Groups in the years of the cold why and government organizations made up of anticommunist private citizens engaged in cold war propaganda and it later emerged that these groups were being secretly funded and to some extent managed by the cia and one group that i really didnt engage with was the american friends of the middle east and it is purposed to do so much with the cold war and as with promoting the arab world to an american audience and it was also antizionists, that having the influence of the emerging israel lobby in 1950s america. This seems so odd and unexpected and i didnt really know quite what to do with it. So i mention it and then put my middle american friends to the one side. So i came back to the subject and story and began to delve into it further. I soon realized that the main office in the main cia officer involved in the creation of the american friends of the middle east was none other than current cameras about. This name might already be familiar to you before this evening because he is as a cia officer who had the 1953 coup operation that toppled nationalist government and restored the rule of the shah and as we just heard he was sort of an american aristocats and the grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and head of the cia middle east division of his command in 1953. Which is of course a classic case of blowback and it that might have averted a crisis at the time and this includes the u. S. And iranian hostility and i guess right away even before i started out i had two questions. First of which was what was the cia doing funniness proarab antizionist group, not what someone would expect the cia to be doing and why was Kim Roosevelt known as the enemy of nationalism and around and he backlist and among other things advocated for Arab Nationalists and i did a lot of research and government records and not so much the cias own records because they either remain classified or have been destroyed. But if you sneak around those in the state department with public records as well for me when a surprising amount of information about this during this time and private papers and interviews with surviving Intelligence Officers of the day as well as family members of my main characters. What emerged from this research was an account of the cia in the 1940s and the 1950s. The cia comes into existence in 1947 and this is also and its been very official with the u. S. Presence there prior to this time. To what we merged with its history and with its core and its partly a biography about him and it includes Archie Roosevelt and another grandson as well and a colorful and rambunctious personality with a very different background from the south from alabama compared with the results on the wrong side of the tracks and he later becomes less person and he was working with the Intelligence Agency on the affairs. This is also the father of stewart copeland, who is a drummer for the police come in case you did not know that. And now together these three men, they really helped to shape the cia and the Early Program in the middle east. As the involvement in the movement of 1953 suggests this involves creating quite a lot of disorder in the middle east in an attempt at the various operations that left a legacy of antiamericanism and that still troubles the u. S. And American Relations today. But at the same time these men were arabists and they knew a great deal about the arab world and they were surprisingly sympathetic towards it as well. Sincerely believe that they had the best interest at heart. So what this book attempts to do is capture the surprising moment when the cia was most definitely proarab and asked where did this arabists impulse come from. And where do you go and why did it become part of this and other u. S. Foreign policy. Well, just a sketch the answers to these questions which emerge from my research, as to whether this originated, to some extent it came from the british who are the dominant western power in the middle east prior to the region of the u. S. During the years of the cold war. The roosevelt cousins were captivated by the example of them, and they both grew up reading the account of his involvement in world war i and they had several pearls of wisdom. Roosevelts father actually knew him and corresponded with him. So they had this tradition of the romantic british attraction toward the arabs. And this is also where the concept came in and they read the British Empire and there is a story about a young anglo indians by in india which really shaped Kermit Roosevelts childhood and his imagination and this is where his nickname came from in his adult life. And i believe that it is from this british influence the cousins in particular, they have a place of potential of heroic espionage games. This is not the only influence. I think it is supposed to be that there was another tradition on which they drew and it was a sort of unofficial legacy left by a generation of american missionary that first started getting hearing in the 1800s and have not succeeded in converting many of the nonchristians or christianity. But they had left this important legacy in the region. They founded schools and american universities and a very important American Institution prior to the 1940s and the 1950s and it was a creation with those who identified with the air of nationalism between this and the creation of the nationalist ideology in the arab world. And in addition to this imperial tradition they are drawing upon this history of missionary engagement with the middle east. Which is transmitted with the cia with the number of people of missionary stock in the u. S. Espionage efforts during the world war ii characters like william eddy and his biographer thomas