The USA and the Middle East

How Did the USA Place Its Firm Grip on the Middle East?

We all know about the USA and the Middle East, their history, existence on the world map, leaders, and etc. Check out the following world map.

The USA's location is

The Middle East's location is

You can see the distance in between the two are is really huge and we are going to see what made the USA get interested in this desert area.

Do You Think That the Outcome of a War Is Always Blood and Death?

If you are thinking that way, you are totally wrong. From a military point of view, at the end of a war, you will learn from your strength and weaknesses. You can find the required capabilities that are highly needed for the next combat. The experience you've gained from a war is always unteachable using books and theories. 

We've learned a lot and made a lot due to the World Wars and the Cold War. Can you agree to that? It is obvious that people usually focus on the devastations rather than the constructive matters. Just compare the fighter jets in 1914, 1939, and that of now. We ran to make better fighters because we had to win the war. For that, we improved our fighter jets, ships, submarines, and etc.

In the years running up to 1914, the world's navy transitioned from coal-powered to fuel-oil-powered battleships. In fact, with his 1914 pre-war governmental acquisition of 51 percent of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (BP) to feed the new Royal Navy destroyers and dreadnoughts being champagne-christened at British shipyards, a young Winston Churchill, appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, was instrumental in creating the modern petroleum political military-industrial complex. 

The future prime minister had effectively arranged and established, for the first time in history, a durable strategic marriage between oil, national security, and global economic power, while also establishing “the paradigm of the transformation that happened in the strategic understanding of oil.” This impression was bolstered by the Great War. As oil-fired ships provided multiple and significant benefits, navies and commercial fleets throughout the world converted from coal to oil fuel.

And it wasn't simply maritime combat that was altered by petroleum; battle on land was also altered. At the Somme in 1916, the archaic cavalry assaults of 1914 gave way to the British “land ship” or tank, while motorized vehicles replaced horse-drawn conveyance (albeit not completely, especially in the case of Germany).

Airplanes and artillery were increasingly important as the war continued, increasingly being used in combined-arms operations and set-piece clashes. The battlefield was controlled by mechanization, and industry required growing amounts of oil to mass-produce these weapons of war. For the first time in history, the land was invaded intentionally to get oil fields and resources, which were critical cogs in the continuance of not just this industrialized war of attrition, but also for strategic advantage in future battles.

Soon after World War I, the USA started to enhance its power in the Pacific Ocean by taking over the islands there. But the lesson learned from World War I induced the USA to get control over Petroleum as it is the only weapon that will decide who is the superpower. Because Germany lost the war as it was unable to feed its planes and tanks. And the amount of oil used in the war was huge and resulted in a huge income for the sellers. For the first time in history, the USA began to focus on the East side of it. Yes, for OIL!

Discovery of Oil in Saudi Arabia

Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud

In 1922, Ibn Saud met Major Frank Holmes, a mining engineer from New Zealand. During World War I, Holmes visited Gallipoli and later Ethiopia, where he first learned of the Persian Gulf region's oil seeps. He was confident that a large amount of oil would be discovered throughout the region. Following the war, Holmes assisted in the formation of Eastern and General Syndicate Ltd, which sought oil concessions in the region, among other things.

In 1923, the monarch granted Holmes permission to explore for oil in eastern Saudi Arabia. Eastern and General Syndicate hired a Swiss geologist to assess the area, but he declared that looking for oil in Arabia would be a "complete risk." This put large banks and oil firms off investing in Arabian oil operations.

In 1925, Holmes struck an agreement with the sheikh of Bahrain to hunt for oil there. He then traveled to the United States in search of an oil corporation interested in taking over the concession. Gulf Oil stepped in to assist him. Gulf Oil took up the concessions made by Holmes years before in 1927. Gulf Oil, on the other hand, was a partner in the Iraq Petroleum Company, which was co-owned by Royal Dutch/Shell, Anglo-Persian, the Compagnie Française des Pétroles, and "the Near East Development Company, representing the interests of the American firms."

The partners had agreed to the "Red Line Agreement," which stated that Gulf Oil could not take up the Bahrain concession without the agreement of the other partners, which they did not do. Despite a hopeful survey in Bahrain, Gulf Oil was compelled to sell its stake in the firm to another corporation, Standard Oil of California (SOCAL), which was not obligated by the Red Line Agreement.

Meanwhile, Ibn Saud sent American mining engineer Karl Twitchell to investigate eastern Arabia. Twitchell discovered encouraging signs of oil and asphalt seeps near Qatif, but advised the king to wait for the outcome of the Bahrain No.1 before inviting bids for the Al-Ahsa concession. The contour of the low Dhahran hills in the distance was an evident oil potential to the American engineers working in Bahrain, standing atop the Jebel Dukhan and staring across a twenty-mile (32 km) length of the Persian Gulf toward the Arabian Peninsula in the clear light of early morning.

