Word: gulf
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Directly south of Iran across the Persian Gulf is Saudi Arabia, whose traditional monarchic system remains intact but which is nevertheless highly vulnerable: only 8 million people live in a land one-fourth the size of the U.S. that possesses the world's largest proven oil reserves...
...rulers: "Approach as near as possible to Constantinople and India. Whoever governs there will be the true sovereign of the world. Consequently, excite continual wars, not only in Turkey but in Persia. Establish dockyards on the Black Sea . . . In the decadence of Persia, penetrate as far as the Persian Gulf, re-establish if it be possible the ancient commerce with the Levant, advance as far as India, which is the depot of the world. Arrived at this point, we shall no longer have need of England's gold." Or, one might add today, of anyone else...
...desperately poor, overpopulated and undeveloped, like most of the Third World. What the entire region has in common is an innate fragility, a vulnerability borne of being located at the center of so strategic a territory. The Persian Gulf provides fully 71% of the oil presently consumed by Western Europe; yet geographically, and perhaps also socially and politically, it is a perfect target of opportunity for Soviet expansionism. There is no convincing evidence that the Russians have been subversively operating to get rid of the Shah in Iran or that they are presently working to overthrow other regimes along...
...that restored the ruler to his Peacock Throne after the overthrow of Premier Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. Yet U.S. intelligence failed dismally at assessing the depth and range of opposition to the Shah. Jimmy Carter ordered a U.S. carrier task force to steam from the Philippines to the Persian Gulf as a gesture of support. Three days later, on the advice of his foreign policy aides, Carter changed his mind and ordered the ships to remain on station in the South China Sea. Seldom have the limits of American power or the lack of a strong policy been so obvious...
...Nixon decided to lift all restrictions on arms sales to the Shah. Soon billions of dollars' worth of the most sophisticated weaponry and aircraft in the U.S. arsenal began pouring into Iran. America's decision to depend on the Shah as its surrogate policeman in the Persian Gulf was perceived as even more crucial in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, when Iran disregarded the boycott and continued to sell vital petroleum to the West. In retrospect, one top U.S. policymaker of that period reflects: "We let the arms sales get out of control...