The Iran- Iraq war Razoux, Pierre

Table of Contents:

1. Escalation
2. Saddam’s Qadisiyyah
3. How Did It Come to This?
4. Did the United States Push Saddam to Attack?
5. France Sides with Iraq
6. The Arabs Divided
7. Israel Banks on Iran and Turkey Benefits from the War
8. The “Valmy” Effect
9. Stalemate
10. The Initiative Changes Sides
11. The Mullahs Take Power
12. First Victories
13. New Mediation
14. The Iranians Recapture Their Territory
15. Blessed Ramadan Offensive
16. Bloody Dawns
17. Saddam’s Ace in the Hole
18. The Lebanese Hostage Crisis
19. Money Has No Smell
20. Total War
21. The Year of the Pilot
22. Oil and the War Machine
23. The Slaughter of the Child Soldiers
24. Deadlock
25. The Iran–Contra Affair
26. All-Out Offensives
27. Iran Changes Strategy
28. The Gulf Set Ablaze
29. The Halabja Massacre
30. The Destruction of Iran Air Flight 655
31. Endgame
Epilogue


Appendixes

A. Chronology
B. Iraq and Iran in 1980
C. Military High Command
D. Military Forces
E. Armed Opposition
F. Foreign Military Assistance
G. Oil
H. International Naval Presence in the Gulf
I. War Losses
J. Financial Cost

From 1980 to 1988, Iran and Iraq fought the longest conventional war of the twentieth century. The tragedies included the slaughter of child soldiers, the use of chemical weapons, the striking of civilian shipping in the Gulf, and the destruction of cities. The Iran–Iraq War offers an unflinching look at a conflict seared into the region’s collective memory but little understood in the West. Pierre Razoux shows why this war remains central to understanding Middle Eastern geopolitics, from the deep-rooted distrust between Sunni and Shia Muslims, to Iran’s obsession with nuclear power, to the continuing struggles in Iraq. He provides invaluable keys to decipher Iran’s behavior and internal struggle today.

Razoux’s account is based on unpublished military archives, oral histories, and interviews, as well as audio recordings seized by the U.S. Army detailing Saddam Hussein’s debates with his generals. Tracing the war’s shifting strategies and political dynamics—military operations, the jockeying of opposition forces within each regime, the impact on oil production so essential to both countries—Razoux also looks at the international picture. From the United States and Soviet Union to Israel, Europe, China, and the Arab powers, many nations meddled in this conflict, supporting one side or the other and sometimes switching allegiances.

The Iran–Iraq War answers questions that have puzzled historians. Why did Saddam embark on this expensive, ultimately fruitless conflict? Why did the war last eight years when it could have ended in months? Who, if anyone, was the true winner when so much was lost?

(http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674088634)