Caught in the Middle East : U.S. policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1945-1961 / Peter L. Hahn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hahn, Peter L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arab-Israeli conflict--Diplomatic history.

Arab-Israeli conflict.

Arab-Israeli conflict--Peace.

United States--Foreign relations--1945-1989.

United States.

International relations.

Physical Description:

xii, 398 pages : map ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2004]

Summary:

As is all too clear today, American postwar efforts to ameliorate Arab-Israeli relations before they could damage American interests in the Middle East failed to achieve a lasting peace and entangled the United States in the conflict in complex ways. Peter L. Hahn explores the strategic, diplomatic, political, and cultural factors that influenced the policies of Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower as they confronted the origins and escalation of one of the modern world's most intractable disputes. President Truman tended to make decisions in an ad hoc, reactive fashion, Hahn argues. Thus Truman formulated a policy prone to inconsistency and contradiction. Eisenhower, on the other hand, is shown to have taken a more evenhanded and a more proactive approach to the regional conflict. Yet even he found that strategic and domestic political conditions prevented him from dramatically revising the basic tenets Truman had established.

American officials desired -- in principle -- to promote Arab-Israeli peace in order to stabilize the region. Yet Hahn shows how that desire for peace was not always an American priority, as U.S. leaders consistently gave more weight to their determination to contain the Soviet Union than to their desire to make peace between Israel and its neighbors. During these critical years the United States began to supplant Britain as the dominant Western power in the Middle East, and U.S. leaders found themselves in two notable predicaments. They were unable to relinquish the responsibilities that they had accepted with their newfound power, even as those responsibilities became increasingly difficult to fulfill. And they were caught in the middle of the Arab-Israeli conflict, unable to resolve a dispute that would continue to generate instability for years to come.

Contents:

1. Genesis: The Palestine Conflict to 1945 9

2. Security and Politics: The Context of U.S. Policy toward Palestine after 1945 20

3. Ambivalence: Truman's Policy toward Palestine, 1945-1947 32

4. Diplomacy and Conflict: The Creation of Israel and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949 44

5. Security Commitments: U.S. Strategic Interests in the Middle East, 1949-1953 67

6. Presidential Passivity: Truman and the Peace Process, 1949-1953 86

7. Repatriation versus Resettlement: The Palestinian Refugee Crisis, 1949-1953 99

8. Holy Places: The Question of Jerusalem, 1949-1953 112

9. Tangled Web: The U.S. Failure to Solve Multiple Controversies, 1949-1953 123

10. The Impact of Conflict: U.S. Relations with Israel and the Arab States, 1949-1953 133

11. Cold War Framework: U.S. Perspectives on the Middle East, 1953-1957 147

12. Border Wars: Eisenhower, Dulles, and Arab-Israeli Frontiers, 1953-1955 158

13. Cornucopia of Conflict: Water, Jerusalem, Refugees, and Trade, 1953-1955 170

14. Stillborn: The U.S. Peace Process and the Resumption of War, 1955-1956 182

15. Desperation Diplomacy: U.S. Policy during the Suez-Sinai War of 1956 194

16. Persistent Conflict: The Aftermath of the Suez-Sinai War 210

17 Security Affirmed: U.S. Regional Considerations in the Middle East after the Suez-Sinai War 223

18. Containing Conflict: U.S. Efforts to Avert Arab-Israeli Clashes, 1957-1961 235

19. Selective Activism: U.S. Efforts to Solve Arab-Israeli Disputes, 1957-1961 248

20. Cost of Conflict: U.S. Relations with Israel and the Arab States, 1953-1961 261

Conclusion: Caught in the Middle East 276.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 367-387) and index.

ISBN:

0807828408

OCLC:

52887420

Online:

Publisher description