A stunning new narrative of the road to America's Longest War in which the US's premier diplomatic historian excavates the roots of the American misadventure in Iraq. Here, Gardner illuminates a vital historical thread connecting Walt Whitman Rostow's defense of US intervention in Southeast Asia, Brzezinski's renewed attempts to protect American power into the arc of crisis' and the efforts of both Bush administrations to establish a 'landing zone' in the Iraq region.'