The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran

My review deals specifically with that part of this book covering the 1987-1988 role of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf and the re-flagging of Kuwaiti tankers to American flag so as to allow US Navy close escort of these foreign-owned vessels.

Dr. Crist has ignored published materials which decisively refute the US government's distorted and dishonest version of key events during this period. His "original" research consists of interviews with key players who, to no surprise, continue to recite the same misleading, scripted lines drafted by the Reagan administration at the time of these events.

He also omits citing damaging material from within the government's own archives, and does so to an extent that one must question whether this omission is willful, and not just sloppiness of a hurried author.

Some examples:

pages 260-261 re "Operation Slipper":
Dr. Crist is flat wrong when he claims that CINCPACFLT Adm. Ace Lyons successfully and covertly moved the USS Guadalcanal from the Indian Ocean to Bahrain without CINCPAC Adm. Ron Hay's knowledge. An accident in a gun mount aboard the ship seriously injured a petty officer, requiring his evacuation to a facility with higher level medical care than was available on the Guadalcanal.
When this injury was reported by the ship in a casualty report message to CINCPAC, the surface operations section in the Honolulu command center noted that the reported (actual) location of the ship was no where close to the false location that had been reported as part of Adm. Lyon's planned covert movement of the ship.
Adm. Hays realized the seriousness of this act of insubordination, and initiated action to have Adm. Lyon's removed from his billet (as reported by Dr. Crist).

pages 363-370 re the USS Vincennes shoot down of Iranian commercial airliner on July 3, 1988:
The movement of a few Iranian F-14's from Bushehr to Bandar Abbas, took place, according to USN pilots who were briefed on this matter, due to a concern that the Iranian authorities considered certain crews at risk for defecting to Iraq, and was not due to any planned use of these air-to-air fighters in any possible air-to-surface mode.
The US was fully aware from these aircraft having been built in the US, that modifying them for this air-to-surface role was simply beyond the capability of the Iranian maintenance facilities.

Dr. Crist cites the July 2, 1988 incident wherein a Danish merchant ship was purportedly attacked by Iranian gunboats, which were then taken under fire by the USS Elmer Montgomery in a successful intervention with the result that the gunboats "promptly broke off their attack."
The reality, according to an officer aboard the Montgomery and several Navy carrier pilots who were monitoring the "attack," is very different. There was no attack by the Iranian gunboats, which were in the area, in international waters.
The Montgomery, was directed to fire at spurious targets (rain squalls showing on the ship's surface radar), in what was clearly an orchestrated bit of kabuki theater that permitted Washington to claim this (phoney) intervention demonstrated the increased resolve of the US to confront Iranian attacks on merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf.

Dr. Crist repeats the claim that on the morning of July 3, 1998, Iranian gunboats challenged a "Pakistani merchant ship... "
He neglects to mention that no such vessel existed, and that the Iranian challenges were based on phoney radio traffic generated by US forces.
This was the first event in a series of actions that culminated in the USS Vincennes, while several miles inside Iranian territorial waters, shooting down a commercial airliner which was itself in the sovereign airspace of Iran, and in an internationally recognized air corridor for such traffic.

The author writes that the captain of the Vincennes, "on his own volition moved his ship nearly fifty miles north of his assigned station... "
A senior officer on the Vincennes confirmed that the captain was operating under special orders, orders to which his nominal immediate commander was not privy. This is supported by the fact that the Vincennes had made several previous incursions into Iranian territorial waters or across the Iranian-declared "exclusion zone." A close review of ships' logs would have revealed this to Dr. Crist, and the fact that no other US warships operated in such a matter.
The idiocy of sending a billion-dollar Aegis cruiser into such waters with their probable Iranian mines, was not lost upon the members of the Vincennes crew and several later commented about the high levels of tension generated by such inappropriate and dangerous missions.

