Dark Crusade: Christian Zionism and US Foreign Policy »

Clifford A. Kiracofe, Jr., teaches political science at Washington and Lee University and history at the Virginia Military Institute. He was formerly a Senior Professional Staff Member of the United States Senate on Foreign Relations and has extensive inside experience of American federal government. His previous books (in collaboration with Pierre de Villemarest) include a history of Soviet military intelligence (1988), and a history of the STASI (1991), both written in French.

Despite its efforts to promote peace and instil democracy in the region, America is viewed by many in the Middle East as a dishonest broker waging a "dark crusade" against its enemies: in covert collaboration with Israel. The crucial hostility to Arab and Palestinian interests of the so-called "Zionist lobby" in the US has long been recognized. But it is another less familiar element in US politics that increasingly calls the shots on Capitol Hill, directing the course of American foreign policy there: Christian Zionism. Christian Zionists now influence not only the Republican Party, but also the White House and Congress. Protestant fundamentalists are anticipating the end of the world and they have long made common cause with the most extreme political elements in the state of Israel. But why? Jews and fundamentalist Christians hardly look like natural allies. Adhering to a feverish apocalyptic ideology, Christian Zionists nevertheless believe that restoration of the entire biblical Holy Land to the Jewish people will result the thousand-year reign of Christ. During his eleven years working in the Senate, the author observed at first hand the deep-seated influence of Christian Zionism on American foreign policy, and is uniquely qualified to assess its significance. Dark Crusade offers the most nuanced analysis yet written of this dangerous and complex phenomenon.

Acknowledgments viii

Abbreviations x

Preface xii

Introduction 1

Part I Christian Zionism and Nineteenth-Century Imperialism

1 The Eastern Question and Imperialism 8

2 The Early American Republic and the Muslim World 27

3 Christian Zionism: Construction of an Ideology 45

4 Christian Zionism on American Shores 62

Part II Christian Zionism and American Foreign Policy, 1917-48

5 Fundamentalism, the First World War, and Palestine 72

6 Christian Zionism from the First World War to the Second World War 87

7 Zionism from the Second World War to 1948 104

Part III Christian Zionism and American Foreign Policy, From the Cold War to Bush

8 The Christian Right in the Fifties and Sixties 120

9 The Christian Right in the Seventies and Eighties 136

10 George W. Bush and the Dark Crusade 155

11 Christian Zionism and the Next War 174

Notes 183

Select Bibliography 225

Index 247