Sunrise at Abadan, portraying the dramatic events leading to the United States' deep involvement in Iran, sets the historic stage for the current crisis in the Persian Gulf region. It rapidly traces the ebb ad flow of Anglo-Russian rivalry over Persia from the reign of Peter the Great to World War II. By late summer of 1941, the Allies were reeling in defeat as Axis forces advaced triumphantly on all fronts. In a desperate move to avert Nazi victory, the British and Soviet governments suspended their political struggle for control of the Persian Gulf and jointly invaded neutral Iran. This controversial action toppled the powerful Shah, secured the vital Persian Gulf oil fields and opened the primary route for U.S. military aid to the beleaguered Soviet Union.

Richard A. Stewart describes the rise to power of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and the events leading to the U.S. and Soviet confrontation over Iran in 1946. Carefully documented, his book raises important legal and moral questions about Allied actions while depicting the fate of a small but proud nation caught in a highstakes game of geopoliical intrigue, doublecross and shifting alliances. Sunrise at Abadan will stimulate the informed general reader while its original research will aid scholars of political science, Middle East studies, Soviet history and policy, and military studies.