Dr. Crist selectively cites documentation from the DOD investigation of this incident, but does so in a disturbing pattern that ignores key information that would undermine his conclusion that, "Essentially, the tragedy was a function of the fog of war."
For example, he rightly says neither the pilot of the Iranian airliner nor the control tower at Bandar Abbas "knew that the flight path would take his Airbus directly over the Vincennes and the skirmish under way in the Gulf."
Ignored, but in the back-up documentation for the DOD investigation (and readily obtained by this writer in several requests under the Freedom Of Information Act), is a memorandum citing a conversation aboard the US flagship in Barhain. Participating were the admiral commanding forces in the Persian Gulf, his chief of staff, the SIGINT offricer and the senior staff intelligence officer. The subject was the SIGINT officer's report that he lacked any indicators that this "bogie" was anything other than what it was -- a commercial airliner.
There was no, repeat no, indicator of any of the normal "chatter," aka "tipoff" intel, that was always present prior to a military aircraft taking off from Bandar Abbas.
The US admiral considered this glaring lack of supporting intelligence, but nonetheless gave the order that after one more warning, the Vincennes captain would be free to fire upon the bogie.

The author then wrongly states, regarding warnings to the unidentified bogie, that "no response came from the aircraft."
The reality is again significantly different.
First, only the last warning, from the USS Sides, a US warship entering the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, included the key identifying information, i.e., the unique number of the IFF code being transmitted by the Airbus, that allowed the pilot to realize that this warning applied to his aircraft.
All the previous warnings lacked this essential information, and consequently did NOT conform to the required format that would have provided the IFF code for the pilot to recognize that he was the intended recipient.
To further compound Dr. Crist's flawed presentation, a careful analysis of the actual flight path of the Airbus, as reported in the report of the incident by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), would have shown that the pilot did in fact recognize that his aircraft was being warned by a US warship, and immediately turned to starboard in an attempt to leave the area. Unfortunately for the 290 innocent people aboard the airliner, the two Standard missiles fired by the Vincennes intercepted the Airbus before the turn-away was completed.

There are numerous other issues that could be raised about the inconsistent and flawed nature of Dr. Crist's presentation, but the above are sufficient to clearly show that on key events, granted in a relatively brief period for a book covering 30 years, this book is not a full and faithful accounting.
It is rather, largely a continuation of the US national security establishment's false, self-serving version of at least one important event, one which remains a black stain on our nation's and our navy's history.

Roger G. Charles
Lt.Col., USMC (Ret.)
Co-author, "Sea of Lies" - Newsweek cover story July 12, 1992

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Though I am by no means an "Iran expert," I have read enough about U.S.-Iran relations and the "Global War on Terror" to consider myself, at the risk of sounding self-promoting, a very knowledgeable person in that regard. So I did have a surface knowledge of many of the events Dr. Crist describes. Nonetheless, Dr. Crist was able to clarify the context of many of these events in a way that fully answered many lingering questions I had. For example, the knowledgeable reader will know that the Iran-Contra scandal stemmed from the Reagan administration's desire to free American hostages in Lebanon. What I did not appreciate was the extent to which Cold War calculations influenced the Iran part of Iran-Contra. These are the sorts of characteristics that transform a good study into an exceptionally excellent one. So aside from learning Farsi and knowing more about Iran's culture etc. to become an "Iran expert," I would say that to place today's current tensions in appropriate context, one only needs to read this book. I very much hope it is required reading at the graduate programs that turn out those who work in foreign policy and pertinent think tanks. Indeed, I'm truly tempted to say that this book is the equivalent of "Everything You Wanted To Know About The U.S. And Iran Since 1979." It is truly a shame that books by other "Iran experts" - real and self-anointed - have received more publicity. Dr. Crist, in my view, should be handling Iran policy at the NSC!

A good look at post-shah Iran and its regional strife, as seen through the eyes of major actors on all sides. It shows that foreign policy must have wise actors, served by good intelligence as well as informed cultural knowledge. See: Al Haig, urging US military support of Israel's invasion of Lebanon, and not aware of one million Palestinians between the Iraeli forces and their 'enemies'. The book highlights the perils in the US choosing to support, for example, the lesser perceived evil in Irag over one in Iran. Then too, smart guys in Army, CIA, State, White House having trouble being heard in forming the US response to a foreign crisis.

All in all, a well informed read.

