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The Origins of the Iranian-American Alliance, 1941-1953

Mark Hamilton Lytle
Reviewed by By William P. Bundy
Winter 1987/88
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Mark Hamilton Lytle
Holmes & Meier
1987
239 pp.

Recent events illustrate what can happen when Americans who make policy toward Iran are ignorant of history. The directly relevant past in Iranian-American relations begins not with the revolution of 1978-79, not even with the CIA's participation in the overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadeq in 1953, but with World War II when the U.S. government first sought to exert a large, protective influence (against both the Soviets and the British) over the country. Mr. Lytle tells the story in a compact, meticulous way. This is an important addition to the literature.

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