The first complete account of America's most dangerous foreign policy miscalculation. A timely examination of the tragic paradox of the American foreign policy that created the "War on Terror" - 60 years of support for Islamic fundamentalism. How - and why - did the United States encourage and finance the spread of radical political Islam? Backed by extensive archival research and interviews with dozens of policy makers and CIA, Pentagon and Foreign Service officials, Robert Dreyfuss argues that this largely hidden relationship is greatly to blame for the global explosion of terrorism. He follows the trail of American collusion from support for the Muslim Brotherhood in 1950s Egypt to links with Khomeini and Afghani jihadists and cooperation with Hamas and Saudi Wahhabism. Dreyfuss also uncovers longstanding ties between radical Islamists and the leading banks of the West. The result is as tragic as it is paradoxical: originally deployed as pawns to foil nationalism and communism, extremist mullahs and ayatollahs now dominate the Middle East and are turning on their former patrons.