In this excellent account of U.S.-Iranian relations during the administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, Roham Alvandi offers “yet another example” (p. 3) of how the Cold War was shaped by Third World “client states” that found ways to manipulate their superpower partners. For Iran, the turning point was the Nixon Doctrine, with its devolution of responsibility to regional allies. The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, astutely seized the opportunity to transform his country from client to partner, making Iran the linchpin of regional stability from the U.S. perspective. As Alvandi's careful account shows, Iran wielded significant influence over how the United States chose to fight the Cold War in the Middle East.
Following a chapter on U.S.-Iranian relations in the early Cold War—a period when the Shah complained of being treated like a “concubine” rather than a wife (p. 46)—Alvandi shows how the Iranian leader...