lippman, who is here tonight. So i think this is the explanation of starting this research which was what was the cia doing funding an organization like the american friends of the middle east and it also explains this within the young cia and why it was that they also organize a covert backing in egypt. So at the same time Kermit Roosevelt is overthrowing the nationalist Prime Minister of iran and he is aiding the cause of the Arab Nationalist leader of egypt and the government that was created in the egyptian resolution against king farouk. And Kermit Roosevelt dispatches a cia team led by Miles Copeland to cairo and his cover at this point is that of an Allen Hamilton employee and that they might be familiar to you because it was a company that employed Edward Snowden at the time of his revelation of nsa surveillance. The involvement and carter suggests that there is this kind of element of advertising or Public Relations and americans sort of know how to convey this to the master regime are not just us but a friend who has a background with the american Advertising Company jw thompson so i called it madman on the nile. It is this sort of mad men performing secret operations with the current element elements my story at this point. And so i wont go into anymore detail about the forms that arabism took and you can read about those in the book. I would like to say a few words about the decline of it. And why are so many antizionists and it ultimately fails and they became estranged from the United States and became quite antiamerican after 1956 and the u. S. Throws its weight not so much behind Arab Nationalists as behind conservatives and the leaders in the middle east. Meanwhile is advocating on behalf of this and it is attacking american sinus and suggesting that you shouldnt be so behind israel and this includes u. S. Identification with arab nationalism and that increasingly gives way to support for conservative regimes as well as foreign policy. And the airbus themselves as a group split up in 1958 and they have both gone to the oil industry and Archie Roosevelt stays there and then he is moved to another region. And so there were various forces undermining the program from the outside this includes John Foster Dulles and the secretary of state takes a strong personal dislike in the british have proved very effective at securing the american supported the antinationalist agenda in the middle east so that the u. S. Starts to go around the u. S. Client regimes in the region and conservative arab leaders themselves will also contribute to this new within the u. S. Foreign policy. And i think there is also the big internal problem with the cia and that is that they are so attracted to the tradition of the great game the resort to the covert operations in order to address u. S. Policy challenges in the middle east as well. And i think that this is particularly true of kermit was about who conjured up the great game. And just to return to that conundrum that i started out with, the friend of arab nationalism is working to overthrow a nationalist Prime Minister in the wrong and i think that pew study papers and you read his memoir of this event and the feeling of the cold war at end Iranian Oil Fields these are important considerations as they were for other americans involved in the planning of this operation. But for him personally i think what caused him to run this operation and see it through to the end was this desire to play spy games and act in the tradition of the individuals that they had inspired and his memoir of the 1953 operation was published rather unfortunately in 1979 with of course the iranian revolution and it almost is like an oldfashioned british adventure is what it reads like and in the tradition of kipling and so i just read this before in these similarities in this memoir of a cia operation. And so despite trying to overcome the British Imperial legacy by supporting Arab Nationalists, he ended up playing an american version of bests. And so what i will need to do with this now, what lessons if any can be drawn from this cia arabism. Im an academic and a historian. So im a little bit uncomfortable reflecting what the Current Affairs to avoid the presentism. And im not sure that the lessons are clear and they suggest that there is nothing noticeable about the conflict between the u. S. And the arab world. And there is an inevitable class of civilizations between americans and arabs. And this is Something Else that reviewers have pointed out and its striking how quickly they crossed to the other side of the road. And then if you can to support prowestern conservative regimes in the region. And aaron and improved a very slender margin indeed. That is that there is a foundational moment in the modern u. S. And middle east relations. From egypt to syria to iran. The origins can be traced to this foundational moment when the u. S. Established this in the middle east when the cia was there and ran the peace operations. So if you want to understand what is going on now, do you have to know about this area of history. So i thank you very much for your attention. [applause] i have two quick questions it was also full of nervous nervous in this area and i think George Marshall threatened to resign. It is very unhappy and these people connected with the state Department People and my second question is about suez. You talk about that in the book. For these three involved and that somehow . Thank you, those are great questions. Between him and the state department would henderson is important here theres another man called and when right it that was a leading state Department Arabist that would coach the young Archie Roosevelt when he first started having assignments in the middle