British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.

Americans
to support it to the extent we could induce them to do
so.23

Though
containment of the Soviet Union and protecting the oil
reserves of the Persian Gulf from her reach was a basic American
interest, however, in Sir Anthony Eden’s view the United States
co-operation, during the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company’s crisis, meant
for the United Kingdom to give the Americans a share in Iranian oil,
or the new oil consortium of 1954. According to Eden:

The
British side had in effect to buy American agreement to come to
the rescue of British Petroleum (then the Anglo- Iranian Oil
Company) in its struggle with the Musaddiq government.24

According to Sir Anthony Eden, it was not
until he:

proposed American
participation in a new oil consortium that the
State Department agreed to abandon its tactics of preserving
neutrality between Musaddiq and London.25

Eden was
of the opinion that the United States’s co-operation during
the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s crisis led to the United Kingdom
having to offer the United States a share in the new oil consortium.
He did not want another American involvement in the Suez crisis
which may lead to further United States’ influence in the Middle
East, as was the case in the aftermath of the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company. As has been mentioned, Eden, during the Suez crisis, was of
the opinion that the United Kingdom’s interests in the Middle East
were greater than

23. PRO, London, CAB 128/29
CM 34 (55) 8, 4th October 1955.

24. A. EDEN, Full Circle, (London:
Cassell, 1960). P. 198.

25. Ibid, p. 202.

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