There are many events that occur in this world that, at the time of their occurrence, are not well understood by the public at large (often because of deliberate mis information being released by the governments involved). In addition, the individuals who make decisions regarding what to do, especially in time of war, do not want to compromise the sources of the information they used to make their decisions. This book does an excellent job of presenting detailed background information, much of which is supposedly gleaned from "old spies" as to some of the information, and dis information, used by various individuals to make very momentus decisions that related to foreign policy and the conduct of war. While the title of the book is somewhat misleading (a better title would be "keep the oil flowing and the US supreme in the Middle East)
the discussion of intelligence, counter intelligence, and personal biases holds your attention. The main weakness of the book is relying on the word of unnamed "old spies", however the book is well footnoted for further research if one was so inclined.
The revelation that the British still have a desk at the National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, dating from a World War II, whereby the British can wiretap US Citizens (without a court order), and then share the information from that wiretap with any US Agency (under another WWII agreement still in force relative to sharing of intelligence information), thereby allowing a US Government agency to obtain wiretap information on US Citizens without getting a court order is especially interesting.
I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the world of foreign policy, intrigue, and intelligence methods.