Uncle Sam: Supreme Guardian of the Saudi Crown
By HERMANN FR. EILTS

Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership
By Parker T. Hart. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998. Pp. 283. $35 cloth.)

“Putative external threats to Saudi Arabia remain a major factor in the Saudi leadership’s regional thinking. And there continues to be a Saudi recognition, however reluctant, that only the United States has the capability and the willingness to help the kingdom retain its independence in any such contingency.” [FULL TEXT]

The Arabists: WASP Missionaries to Arabia
By MICHAEL KOLODNER

The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite
By Robert D. Kaplan (New York: The Free Press, 1993. Pp. 333; 1995 reprint, $2.99 paper available at www.bookcloseouts.com.)

Kaplan “skillfully exposes how the clique of WASP missionary Arabists goes on to become the core of the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau at the State Department and how their perspectives shape American foreign policy for good and ill throughout the twentieth century.” [FULL TEXT]

The Great Game: A Duel of Intriguing Imperialists
By MICHAEL COTTER

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire In Central Asia.
By Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1999. Pp. xxv, 573. $35 cloth.)

Meyer and Brysac’s “rendering of the tales of the explorers, adventurers, spies, and archaeologists who ventured deep into the Eurasian heartland during this period makes intriguing reading.” [FULL TEXT]

Called to Serve: The Life of an American Envoy
By KENNETH P. VICKERY

Safirka: An American Envoy
By Peter Bridges (Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2000. Pp. xii, 227 $24 cloth.)

“Indeed, it is accurate to say there is no such thing as Somalia, or at least a Somali state, anymore; rather, a congeries of breakaway regional movements and warlord-driven zones.” [FULL TEXT]
 

 The American Metternich Remembers Realpolitik
By VICTOR FIC

“Kissinger’s supporters will invoke the memoirs as proof that he was the master conjurer behind magical diplomatic feats; his detractors will say that the book covers up his role as the evil warlock who destroyed Vietnam.” [FULL TEXT]

VENONA: The Cold War's "Smoking Gun"
By RORIN M. PLATT

“The authors claim that most of the 349 Americans identified by the Venona transcripts to be Soviet agents were members of the Moscow-controlled CPUSA, an ‘auxiliary’ of Soviet intelligence, whose active collaboration facilitated Stalin’s espionage offensive against the United States.” [FULL TEXT]