Becoming enemies : U.S.-Iran relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979-1988 / James G. Blight [and others] ; foreword by Bruce Riedel.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I: the United States and Iran: how "the enemy has become our masterpiece". Prologue: Kierkegaard in the desert: a reader's guide to bBecoming enemie -- Dramatis personae: who's who at the Musgrove Conference -- How it came to this: the evolution of dueling U.S. and Iranian narrative -- Part II: the Musgrove Conference: a critical oral history of the origins of U.S.-Iranian enmity. The Unites States confronts the Islamic Republic: the origins of enmity, 1979-1982 -- The U.S. tilt toward Iraq: a strategy for avoiding a "middle eastern armageddon" -- "A world-class rogues' gallery of liars and crooks": the Iran-Contra affair -- "This huge crescendo of pressures": Iraqi resurgence in 1988 and Iranian preparation for war with the United Sattes -- Khomeini drinks the "hemlock": how the UN facilitated the end of the war -- Part III: revelations, perspectives, and interpretations. Missed opportunities? the virtual history of U.S.-Iran relations during the Iran-Iraq war -- Epilogue: takeaways: what did we learn from the Musgrove dialogues? -- Appendix 1: chronology: the Iran-Iraq war, 1980-1988 -- Appendix 2: annotated excerpts from declassified documents.

The unique methods of critical oral history, developed to study flashpoints from the Cold War such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, are brought into play to understand U.S. and Iranian relations from the fall of the Shah in 1978 through the Iranian hostage crisis and the Iraq-Iran war. Scholars and former officials involved with U.S. and UN policy take a fresh look at U.S and Iranian relations during this time, with special emphasis on the U.S. role in the Iran Iraq War. With its remarkable declassified documentation and oral testimony that bear directly on questions of U.S. policymaking with regard to the Iran-Iraq War, this book reveals much that was previously unknown about U.S. policy before, during, and after the war. They go beyond mere reportage to offer lessons regarding fundamental foreign policy challenges to the U.S. that transcend time and place.