The SOCAL subsidiary, the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), discovered oil in Bahrain on May 31, 1932. The find re-energized the quest for oil in the Arabian Peninsula.

In March 1933, negotiations for an oil concession for al-Hasa province began in Jeddah. Twitchell represented SOCAL together with lawyer Lloyd Hamilton. The Iraq Petroleum Company, represented by Stephen Longrigg, contested in the auction, but the concession was awarded to SOCAL on May 23, 1933. SOCAL was granted “exploration rights to approximately 930,000 square kilometers of land for a period of 60 years” under the terms of the deal. Soon after the agreement, geologists came in al-Hasa and began searching for oil.

To develop the oil concession, SOCAL established a subsidiary business, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC). SOCAL also teamed up with the Texas Oil Company to establish CALTEX in 1936 in order to make use of the latter's powerful marketing network throughout Africa and Asia.

After surveying the concession area, CASOC geologists located a promising location and called it Dammam No. 7, after a neighboring settlement. The drillers were unable to make a commercial hit for the following three years, but head geologist Max Steineke persisted.

He pressed the crew to go further, even though Dammam No. 7 was troubled by cave-ins, blocked drill bits, and other issues until the drillers hit oil on March 3, 1938. This finding would turn out to be the first of many, eventually uncovering the world's greatest supply of crude oil.

No. 7 was flowing at a rate of 1,585 barrels per day on that day of the discovery of oil. In three days, the flow had increased to 3,690 barrels per day. In one communication, San Francisco carefully added a single word of comment: "Congratulations."

It wasn't a fluke this time. The test proceeded, and the rate of flow remained over 3,000 barrels per day until April 20th, when it was discontinued. Soon after, Nos. 2 and 4 were drilled into the "Arab zone," and both proved to be excellent producers in the lower layers. The business informed the King on October 16, 1938, that commercial manufacturing had been identified.

Oil profits were an important source of money for the monarch since he no longer had to rely on pilgrimage receipts to Mecca. This finding would permanently change Middle Eastern political ties.

Dhahran was the single first spot in the whole Middle East where the USA placed its 1st footstep in conquering the entire Middle East. 

Due to the discovery, families of workers began to move to this region from the USA making the significant entry of Americans to the Middle East for the first time in history. The areas build around the Oil-Well areas were like little America as the entire livings and customs resembled the American culture. Women were driving their vehicles there and the alcohol consumption. They had around two hospitals and an outdoor movie theatre in that colony. 

Even though the Saudis didn't like the way their government allowed the Americans into their land and had let them behave as they want. But the income coming out of the Oil shut the entire agitations and moral thinking. 

In August, a month after deciding to drill five more wells at Dammam, the corporation received permission from the Saudi Arabian government to create a permanent camp to safeguard the Saudi Royals and the oil wells on a 70,000-acre reservation. This is the first military base of the USA in the Middle East. And the corporation used a Construction firm owned by a man called Mohammed who was not a Saudi Royal. His company built the entire oil cities and the American base in Saudi Arabia.

At this time, other Middle East countries had agitative talks with the Saudi Government about their relationship with the USA and their approval for building a base in Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia convinced them to praise the earnings coming out of the oil wells. There were three parties who became super-rich with this oil discovery and business. The American Company, Saudi Royals, and the construction firm owner Mohammed.

Also, Saudi Arabia remained neutral in World War II (1939–45), but Britain and the United States funded the monarchy, which declared war on Germany in 1945, allowing the country to become a founding member of the United Nations.

What happened in the Middle East at this point of harmony?

The USA had a new threat in the region from the USSR. Yes, the leader of the USSR asked the Middle East to join the Socialist camp and he started to make friends. The USA had to initiate the 1953 Iranian coup d'état and that was successfully made by John Foster Dulles, who was a pivotal player in the early Cold War era, supporting a vigorous anti-communist posture across the world.

John Foster Dulles

After overthrowing the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, the USA and UK helped Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to strengthen the monarchy. 

Mohammad Mosaddegh

In 2013, the U.S. government formally acknowledged the U.S. role in the coup, as a part of its foreign policy initiatives. Because the USA thought Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh will make the USSR an ally of Iran so that their entire grip in the region may get unwanted trouble from the USSR.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Is that all? No!

The American intervention in this region was highly needed due to a small country that has just been born, the State of Israel! As a single Jewish nation Israel badly needed help from the USA and the USA provided Israel with money and tons of ammunition, fighter jets, missiles, and etc. But before helping Israel, the representatives of the Houses of the USA had a serious discussion on helping Israel. Because they feared that the ongoing oil earnings may get issues due to this alliance with Israel. But, they took the decision to go on further to help Israel in the Yom Kippur War (which is also known as Ramadan War, or October War, or 1973 Arab–Israeli War)! And that's the point the first heartbreak happens between the USA and the Middle East.