Dr. Crist nailed it. This book is absolutely the best I've read on the operations we ran during that particular timeframe. He has painstakingly researched this account from all sides and lays out the events in a logical, easy to understand dialog that reads like a novel. I've noted that some of the previous reviews of this book fault Dr. Crist's accuracy. Having been the first commander of the Herc and on-scene in command during most of the major events in 1987, I can assure you that this book provides an accurate account. Infact, Dr. Crist sets the record straight and, speaking on behalf of my former crew, we thank Dr. Crist for writing this fine book. Read the book and you'll know who I am.

There is a point in this book where Christmas lights at the White House were turned out because President Carter wanted Americans to believe that energy was going to run out. That kind of bummer is still possible if you pay any attention to people who worry about the future. The global financial piracy has so many psychological operations vying for attention that the fate of nations is unlikely to bother most people as much as a solar flare or storm that cuts off electricity. I believe in a great power that is not the Supreme Being, but some people have gone so far in thinking that I am also reading a book by Walter Wink.

Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination

There was once an A. K. in Paris that the State Department did not talk to because he had called the United States the Great Satan.

If I learned something obscure from The Twilight War it was about a list of names that William Buckley carried in his pocket when he was CIA Station Chief in Lebanon, before he got sick and died as a hostage in Iran while old friends in Washington, D.C. were still trying to get hostages released.

A compelling and insightful account written by one of the country's foremost military historians. Dr. Crist not only documents the evolution of contemporary US-Iran relations, penetrating deep within the secrecy perpetuated by both nations, he also discusses the implication of precedent upon current national security policy. This is not your usual armchair analysis, it's an informed drama crafted by someone who is immersed in Mideast issues on a daily basis.

Dr. Crist interviewed me for this book. I am W. Patrick Lang. At the time he represented himself as a historian for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I wish he would have fact checked the text with me concerning the parts concerning me. There are several errors in the text. Most importantly, his failure to identify the piece of equipment mentioned on page 162 is a defect. It was the North korean made Koksan gun. Also,the Iranian artillery fire that he mentions as Francona. Lemon and I were leaving Basra was 2 miles from the Sheraton and was IMO coincidental.

Unbelievably insightful, non-partisan account of the complex military, diplomatic. and political history between the Islamic Republic and the US. Crist weaves in portraits of the key players with fast-paced breakdowns of the key events.

I personally love the book. It is thoughtful and well written. The author clearly is an expert and fell in love with the research here. The Twilight War really fills in the gaps in terms of things happening in current times and gives a back story to the issues with Iran. Highly recommended.

Dr. David Crist has produced an extraordinary historical account of US-Iranian relations since 1979 and I highly recommend either the hard copy or the kindle edition of the book. Looking foward to his next project.

I read the pre-release reviews in which it was confirmed that the author presented a unslanted view of the United States interaction with Iran for the last 35 years.That is the farthest from the truth than anything presented in this book.The author characterizes all Republican Presidents as older,average,distracted,egocentric,not very intellegent and warmongering.While claiming the Democrat presidents,including Carter and Obama were and are just members of the intellecgenia trying to get their point across the rest of the stupid world.Reagon is characterized as being non confrontational,unaware of what was going on while Carter,undoubtedly the worst President of the 20th century, as a real,intellegent,hard working leader of the highest order.The autrhor refers to all republican members of the intellegencia as "right wing intellegencia" while referring to the left wing intellegencia as just members of the intellegencia .He proclaims all of Washington D.C. monuments were built during the glorious "socialist" administrations of the 1920's.As far as can remember,the only monument dedicated in the 1920's was the Lincoln Monument.But what the heck,what are a few lies or untruths among friends! If I knew I was paying premium dollar for a kindle book,written by an extremely one sided political operative, whose facts are not a function of any truths I would not have bought it! There are many geopolitical books concerning this area of the world that vastly outshine this troubled book!Keep reading,there are many,much better reads out there than this one!

I was not greatly impressed by this book. it lacked clear historical perspective, was factually inaccurate in places, and lacked academic weight. It is written I the first person, and appears to be a narrative of Crist in the Persian (sic) Gulf. To my mind it adds little to the literature of the period and, in places, offers a view of matters that are no consonant with the reality.

Like most frauds Crist starts his analysis at a convenient point in history. That being the 1979 hostage crisis. He completely ignores the fact the US/CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran in the early 50s and set up a dictatorship. All for oil interests.