Oil and the Persian Gulf Crisis

It is well known by now that the CIA directed the overthrow of the Mossadeq government in Iran after it dared to nationalize the oil industry in the early 1950s. But it is less well known that when a military group overthrew the feudal monarchy in Iraq in the summer of 1958 and the entire Middle East was in ferment, the landings of U.S. troops in Lebanon and British paratroopers in Jordan were really targeted at Iraq. The New York Herald Tribune reported that the U.S. government gave "strong consideration" to "military intervention to undo the coup in Iraq." According to the New York Times, U.S. and British leaders jointly decided that "Intervention will not be extended to Iraq as long as the revolutionary government in Iraq respects Western oil interests." In 1963, the Iraqi government was toppled by a coup after threatening to nationalize some oil. The Paris weekly L'Express flatly declared that "The Iraqi coup was inspired by the CIA."This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website

Ancient history · Economic history · Government (linguistics) · Intervention (counseling) · Middle East · Monarchy · Persian · Political science · Theology · History · Law · Medicine · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Natural Resources and Economic Development · Philosophy

• The ‘New World Order’ and the Persian Gulf War

  Open Access•Bernard D Headley•Humanity & Society•1991

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• The Political Economy of the Gulf War

  Open Access•Berch Berberoglu•Humanity & Society•1993

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