1973 oil crisis

The 1973 oil crisis began in October 1973, when the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo. The embargo was aimed at countries seen as helping Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The embargo was first imposed on Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but it was eventually extended to Portugal, Rhodesia, and South Africa. By the conclusion of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had nearly tripled, rising from US$3 per barrel to about $12 internationally; US prices were much higher. The embargo triggered an oil crisis, or "shock," with several short- and long-term consequences for world politics and the global economy. It was later dubbed the "first oil shock," and it was followed by the 1979 oil crisis, which was dubbed the "second oil shock."

Although some countries of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) favored using oil as a weapon to affect the political outcome of the Arab–Israeli conflict, Saudi Arabia has always advocated for keeping oil apart from politics. Because of the availability of oil from non-Arab oil-producing nations, the Saudis were skeptical of the technique, and in the decades preceding up to the crisis, the region's conservative monarchy had grown dependent on Western help to secure their continuing survival as Nasserism gained hold. Algeria, Iraq, and Libya, on the other hand, had firmly backed the use of oil as a weapon in the battle.

Arab publications such as Egypt's Al-Ahram, Lebanon's An-Nahar, and Iraq's Al-Thawra had previously supported the use of oil as a weapon. The US obtained intelligence in 1971 that the Arab governments were prepared to impose another embargo.

On October 6, 1973, Egypt assaulted the Sinai Peninsula's Bar Lev Line and Syria started an offensive in the Golan Heights, both of which Israel had seized during the 1967 Six-Day War. After the Soviet Union began shipping weaponry to Syria and Egypt, US President Richard Nixon ordered Operation Nickel Grass, a strategic airlift to transport weapons and supplies to Israel in order to compensate its material losses, on October 12, 1973.

The next day, on October 17, Arab oil producers reduced output by 5% and imposed an oil embargo on Israel's allies: the United States, the Netherlands, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal. Saudi Arabia only agreed to the embargo after Nixon promised Israel $2.2 billion in military help. The embargo was supplemented by monthly production cutbacks that gradually reduced output to 25% of September levels by December. This exacerbated the global recession and heightened tensions between the United States and its European allies, who accused the US of inciting an embargo by supplying aid to Israel. OAPEC urged that Israel withdraw completely from all regions beyond the 1949 Armistice line.

From October 1973 to March 1974, the embargo was in effect. The majority of researchers feel that the embargo failed because Israeli soldiers did not withdraw to the 1949 Armistice Line. In his 1988 book Political Power and the Arab Oil Weapon, Roy Licklieder stated that the embargo was a failure because the nations targeted by the embargo did not modify their policy on the Arab–Israeli conflict. Licklieder argued that any long-term changes were the result of OPEC's rise in the advertised price of oil, rather than the OAPEC ban.

During the crisis, the oil-producing countries began to amass massive fortunes. Much of the money was spent on armament acquisitions, which worsened political tensions, notably in the Middle East. Over the next several decades, Saudi Arabia spent more than $100 billion on spreading its fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, known as Wahhabism, around the world through religious charities such as the al-Haramain Foundation, which frequently distributed funds to violent Sunni extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Oil control became known as the "oil weapon." It took the form of an embargo and production cuts by Arab governments. The missile was directed towards the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the Netherlands. The intention, according to these target countries, was to drive them into a more pro-Arab stance. Production was finally reduced by 25%. However, the impacted countries did not implement significant policy reforms.

Even though the situation is under control but the relationships are apart, for now, the USA had to face another shock in the region in Iran.

Iranian Revolution

We have seen that the Iranian government was toppled and the USA brought their favored leader Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Let's come to his story now.

Following the 1953 Iranian coup, Pahlavi allied with the US and the Western Bloc to rule more securely as an authoritarian king. He relied significantly on US help to maintain power, which he retained for 26 years. This resulted in the White Revolution of 1963, as well as the arrest and exile of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1964. Demonstrations began in October 1977, amid increasing tensions between Khomeini and the Shah, and grew into a campaign of civil disobedience that encompassed both secular and religious forces.

Protests erupted quickly in 1978 as a result of the burning of the Rex Cinema, which was viewed as the catalyst for the revolution, and the nation was immobilized by strikes and rallies from August through December of that year.

As the last Persian monarch, the Shah fled Iran in exile on January 16, 1979, leaving his duties to a regency council and Shapour Bakhtiar, an opposition-based prime minister. The administration invited Ayatollah Khomeini back to Iran, and he arrived in Tehran to the cheers of thousands of Iranians.

Ayatollah Khomeini

Shortly after, on 11 February, guerrillas and rebel soldiers defeated soldiers loyal to the Shah in violent street warfare, bringing Khomeini to formal authority. On 1 April 1979, Iran voted in a nationwide referendum to create an Islamic republic and to draft and ratify a new theocratic-republican constitution, which resulted in Khomeini becoming the country's supreme leader in December 1979.

