Becoming Enemies brings the unique methods of critical oral history, developed to study flashpoints from the Cold War such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, to understand U.S. and Iranian relations from the fall of the Shah in 1978 through the Iranian hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq 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, Becoming Enemies 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.

James G. Blight, Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) chair in Foreign Policy Development, Balsillie School of International Relations, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

janet M. Lang, research professor, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Hussein Banai, assistant professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College.

Malcolm Byrne, Deputy Director, National Security Archive at George Washington University, Washington, DC.

John Tirman, Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.