Support Any Friend: Kennedy's Middle East and the Making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance

by Warren Bass

Book Overview

They were three of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century: David Ben-Gurion, Israel's indomitable founding father; Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, the charismatic Arab nationalist; and the young and dynamic John F. Kennedy. Now Warren Bass illuminates these three extraordinary men and their diplomatic struggles at the height of the Cold War, offering stunning new insights into the origins of today's Middle East.
The Kennedy period, Bass writes, was no "mere place-marker between Suez and the Six Day War, between the martial frostiness of Dwight Eisenhower and the Texas warmth of Lyndon Johnson." He shows how Kennedy sought greater influence in the Arab world, offering more foreign aid and a new diplomatic overture to Nasser, the Arab world's leading radical. For a while, Kennedy and Nasser engaged in a rich personal correspondence. But the rapprochement was cut short by Nasser's impulsive intervention in Yemen's civil war, which led Kennedy to deploy fighter jets in Saudi Arabia as a warning to Egypt. Meanwhile, Kennedy made the first major U.S. arms sale to Israel, providing it with advanced Hawk anti-aircraft missiles--a crucial policy shift that marks the origins of America's alliance with the Jewish state. But Kennedy also feared that Israel would get the bomb and demanded that Ben-Gurion open his secret nuclear reactor to U.S. inspectors, leading to a grave confrontation. Ultimately, Israel agreed to inspections--but continued its nuclear weapons program under the cover of intense secrecy.
Drawing on meticulous research, Warren Bass paints a fresh, elegant portrait of the pivotal presidency that helped create the modern Middle East.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195165802
• ISBN13: 9780195165807
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 9.6" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Superb view of Kennedy's Middle East policies

This book and "Death of a Generation" are the two best I've read about President Kennedy's foreign policy record. If you have any interest in how the United States and Israel got into the relationship that exists now, this book will be of great interest. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Presidential history.

A Tour de Force

This book is both a great read and a significant work of scholarship. Bass covers the territory with panache and depth, providing a thoughtful, nuanced look at the origins of the US-Israel relationship. His writing is crisp, inviting and colorful - it is hard to forget the manifold and varied picture he creates of the giants of history who forged the very policies whose repercussions we feel so stunningly today. It is also very hard to put the book down. Such a combination is rare and welcome, and makes this book a must for anyone even remotely interested in the Middle East and America (which should be all of us, these days...).

Smart stuff!

This is the best of the new Kennedy books out there. I'd read Bass's smart writings on the Middle East in various newspapers and magazines, but his book is another achievement altogether. He delves deeply into the documentary record -- finding and interpreting the paper trail on JFK's Middle East policy like no other historian I know of. You get that you-are-there, page-turning sensation of popular history along with a mind-boggling amount of original research and smart analysis. But what really made me love this book is Bass's style, which is clever, witty, smooth, salted with great turns of phrase. If you're interested in Kennedy or the Middle East -- or politics in general -- you'll want to read this book (and you'll spend your weekend unable to put it down).

Brilliant!

Impeccable research and solid writing from a historian who has no ax to grind, just a simple desire to explain the origins of U.S.-Israeli friendship.

Superb!!

This superb history of Kennedy's Mid-East policy wins the trifecta - it is rigorously substantive, beautifully written, and shockingly timely. Bass draws masterfully on documentary sources (many never before available) to bring JFK, Ben Gurion and Nasser to life. Touching on topics like nuclear inspections and American support for the conservative Saudi regime, the book has a fascinating historical perspective on some of the most vexing issues of today. It is a must-read for anyone interested in JFK, Israel, or America's relationship with the Arab world.