The Iran-Iraq War

by Pierre Razoux, Nicholas Elliott (Translator)

Overview

From 1980 to 1988 Iran and Iraq fought the longest conventional war of the century. It included tragic slaughter of child soldiers, use of chemical weapons, striking of civilian shipping, and destruction of cities. Pierre Razoux offers an unflinching look at a conflict seared into the region’s collective memory but little understood in the West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674088634
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/03/2015
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

Pierre Razoux is Research Director at IRSEM (Institute for Strategic Research) in Paris.

Table of Contents

Cover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Maps
Preface
Abbreviations
The Media War
Saddam Chooses War
Final Preparations
The Forces on the Field
Chapter 2. Saddam’s Qadisiyyah
Saddam’s Falcons Kick Off the War
The Iranian Eagles Strike Back
The Ground Offensive
Attacking Khuzestan
The Iraqis Grind to a Halt outside Khorramshahr
Old Border Disputes
Enter Saddam Hussein
The Rivalry for Regional Supremacy
The Algiers Accord
Ayatollah Khomeini’s Arrival in Tehran Changes the Game
Saddam Takes Power
Chapter 4. Did the United States Push Saddam to Attack?
The Islamic Revolution Muddies the Waters
The Carter Doctrine
Washington Announces Its Neutrality
Moscow Punishes Baghdad and Courts Tehran
Beijing Banks on Baghdad
Iraq, the New Eldorado for French Industrialists
Eurodif at the Heart of the Franco-Iranian Dispute
Mitterrand Backs Saddam
Scattered Europeans
Chapter 6. The Arabs Divided
King Hussein of Jordan, Herald of the Pro-Iraqi Camp
Oman, Egypt, and Algeria’s Leaders Refuse to Align Themselves
Hafez Al-Assad, Leader of the Pro-Iranian Camp
The Gulf Cooperation Council Steps In
Chapter 7. Israel Banks on Iran and Turkey Benefits from the War
A Pragmatic Strategy
Turkey, the Silent Victor
Chapter 8. The “Valmy” Effect
Prioritizing the Internal Front
Combat Starts Again
The Fall of Khorramshahr and the Siege of Abadan
The Southern Front Prioritized
Air Duels over Khuzestan
Air and Sea Battle at the Mouth of the Shatt Al-Arab
A Highly Disappointing Initial Assessment for Baghdad
The Failure of the First Iranian Counteroffensive
A New Front Opens in Kurdistan
Raid on H-3
Osirak Out of Commission
The Elimination of the Secularists
Resurgence of Tension between Paris and Tehran
Rafsanjani and Khamenei Share Power
New Leader, New Doctrine
The Rescue of Abadan
On the Way to Jerusalem
The Iraqi Sappers Hard at Work
A Hard Blow for Baghdad
An Encouraging Victory
Chapter 13. New Mediation
The International Community at a Loss
Guarded Indifference in the Rest of the World
Washington Initiates Rapprochement with Baghdad
Iranian Kurdistan
Chapter 14. The Iranians Recapture Their Territory
The Liberation of Khorramshahr
Strategic Withdrawal
Rafsanjani and Khomeini Agree to Continue the War
Iranian Troops Enter Iraq
Oil Blockade
Autumn Offensives
Moscow and Beijing Hone Their Strategies
Chapter 16. Bloody Dawns
War of Attrition
Dawn 1
Return to Kurdistan
Chapter 17. Saddam’s Ace in the Hole
The Iraqi Equivalent of Enigma
Accelerated Training
Human Intelligence
Bargaining Chip
The Iranians Seize the Majnoon Islands
Chapter 18. The Lebanese Hostage Crisis
France in Iran’s Crosshairs
Raid on Baalbek
American Retaliation
Tehran Punishes Washington
France Changes Course
Paris Negotiates with Tehran
Chapter 19. Money Has No Smell
Business Is Business
The Luchaire Scandal
Chemical Weapons under Scrutiny
The War of the Cities
Raid on Bushehr
The Tanker War
The Fahd Line
The Air Force on the Front Line
Mines in the Red Sea
Maintaining Troop Morale
The Kurdish Independence Movement Forces Turkey into a Rapprochement with Iraq
Chapter 21. The Year of the Pilot
The Second Battle of the Marshes
Another War of the Cities
Guerilla Warfare in Iraqi Kurdistan
The Presidential Election in Iran
Chapter 22. Oil and the War Machine
Washington and Riyadh Agree on a New Oil Policy
The Soviets Change Tactics Again
Objective Kharg
The Sacrifice of the Basijis
The Iranians Capture the Al-Faw Peninsula
The Iraqis Counterattack
Combat Shifts to Iraqi Kurdistan
Hafez Al-Assad Ups the Ante
On the Road to Karbala
Escalating Tension between Tehran and Ankara
Hunting Season Begins
The Mirages Strike in the Gulf
Chapter 25. The Iran-Contra Affair
The Israeli Connection
Arms for Hostages
Conflicts of Interest in Tehran
A Disastrous Outcome for Washington
Chapter 26. All-Out Offensives
The Assault on Basra
The “Mother of All Battles”
At the Gates of Basra
Chapter 27. Iran Changes Strategy
Military, Diplomatic, and Commercial Maneuvers
The Attack on the USS Stark
Mines in the Gulf
The Al-Anfal Campaign
The Gordji Affair Forces France to Intervene in the Gulf
Operation Prométhée
Chapter 28. The Gulf Set Ablaze
The United States Takes Direct Action
Iran Defies the U.S. Navy
The American Navy Retaliates
The Iraqi Army Ups the Ante
Tehran Starts the War of the Capitals
The Gassing of the Kurds
The Iraqi Army Recaptures the Al-Faw Peninsula
Chapter 30. The Destruction of Iran Air Flight 655
Air and Sea Battle in the Gulf
The Iraqis Recapture Their Other Lost Territories
The Destruction of an Iran Air Airbus
Revenge, Iranian Style
Ayatollah Khomeini Approves the End of Hostilities
Final Clashes
Paris and Tehran Settle Their Accounts
A Terribly Deadly War
Epilogue
A New Geopolitical Situation
What Military Lessons Can Be Retained?
Are the Political Lessons Applicable Today?
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
Notes
Sources
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

