Shmuel Rosner: Protecting the Oil Supply
"Let our position be absolutely clear," Jimmy Carter declared. It was January 1980, and a year later he would no longer be president. But the doctrine he espoused in his final State of the Union address was, arguably, one of the few policies that outlasted his tenure. The Carter Doctrine: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America."
Two weeks after the president made a commitment to protect the free flow of oil from this contentious region by any means necessary, his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher embarked on a weeklong trip that concluded in Saudi Arabia. Their task was to explain why the United States had decided to throw a security blanket over oil-producing countries in Asia and the Middle East. Their reasoning was straightforward: The Soviet Union was mired in its battle for Afghanistan, and the aftershock of the Iranian revolution was still fresh in the hearts and minds of everyone involved.
Every couple of years, oil becomes Topic 1 for a while. Every couple of years, attention is paid—and then it fades. The 1970s brought the Arab embargo and the energy crisis. The early 1980s brought the Carter Doctrine and the Iran-Iraq War. In the early 1990s, Iraq invaded oil-rich Kuwait. In 2003, some claimed the United States had launched a war in Iraq because of oil....
"Let our position be absolutely clear," Jimmy Carter declared. It was January 1980, and a year later he would no longer be president. But the doctrine he espoused in his final State of the Union address was, arguably, one of the few policies that outlasted his tenure. The Carter Doctrine: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America."
Two weeks after the president made a commitment to protect the free flow of oil from this contentious region by any means necessary, his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher embarked on a weeklong trip that concluded in Saudi Arabia. Their task was to explain why the United States had decided to throw a security blanket over oil-producing countries in Asia and the Middle East. Their reasoning was straightforward: The Soviet Union was mired in its battle for Afghanistan, and the aftershock of the Iranian revolution was still fresh in the hearts and minds of everyone involved.
Every couple of years, oil becomes Topic 1 for a while. Every couple of years, attention is paid—and then it fades. The 1970s brought the Arab embargo and the energy crisis. The early 1980s brought the Carter Doctrine and the Iran-Iraq War. In the early 1990s, Iraq invaded oil-rich Kuwait. In 2003, some claimed the United States had launched a war in Iraq because of oil.
Read entire article at Slate
Two weeks after the president made a commitment to protect the free flow of oil from this contentious region by any means necessary, his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher embarked on a weeklong trip that concluded in Saudi Arabia. Their task was to explain why the United States had decided to throw a security blanket over oil-producing countries in Asia and the Middle East. Their reasoning was straightforward: The Soviet Union was mired in its battle for Afghanistan, and the aftershock of the Iranian revolution was still fresh in the hearts and minds of everyone involved.
Every couple of years, oil becomes Topic 1 for a while. Every couple of years, attention is paid—and then it fades. The 1970s brought the Arab embargo and the energy crisis. The early 1980s brought the Carter Doctrine and the Iran-Iraq War. In the early 1990s, Iraq invaded oil-rich Kuwait. In 2003, some claimed the United States had launched a war in Iraq because of oil....
"Let our position be absolutely clear," Jimmy Carter declared. It was January 1980, and a year later he would no longer be president. But the doctrine he espoused in his final State of the Union address was, arguably, one of the few policies that outlasted his tenure. The Carter Doctrine: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America."
Two weeks after the president made a commitment to protect the free flow of oil from this contentious region by any means necessary, his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher embarked on a weeklong trip that concluded in Saudi Arabia. Their task was to explain why the United States had decided to throw a security blanket over oil-producing countries in Asia and the Middle East. Their reasoning was straightforward: The Soviet Union was mired in its battle for Afghanistan, and the aftershock of the Iranian revolution was still fresh in the hearts and minds of everyone involved.
Every couple of years, oil becomes Topic 1 for a while. Every couple of years, attention is paid—and then it fades. The 1970s brought the Arab embargo and the energy crisis. The early 1980s brought the Carter Doctrine and the Iran-Iraq War. In the early 1990s, Iraq invaded oil-rich Kuwait. In 2003, some claimed the United States had launched a war in Iraq because of oil.