Rather than simply denounce Bush and issue yet another jeremiad against the neo-cons Klare digs a bit deeper and situates the American dependence on foreign where properly it should begin: with FDR. Moving through successive administrations Klare demonstrates how the Carter Doctrine more deeply entrenched an American over-dependence on foreign oil. He is less reliable as he comes to his conclusions and his political biases impair the clarity that he traced from FDR to Carter.

FDR's meeting with King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia "produced the unprecedented oil-for-protection arrangement that has governed American ties with Saudi Arabia ever since" (xiii). During World War II it became clear that reserves of American oil were inadequate for wartime and the post-war peace. American policy makers were determined to ensure an assured pipeline (p. 29). As "codified in the Foreign Petroleum Policy of the United States, a policy statement released by the State Department in 1944" (p. 30).

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