east. And so it is its a widespread phenomenon and there a number of people that believe that an initially opposed the partition of palestine and the u. S. Recognition because it is a battle that they lose because of the power of the zionist in the American Public life is growing and support of the congressmen and so on. And of course there is going american Popular Support as well. And also because of the devastating impact of the holocaust. So it is phenomenal that it embraces both the state department and the cia. With regard to suez, they are not that personally involved except that they all claimed some intimations from british friends of theirs that something was wrong. Of course it should perhaps have presented them with a wonderful moment of opportunity and they effectively intervened on behalf of the arab world and against the british and the french as well. So by this point already John Foster Dulles has really become fed up with nasa and i think that the real story is they are in no way an aberration that are the main stories that are growing with distancing from the arab nationalism. And especially with britain in the region. So behind the scenes they are actually starting to grow closer together and this happens at the espionage level which kind of starts up in british and American Relations that leads to this. And the u. S. Kind of taking over britains imperial burden in the middle east in the years after suez. So thank you for those questions. You may have already answered this. But among all of the person on your book, are you saying that there is not one that thought there might be a problem of basic values and contradiction between islam and the west . The reason i say that is because from 1950 forward there are a number of individuals that saw a great deal of this. So there was not a single figure like that in the personnel of the arabist. Amongst them, no, there is this belief in a christian and muslim civilization to move closer together based with the religions in the way of life and they share so many things in common and for some of the older individuals like william eddy who is perhaps the founding father of u. S. Espionage in the middle east there is almost a mystical belief in the links between islam and christianity as well and he sees himself sort of as a bridge figure between the two civilizations and his happiest moment comes when he acts as the interpreter between Franklin Roosevelt and at the end of world war ii and it is in the book. And so he is the interpreter because he has this. And so im not sure that the roosevelt cousins had quite this kind of intense believe in the convergence of christianity and islam and its still there, i think. The American People are geared towards generating a dialogue and a theological conversation as well, something called the continuing committee on Muslim Christian corporation which the cia is funding by the american friends of the middle east. And so this is also and ultimately it becomes in the eyes of some u. S. Covert operatives in an effort of Political Warfare and funding this against the soviet union in the history of blowback which many of us are familiar with today. I think there is this intense belief and mutually reinforcing this dialogue between christians. You personally are familiar with those voices like john quincy adams. Yes, im guessing that amongst the group that i am describing, they can subscribe to that view. Okay. Hello. A couple of questions. First of all, how united would you say the arabists word when you look at how many different movements you had emerging simultaneously and there was plenty of internal conflict today maybe not quite as intense but fairly intense. How united were they and do you see examples where there were real breaks within the group and then the two roosevelt individuals, asking you about this. What do you say would he have been on their side or do you think you might have been as you call it the conservative standard American Interest side of the equation, if there is even a way to speculate at . I think in regards to the possibility i think that they are fairly concerted in terms of their values and what they have for the arab world. And it is the more inclined to covert action. And they will get a little bit more cautious and even conservative in their approach. But nonetheless even he actually in 1956 and 1957 was involved in the operation to overthrow the government of syria and trying to repeat this that he had performed in 1953 and there is a was a little bit of personal rivalry between them as well and fencing themselves as the main guy in the cias middle east division and that was a role that he currently had acquired. And i think that there was a little bit i think he would occasionally go as well. That this is a personality and so it in regards to the likely views, he saw that he believed that the u. S. Should be the successor in the region i suspect he would have approved of this for manly adventure. And i think that there is a sense that is sort of his attempt to have his own story like his grandfather and what other. There is the ghost of Theodore Roosevelt is always hovering with this generation and a benign presence and also one that he never quite measures up here. So there is this element within the roosevelt family as well. Thank you. Hello. I look forward to reading your book. I wanted to know if youre familiar with the Kings Council . Yes, thats a recent publication . Yes, it was published in 2011 and he was station in the middle east in the 60s and 70s. And he gives an account of the cias role in the middle east during that time. Are you familiar with the book in that portion of the history of the agency during the 60s and 70s if youd like to comment on a . Su