Twin Pillars to Desert Storm is an insider's account of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The book explains how Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush relied on a flawed vision to protect American interests, a vision that eventually led the United States to go to war against its erstwhile ally Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. Interweaving fascinating revelations and Howard Teicher's own extraordinary experiences working for the U.S. government with key events in Washington and the Middle East, the authors show how traditional competition for influence with the Soviet Union and the need to maintain Western access to Middle Eastern oil led America to rely on the twin pillars of Iran and Saudi Arabia to protect vital interests following the withdrawal of Great Britain from the Persian Gulf in 1971. With the collapse of the Iranian pillar in 1979, Washington tried to woo Baghdad away from its close relationship with the Soviet Union, hoping that Iraq could serve as a bulwark against the anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism of Ayatollah Khomeini. But just as the experts failed to anticipate the Iranian revolution and the collapse of U.S. policy, so too did they ignore the ruthless nature and stated ambitions of Saddam Hussein. As Middle East radicals waged unconventional warfare against the United Stages through state-sponsored terrorism in Lebanon and elsewhere, the debate in Washington over U.S.-Israeli relations and the proper role of military power escalated to a fierce and acrimonious struggle between the secretaries of state and defense. The ensuing policy gridlock led to the Iran-contra scandal and a sudden epidemic of "forgetfulness," which spread through the offices of the president, vice president, and the Departments of State and Defense. Anxious to limit the damage to America's position in the Arab world, and despite Baghdad's use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds and its attack on the U.S.S. Stark, the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush embraced Saddam Hussein and directed the national security bureaucracy to strengthen Iraq. The inevitable result of this flawed vision was Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.