'This book succeeds as a comprehensive and convincing analysis of America's grand strategy in the Mediterranean. It is worthy of study by scholars of American diplomatic history, Anglo-U.S. relations, and, of course, the Mediterranean region during the Second World War. … scholars interested in the processes of peaceful power-transitions and how new global orders are constructed will find the work useful. Buchanan's engaging writing style will also appeal to even a casual reader of Second World War history interested in something beyond purely military-centric narratives of such an important period in human history.' Alexander Salt, Canadian Military History
Introduction; 1. 'The president's personal policy'; 2. The decision for Torch; 3. Keeping Spain out of the war: Washington's appeasement of Franco; 4. Torch, Darlan, and the French Maghreb; 5. 'The intricacies of colonial rule'; 6. 'Senior partners?'; 7. 'An investment for the future'; 8. The Tehran Conference and the Anglo-American struggle over the invasion of southern France; 9. Helping De Gaulle get his 'talons pretty deeply dug into France'; 10. Italy 'enters the postwar period'; 11. Spain, Wolfram, and the 'liberal turn'; 12. The Culbertson Mission and the open door; 13. 'Balkan-phobia?' The United States, Yugoslavia, and Greece, 1940–5; 14. 'We have become Mediterraneanites'.