Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding

by Haqqani, Husain
ISBN: 9781610394734
Availability:
  • Online Only
$5.99
Used - Trade Paperback - 9781610394734

Available Offers


Pickup at {0} Out of stock at {0} Check other stores
FREE -
Ship to Me
$3.99 -

Overview

The relationship between America and Pakistan is based on mutual incomprehension and always has been. Pakistan--to American eyes--has gone from being a quirky irrelevance, to a stabilizing friend, to an essential military ally, to a seedbed of terror. America--to Pakistani eyes--has been a guarantee of security, a coldly distant scold, an enthusiastic military enabler, and is now a threat to national security and a source of humiliation.

The countries are not merely at odds. Each believes it can play the other--with sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic, results. The conventional narrative about the war in Afghanistan, for instance, has revolved around the Soviet invasion in 1979. But President Jimmy Carter signed the first authorization to help the Pakistani-backed mujahedeen covertly on July 3--almost six months before the Soviets invaded. Americans were told, and like to believe, that what followed was Charlie Wilson's war of Afghani liberation, with which they remain embroiled to this day. It was not. It was General Zia-ul-Haq's vicious regional power play.

Husain Haqqani has a unique insight into Pakistan, his homeland, and America, where he was ambassador and is now a professor at Boston University. His life has mapped the relationship of the two countries and he has found himself often close to the heart of it, sometimes in very confrontational circumstances, and this has allowed him to write the story of a misbegotten diplomatic love affair, here memorably laid bare.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Haqqani, Husain
  • ISBN: 9781610394734
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 8.00 x 1.20
  • Number Of Pages: 432
  • Publication Year: 2015
Language: English