Persian Gulf Commandis the story of the travails of state development in Iran and Iraq, of diplomacy, geopolitics, and the age-old contest between imperialism and nationalism. It is a tale of invasions, coups d’état, logistics, covert operations, scorched earth, high politics, and warfighting on land and in the air, set against the backdrop of local societies suffering the familiar blights of world war, including rampant inflation, food shortages, rationing, friction between occupying forces and civilian populations, and the migration of refugees. It is a story that begins with the interwar evolution of the Iranian and Iraqi states, one under the Qajar dynasty, the other under the Hashemite, a process shaped by the proximity of great powers and the presence of oil, and ends with the recolonization of Iraq and intense intra-Allied competition in Iran.
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