The early years of Syrian-US relations can be described as hopes dashed,
hopes revived. Although American missionaries had visited the Middle
East in the nineteenth century, it was not until after World War I that
Syrian and US dignitaries met in an official capacity. The relationship
had its ups-and-downs: warm under Woodrow Wilson; virtually non-existent
under Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge; revived under Franklin
Roosevelt when Syria sided with the Allies to declare war on Nazi
Germany. In the aftermath of World War II, the relationship took a new
turn, as the US was accused of involvement in the series of coups and
counter-coups that rocked the young republic from 1949 until the
ill-fated Syrian-Egyptian union of 1958. Engagement and the right to
self-determination were the rule of the game in the post-Wilson era, but
this quickly transformed into espionage and covert activity during the
Cold War when the US saw Syria as a Soviet proxy in the Middle East. In
the forty years between 1919 and 1959, envoys from the White House,
along with presidential candidates from both the Republican and
Democratic parties, Secretaries of State, and US celebrities like
Eleanor Roosevelt and Helen Keller all came to Damascus and reported -
in many different ways - their observations. Featuring original research
and previously unpublished material, this book will be essential reading
for scholars of the Middle East and US Diplomatic History and
twentieth-century International Relations.
