British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.
Therefore,
the British position in the Persian Gulf by the middle of the
twentieth century, in the aftermath of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s
crisis, was being challenged by the United States.
This chapter
will explain how the British Government in the aftermath of the
nationalisation of the Ang1o-Iranian Oil Company, the major British interest
in the Persian Gulf, sought to safeguard the strategic, and national
interest of Great Britain in the Persian Gulf, in the context of the rising
power of the United States.
The American Perspective
In 1954, a year after the
Iranian Prime Minister, Dr. Musaddiq, was
overthrown, Sir Roger Makins, the British Ambassador to Washington, wrote:
The Americans
are out to take our place in the Middle East. Their influence
has greatly expanded there since the end of the Second World War, and they
are now firmly established as paramount foreign influence in Saudi Arabia.
They are gaining ascendancy in Persia.1
Britain’s
economic weakness, which prevented her from keeping up with
military, and especially atomic weapons technology, and fear of the
communist threat to her interests in the Persian Gulf, persuaded the British
Government in both for economic and defensive reasons to come in to alliance
with the United States. In the opinion of the British Government some
division of labour for the safeguarding of British interests in the Persian
Gulf, in view of the limited range of British action because of the
weakening British position, became necessary.
-
PRO, London, CAB 129/66 C
(54) 53,
Middle East: Anglo-American, letter to Foreign Office on
Policy in the Middle East, from sir Roger Makins, the British
Ambassador to Washington, Secret, 25th January, 1954.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
