Ch. 1. First Entanglements: 1945-1948. 1. In the Beginning. 2. The Cold War Begins in the Middle East: Iran, 1946. 3. Picking Up Where Britain Left Off: The Truman Doctrine. 4. Palestine and the Birth of Israel
Ch. 2. With Friends Like These: 1948-1956. 1. To the Tripartite Declaration. 2. Quick Fix: The CIA in Iran. 3. From MEDO to the Baghdad Pact. 4. Descent to Suez. 5. Hell Breaks Loose, in Stages
Ch. 3. Deeper and Deeper: 1957-1965. 1. Picking Up the Pieces: The Eisenhower Doctrine. 2. To Beirut and Beyond: Lebanon, 1958. 3. Hard Cases Make Bad Policy: The Yemen War. 4. Arms for Israel. 5. The Trojan War Revisited: Cyprus
Ch. 4. More War: 1966-1973. 1. Egyptian Brinkmanship, Israeli Impatience. 2. The June War. 3. The Special Relationship Becomes More Special. 4. The Arabs' Revenge: The October War
Ch. 5. Over a Barrel: 1973-1980. 1. The New Weapon. 2. By the Turkish Sword. 3. Persistence Pays: The Camp David Accords. 4. The Fall of the Shah, the Rise of the Ayatollah.
5. When It Rains, It Pours: The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
Ch. 6. Full Immersion: 1980-1993. 1. Bombed in Beirut. 2. Libya and the Specter of Terrorism. 3. Implausible Deniability, or Arms for the Ayatollah. 4. When Saddam Hussein Was One of the Good Guys: The First Gulf War. 5. Hussein Becomes a Bad Guy: The Second Gulf War. 6. The United States' First Middle Eastern War. 7. Unfinished Business. 1. Overviews and Background. 2. Israel and the Arabs. 3. Iran, Turkey, Cyprus. 4. Particular Events and Special Topics. 5. The Middle East in World Context. 6. Firsthand Accounts.
