Word: gulf
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...consensus of those meetings was more constructive than the assignment of blame to any one agency or even to any one Administration: ever since the 1960s, when Britain was withdrawing from east of the Suez and the Shah proclaimed himself the guardian of the Persian Gulf, the U.S.Iranian connection has been a textbook case of what diplomats call "clientitis"-the fallacy of mistaking an ally's interests for one's own. The U.S. failed to see that the Shah was weak simply because it had long been a principle of policy, and therefore an article of faith, that...
...century, the Shah believes that history is on his side. In his view, his most important accomplishments were wresting the province of Azerbaijan from Soviet hands after World War II, nationalizing Iranian oil, settling border differences with Iraq, and gaming possession of many of the islands in the Persian Gulf. But he does not think it does any good to dwell on the past...
...commander in chief, the Shah has created an impressive military force that one Pentagon expert sums up as "effective, still on a learning curve with some new weapons and, above all, loyal." Apart from a few army units that crossed the Persian Gulf in 1974 to help the Sultanate of Oman put down a rebellion by the Dhofor rebels, or served with United Nations peacekeeping forces, Iran's military has not been tested in combat, but it is awesomely equipped. In the past two decades, Iran has bought $36 billion in weaponry, most of it from Britain...
Iranian officials insist that this imposing military machine is needed to protect the Persian Gulf and its international oil fleets, and to fight off any possible Soviet invasion of Iran, until, they hope, reinforcements from the West could arrive. The generals see the current dissent as part of a grand Communist design, linked to Russian moves on the Horn of Africa and in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, a lot of the most sophisticated equipment, including British-made Chieftain tanks and F-4 Phantoms, was deployed around the capital rather than along the Soviet border, obviously to help protect the Shah...
...latest strikes were made near the Gulf Coast city of Tampico in the Chicontepec field, where Mexican oil was first found around the turn of the century. The newly discovered oil, which is located below tight, nonporous rock formations, will be difficult to bring to the surface, requiring 16,000 wells to be drilled over a period of perhaps 13 years. While the Mexicans do not belong to OPEC, they are able to exact a high price ($13.10 per bbl.) for the oil that they sell, most of which goes to the U.S.; naturally they plan to step up production...