Stephen Kinzer

How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. Then we retreat-until the cycle begins again. No matter how often we debate this question, none of what we say is original. Every argument is a pale shadow of the first and greatest debate, which erupted more than a century ago. Its themes resurface every time Americans argue whether to intervene...

What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Kinzer provides a penetrating, timely critique of America's approach to the world's most volatile region, and offers a startling alternative.

As zealots in Washington intensify their preparations for an American attack on Iran, the story of the CIA's 1953 coup-with its many cautionary lessons-is more urgently relevant than ever. All the Shah's Men brings to life the cloak-and-dagger operation that deposed the only democratic regime Iran ever had. The coup ushered in a quarter-century of repressive rule under the Shah, stimulated the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and anti-Americanism throughout...