What happened next?

1979 oil crisis

The 1979 Oil Crisis, also known as the 1979 Oil Shock or the Second Oil Crisis, was an energy crisis brought on by a reduction in oil output following the Iranian Revolution. Although global oil production fell by just around 4%, the reaction of the oil markets drove up the price of crude oil dramatically over the next year, more than doubling it to $39.50 a barrel. Similar to the 1973 oil crisis, the price increase resulted in gasoline shortages and long queues at petrol stations.

Following the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War in 1980, Iran's oil output plummeted dramatically. Iraq's oil output has also decreased dramatically, causing global economic downturns. It took until the mid-1980s for oil prices to recover to pre-crisis levels.

Oil prices continued a gradual decline after 1980, with the exception of a brief rise during the Gulf War, and reached a 60 percent drop-off in the 1990s. During this time, major oil exporters Mexico, Nigeria, and Venezuela increased their output. The Soviet Union overtook the United States as the world's greatest oil producer, and oil from the North Sea and Alaska flooded the market.

OPEC quickly lost its dominant position, and by 1981, its output had been surpassed by that of other countries. Furthermore, its own member states were split. In order to regain market dominance, Saudi Arabia expanded output, driving down prices and reducing or eliminating profits for high-cost manufacturers. The world price, which had peaked at about $40 per barrel during the 1979 energy crisis, fell to less than $10 per barrel during the 1980s. Oil momentarily returned to pre-1973 levels after being adjusted for inflation. This "sale" pricing was a boon for both emerging and developed oil-importing countries.

Soviet-Afghan War

At the same time, the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Throughout the 1980s, rebel organizations (known collectively as the Mujahideen) and smaller Maoist organizations conducted a nine-year guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, largely in the Afghan countryside. Afghans were slain in numbers ranging from 562,000 to 2,000,000, while millions more fled the nation as refugees, largely to Pakistan and Iran.

We have forgotten the construction guy called Mohammed whom we discussed earlier. The guy who built the entire infrastructure in the Middle East and the guy who built the first American base in Saudi Arabia. Why do we need to speak about him now?

His full name is Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden. Now you are getting some sense right? Yes, he is the father of Osama bin Laden who is the mastermind behind various terrorist attacks all around the world.

Osama bin Laden

During the Soviet invasion,  Osama bin Laden flew to Afghanistan and fought against the USSR army joining the Mujahideen. The Mujahideen were principally supported by the US, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the UK; the battle was a Cold War-era proxy war.

The war produced widespread devastation in Afghanistan and is seen to have led to the Soviet Union's demise, leaving a mixed legacy for people in both countries.

After the Soviet's withdrawal, Osama returned back to Saudi Arabia. At this point, the USA and its presence in the Middle East are not firm and not strong enough. Actually, the USA was waiting for a chance to sit properly after getting the invitation from the Middle East.

What happened next?

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

At this time, there was a strong leader in Iraq who is hated the most by Osama bin Laden next to the two superpowers, the USA and the USSR called Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti. He was developing a bigger army using the oil income. He set his eyes on a small state near to his border, Kuwait for its oil fields.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was a two-day operation launched by Iraq on August 2, 1990, in which it invaded the neighboring state of Kuwait, resulting in a seven-month Iraqi military occupation of the nation.

Saddam Hussein

This invasion made the Saudi Royals fear because they feared that Saddam's 4th largest army in the world will march next into Saudi Arabia. At this time, Osama went to the Saudi Royals and told them that he is willing to fight against Saddam and willing to protect the kingdom using his armed group which fought against the USSR called Al-Queda.

But the Minister of Defence Sultan bin Abdulaziz rejected the offer saying "There are no caves in Kuwait". And the Saudi Royals sought the help of the full American Troop supports to secure their kingdom from Saddam's invasion.

Yeah, Now the time has come to the USA, an invitation to station their troops with whole base infrastructure to protect the kingdom. Did they miss that chance? NO! Dick Cheney, then Defence Secretary visited the Kingdom soon after the request received.

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion costs of Operation Desert Storm which is planned to protect Saudi Arabia from Saddam and to restore Kuwait state liberating it from Saddam.

By this, the USA was able to set up its firm grip in the Middle East. We don't know whether it is Saddam who brought the things right up into the hands of the USA. But, it is obvious that all just happened as it is and eventually the whole Middle East fell into the hands of the USA.

Also, soon after the landing of the troops of the USA, Osama left the kingdom and went to Somali and then to Afghanistan from where he planned the deadliest terrorist attack that resulted in the lifelong establishment of bases in the Middle East and brought many changes in the world politics and diplomacies.

This is how the USA engulfed the entire Middle East and laid its strongest grip over it for decades now.

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