The World of the Roosevelts Published In Cooperation with The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Hyde Park, New York Series Editor: David B. Woolner General Editors: William E. Leuchtenburg, William vanden Heuvel, and Douglas Brinkley FDR AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Foreign Perceptions of an American President Edited by Cornelis A. van Minnen and John F. Sears NATO: THE FOUNDING OF THE ATLANTIC ALLIANCE AND THE INTEGRATION OF EUROPE Edited by Francis H. Heller and John R. Gillingham AMERICA UNBOUND World War II and the Making of a Superpower Edited by Warren F. Kimball THE ORIGINS OF U.S. NUCLEAR STRATEGY, 1945 1953 Samuel R. Williamson, Jr. and Steven L. Rearden AMERICAN DIPLOMATS IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1815 50 Cornelis A. van Minnen EISENHOWER, KENNEDY, AND THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE Pascaline Winand ALLIES AT WAR The Soviet, American, and British Experience, 1939 1945 Edited by David Reynolds, Warren F. Kimball, and A. O. Chubarian THE ATLANTIC CHARTER Edited by Douglas Brinkley and David R. Facey-Crowther PEARL HARBOR REVISITED Edited by Robert W. Love, Jr. FDR AND THE HOLOCAUST Edited by Verne W. Newton THE UNITED STATES AND THE INTEGRATION OF EUROPE Legacies of the Postwar Era Edited by Francis H. Heller and John R. Gillingham ADENAUER AND KENNEDY A Study in German-American Relations Frank A. Mayer THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE A Study in Presidential Statecraft William N. Tilchin TARIFFS, TRADE AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, 1947 1957 From Study Group to Common Market Wendy Asbeek Brusse SUMNER WELLES FDR s Global Strategist A Biography by Benjamin Welles THE NEW DEAL AND PUBLIC POLICY Edited by Byron W. Daynes, William D. Pederson, and Michael P. Riccards WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE Edited by Charles F. Brower
FDR AND THE U.S. NAVY Edward J. Marolda THE SECOND QUEBEC CONFERENCE REVISITED Edited by David B. Woolner THEODORE ROOSEVELT, THE U.S. NAVY, AND THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR Edited by Edward J. Marolda FDR, THE VATICAN, AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA, 1933 1945 Edited by David B. Woolner and Richard G. Kurial FDR AND THE ENVIRONMENT Edited by Henry L. Henderson and David B. Woolner VAN LOON: POPULAR HISTORIAN, JOURNALIST, AND FDR CONFIDANT Cornelis A. van Minnen FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT S FOREIGN POLICY AND THE WELLES MISSION J. Simon Rofe FDR S WORLD War, Peace, and Legacies Edited by David B. Woolner, Warren F. Kimball, and David Reynolds ROOSEVELT AND FRANCO DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR From the Spanish Civil War to Pearl Harbor Joan Maria Thomàs HARRY HOPKINS Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer June Hopkins ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AND ADLAI STEVENSON Richard Henry GEORGE C. MARSHALL Servant of the American Nation Edited by Charles F. Brower ROOSEVELT, FRANCO, AND THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR Joan Maria Thomàs FDR AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION Flying Strong, Flying Free Alan P. Dobson THE DIPLOMATIC EDUCATION OF FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 1882 1933 Graham Cross FDR AND THE END OF EMPIRE The Origins of American Power in the Middle East Christopher D. O Sullivan
FDR and the End of Empire The Origins of American Power in the Middle East CHRISTOPHER D. O SULLIVAN
FDR AND THE END OF EMPIRE Copyright Christopher D. O Sullivan, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-1-137-02524-1 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43885-3 ISBN 978-1-137-02525-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137025258 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Maeve
Previous Publications Colin Powell: A Political Biography (2010) Sumner Welles: Postwar Planning and the Quest for a New World Order (2008) The United Nations: A Concise History (2005)
Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: A New Deal for the Middle East 1 1. FDR and the End of Empire in the Middle East 11 2. Iraq Between Two Empires: Great Britain, Arab Nationalism, and the Origins of American Power 27 3. The New Deal on the Nile: Challenging British Power in Egypt 49 4. Iran: A Testing Ground for the Atlantic Charter 69 5. FDR and Saudi Arabia: Forging a Special Relationship 89 6. Palestine: The Paradox of Self-Determination 105 7. FDR s Road to Damascus: The United States, the Free French, and American Principles on Trial in the Levant 127 Conclusion: Sowing the Dragon s Teeth: The Origins of American Empire in the Middle East 147 Notes 155 Bibliography 197 Index 203
Acknowledgments This book would never have been possible without the support and encouragement of a number of people. I am grateful to David Woolner, executive director of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, for suggesting the book for the World of the Roosevelts series. The editorial team at Palgrave Macmillan, particularly my editor Chris Chappell, as well as Sarah Whalen and Joel Breuklander, have all deftly steered me through the publication process. Sumathi R. Ellappan also provided copyediting expertise. Several institutions afforded me critical support. The Fulbright program and the Jordanian-American Commission for Educational Exchange, and, in particular, their executive director, Alain McNamara, provided research support and created an environment for scholarship and fellowship during my recent year at the University of Jordan. The American Historical Association s National History Center and its founding director, William Roger Louis, generously granted me their decolonization summer fellowship for work at the National Archives and the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. I am much obliged to all of the members of the summer seminar but particularly Jason Parker, Mairi MacDonald, and Pillarisetti Sudhir. The Center for International Studies at the London School of Economics provided me with a visiting fellowship to conduct research in the British National Archives. I am indebted to their director, John Kent, for sharing his perspectives about the end of empire in the Middle East and for first sparking my interest in the topic during his lively Middle East seminar. The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute granted me the Isador Lubin- John Winant research fellowship for work in the archives at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, where I was assisted by their fabulous team at Hyde Park, led by the incomparable Bob Clark and his unstintingly helpful archivists including Sarah Malcolm, Mark Renovitch, Matt Hanson, Virginia Lewick, Robert Parks and Karen Anson. Finally, the Andrew Mellon Foundation furnished me with a generous research grant for exploration of archives in Washington, DC, and London. My student research assistants, Sarah Reinheimer, Steve Schulz, Rylan Albright, Elizabeth Moorhatch, and
x Acknowledgments Ross Psyhogios deserve special mention for their enthusiasm and support, as do friends and colleagues at the University of San Francisco such as Cheryl Czekala, Tony Fels, Mike Stanfield, Marty Clausen, and Elliot Neaman; as well as friends from the University of Jordan, particularly Reem Dababneh, Eileen and Ed Lundy, Hala Abu Taleb, and Manaf Damluji (who shared with me his fascinating insights about the British and the American experiences in Iraq). Many others have assisted in innumerable ways, including supportive friends and family such as Barbara Sutro Ziegler, Ellen and Pip Danby, Ali Tuysuz, Patricia al-ani, Tom Belton, Kendis Camacho, Erika Spears, Sean Hasson, Paddy and Ursula O Kane, Mike and Gail Lynch, Shoka Marefat, Beth Klein, Natalie Kamajian, Sarah Goss, Susan Goss, Gary Goss, Arthur Rosenthal, Richard Andolsen, John Devincenzi, Monica Dunne, Mary Madden, Michael McGandy, Alonzo O Sullivan and Saundra Livesay. My father and fellow historian, Gen. Curtis Hoop O Sullivan, who served in the US Army in North Africa and the Middle East during the period covered in this book, offered his customary remarkable observations. And, finally, I am forever grateful to Maeve, to whom this book is dedicated, who always went the extra mile, from Istanbul to Cairo, with Amman, Damascus, Jerusalem, and Beirut in between, without complaint and always with a smile.