America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East

From the 9/11 attacks to waterboarding to drone strikes, relations between the United States and the Middle East seem caught in a downward spiral. And all too often, the Central Intelligence Agency has made the situation worse. But this crisis was not a historical inevitability -- far from it. Indeed, the earliest generation of CIA operatives was actually the region's staunchest western ally.

In America's Great Game, celebrated intelligence historian Hugh Wilford reveals the surprising hist...