British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.
administration
was convinced that an economic collapse in Iran or any
British military attack would provoke a Soviet intervention. Musaddiq’s
uncompromising stand, the unstable political situation in Iran, which this
chapter showed, the support that the Iranian Prime Minister, by the summer
of 1953, was receiving from the Iranian Communist Party (the Tudeh party)
and the fear of a challenge from the Soviet Union, made the US change its
policy from one of diplomacy to confrontation. The United States came round
to the view that Musaddiq was too destabilising in a strategically important
part of the world. Access by the West to the rich Iranian oil reserves, and
a communist challenge in Iran, was the United States main concern.
The new
Republican administration of Eisenhower had little sympathy for
nationalism in parts of the world where the West had vested economic and
political interests. It was considerably more worried about the communist
threat. The American Government came to recognise a basic identity of
interest with the British on the issue, to maintain the flow of oil from
that part of the world. Additionally, on both sides of the Atlantic now the
conservatives were in power, the Korean War was winding down, therefore more
Western manpower was available. Also, as Churchill and Eisenhower were
war-time comrades, their relationship was warm. The United States’ policy
shifted towards the British position. In a covert operation in the summer of
1953, by the CIA and MI6, Musaddiq’s government was toppled, which this
chapter demonstrated. It was replaced by the government of General Zahedi,
which was seen as amenable to compromise and negotiation. An oil embargo
upon Iranian oil, solidarity from the major oil companies and the covert
operation, eventually brought a settlement to the crisis.
In the
following chapter of this book, attention will be focused on how
Britain managed to safeguard her political influence, and strategic interest
in the context of the rising power of the United States in the Persian Gulf.
Things which
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177