FDR and the End of Empire
The Origins of American Power in the Middle East
Book
Chapter
In 1942, the American journalist and social reformer Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, warned that World War II could be lost in the colonial empires, where the Allie...
Chapter
On Valentine’s Day, 1945, having flown directly from his final meeting with Churchill and Stalin at Yalta, President Roosevelt met with the Saudi king Abdul Aziz al Saud aboard the USS Quincy on Egypt’s Great Bit...
Chapter
Only four weeks after Pearl Harbor, an OSS (Office of Strategic Services) operative warned from Cairo: “The Near East is wide open and ripe for plucking.”3 This warning referred mostly to the possible threat of A...
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The British Empire faced one of its gravest crises of World War II when Axis forces made thrusts into Egypt in 1940 and 1941, threatening vital strategic interests such as the Suez Canal. The war tested the Anglo...
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The origins of the “special relationship” between the United States and Saudi Arabia are rooted in the politics of World War II, driven by America’s growing demands for oil. Roosevelt understood that the war offe...
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It would be easy to overlook Syria and Lebanon in light of substantial American involvement elsewhere. Prior to World War II, American officials paid little thought to the Levant. While they gave scant attention ...
Chapter
The first challenges Roosevelt faced in the Midle East occurred in Iraq and Egypt, where the British sought to remove governments hostile to their interests. The Americans disagreed over the proper course of acti...
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After the British interventions in Iraq and Egypt, Washington took a stronger stand against British and, to a lesser degree, Soviet, interference in Iran. To Roosevelt, Iran became a demonstration for what the Un...
Chapter
With Italian and German forces penetrating the resource-rich and strategically vital Middle East, the Anglo-American Allies wanted to avoid further antagonizing the Arabs over Palestine. After the British interve...