Upon victory in 1945, Britain still dominated the Middle East. She
directly ruled Palestine and Aden, was the kingmaker in Iran, the power
behind the thrones of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, and protected the sultan
of Oman and the Gulf sheikhs.
But her motives for wanting to
dominate this crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa were changing.
Where `imperial security' - control of the route to India - had once
been paramount, now oil was an increasingly important factor. So, too,
was prestige.
Ironically, the very end of empire made control of
the Middle East precious in itself: on it hung Britain's claim to be a
great power. Unable to withstand Arab and Jewish nationalism, within a
generation the British were gone. But that is not the full story.
What ultimately sped Britain on her way was the uncompromising attitude
of the United States, which was determined to displace the British in
the Middle East. The British did not give in gracefully to this
onslaught. Using newly declassified records and long-forgotten memoirs,
including the diaries of a key British spy, James Barr tears up the
conventional interpretation of this era in the Middle East, vividly
portraying the tensions between London and Washington, and shedding an
uncompromising light on the murkier activities of a generation of
American and British diehards in the region, from the battle of El
Alamein in 1942 to Britain's abandonment of Aden in 1967.
Lords of the Desert : Britain's Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East - James Barr
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