The Iran-Iraq War lasted from September 1980 to August 1988, dominating the landscape of the Middle East and polarizing many of the world's nations for nearly a decade. This new work analyzes the United States' policy towards this vicious and extremely costly war, and questions the veracity of America's claims of strict neutrality.

The contents of "Covert Relationship: American Foreign Policy, Intelligence, and the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988" can be broken down into five sections: the conflict's origins, the Carter administration's response to the war, the Reagan administration's actions,...