars in the latter half of the twentieth century. For policymakers, scholars, and students pondering the causes of the enduring enmities and mistrust between Iran and the United States today, this book is a must read.

• Foreword: By Bruce Riedel.Part I: The U.S. and Iran: How “the Enemy Has Become Our Masterpiece.”Prologue: Kierkegaard in the Desert: A Reader’s Guide to Becoming Enemies. Dramatis Personae: Who’s Who at the Musgrove Conference. Chapter One: How It Came to This: The Evolution of Dueling U.S. and Iranian Narratives.Part II: The Musgrove Conference: A Critical Oral History of the Origins of U.S.-Iranian Enmity. Chapter Two: The U.S. Confronts The Islamic Republic: The Origins of Enmity, 1979-1982.Chapter Three: The U.S. Tilt Toward Iraq: A Strategy for Avoiding a “Middle Eastern Armageddon.”Chapter Four: “A World-Class Rogues’ Gallery of Liars and Crooks”: The Iran-Contra Affair.Chapter Five: “This Huge Crescendo of Pressures”: Iraqi Resurgence in 1988 and Iranian Preparation for War with the U.S.Chapter Six: Khomeini Drinks the “Hemlock”: How the United Nations Facilitated the End of the War.Part III: Revelations, Perspectives and Interpretations.Chapter Seven: Missed Opportunities? The