Once a decade, a book appears in which the creative genius and technical skill of the author perfectly match a vast subject. The French defense expert Pierre Razoux’s book on the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq war is superb and hugely topical… Razoux has a brilliant and economical way of making what became huge and complex battles intensely readable (the maps are excellent too)… This is a masterwork and anyone interested in where Iran goes next—for Iraq will surely cease to be a unitary state—should read the historian of real genius.

The Times - Michael Burleigh

What emerges in illuminating detail from Razoux’s study is the impact of the power struggle between Ayatollah Khomeini’s two protégés, the men he promoted and protected till the end of his life in June 1989, and left in charge of a house divided by their rivalry: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Hosseini Khamenei.

London Review of Books - Joost Hiltermann

This is an important book, not least for the time devoted to it: ten years’ work by the author, with hundreds of meetings and interviews, unpublished archives, and the deciphering of the famous audiotapes of Saddam Hussein and his staff. And for the first time, Iranian sources are included as well… Razoux examines the military dimension with a knack for detail and a commanding narrative sense, but also addresses the political, diplomatic, and economic aspects.

Libération Week-End

Razoux’s detailed, wide-ranging and elegantly written account is the best hope we have of seeing this epoch-defining conflict for what it was. Drawing on a decade of research, during which he accessed Saddam's audio records of military and political meetings, investigated Iranian sources and conducted countless interviews with military, political and business figures from around the world, Razoux gives the reader a uniquely broad and deep look at the conflict…One of the most fascinating insights this book offers is its illustration of the impact the conflict had on the Islamic Republic of Iran and how that nation moved from fledgling revolutionary state to an established Islamic theocracy…Razoux’s excellent and lucidly translated study does this awful conflict justice in an even-handed and professional manner. It is a must read for anyone with an interest in Iran, Iraq and the region as it stands today.

Literary Review - C. P. W. Gammell

[A] heavyweight work of history…[Razoux] brings a cool, factual approach to a large subject that has hitherto received too little attention…Razoux’s deep research and analytical style make the book something of a general-staff history…It adds up to something extraordinary.

Wall Street Journal - Bartle Bull

Using published Western sources, interviews, still-classified French intelligence reports, and the translated transcripts of the audio tapes Saddam kept of all his meetings, Razoux…has produced a blow-by-blow military history which is the first significant reappraisal of the war since the downfall of Saddam…Razoux writes well on the interplay of war and politics (and has been translated well and sympathetically); there are many insights and telling anecdotes.

Times Literary Supplement - James Barr

Oddly this war isn’t discussed much any more, even though it is arguably the breakthrough event for the ongoing collapse of parts of the Middle East…I found Pierre Razoux’s The Iran-Iraq War to be a highly readable and useful account.

Marginal Revolution - Tyler Cowen

Although it was the longest war of the 20th century and caused over a million casualties, the Iran-Iraq War is largely forgotten by the Western world outside of a few military analysts and Middle East scholars…In spite of the ramifications of this war, a complete and readable single volume narrative has not been written in the West, until now. Razoux…has written a comprehensive and engrossing account of this war. Using a wealth of new or untapped sources, including the complete set of transcripts of the American debriefing of Saddam Hussein after his capture in 2004 and numerous interviews with Iranian and Iraqi commanders, Razoux provides unique insights into the strategic and operational thinking of both sides throughout the war…What makes this book so useful to both military historians and students of Middle Eastern politics is that Razoux is able to incorporate a complete look at the ripples caused by this conflict throughout the Middle East and within the Cold War as a whole…There is almost nothing occurring in the Middle East today that wasn’t somehow influenced by this virtually unknown war. It has been long overdue for a comprehensive single-volume history, which this book ably fulfills. This is definitely a volume that both military historians and Middle Eastern scholars should have on their bookshelf.

New York Journal of Books - Jerry D. Lenaburg

The Iran–Iraq War marked a turning point in the history of the Middle East. One cannot comprehend the situation in the Gulf today—the Iranian nuclear program or the political crises in Baghdad and Tehran—without understanding the frustrations and fears that sprang from that war.

Diplomatie

This is an impressive, well-researched account of a conflict that helped define the modern Middle East, and it explains, as Razoux shows, much subsequent Iraqi and Iranian history… Razoux brilliantly links the conflict to the regional and Great Power politics of the period… Thus the Iran–Iraq war led directly into post–Cold War geopolitics and conflict. Razoux has produced the best book available on this important war.

Military History - Jeremy Black

The chapter on the tribulations of the Iranian child-soldiers is poignant, the one on the torment of the Kurds gassed at Halabja overwhelming… It is impossible to grasp the Iraqi and Iranian crises of the twenty-first century without going back to this first, brutal war in the Gulf.

Le Monde

This is an important book, not least for the time devoted to it: ten years’ work by the author, with hundreds of meetings and interviews, unpublished archives, and the deciphering of the famous audiotapes of Saddam Hussein and his staff. And for the first time, Iranian sources are included as well… Razoux examines the military dimension with a knack for detail and a commanding narrative sense, but also addresses the political, diplomatic, and economic aspects.

Libération Week-End