Article I wrote about US Middle East relations during the Cold War, wondering what everybody thought about it.
At the end of World War 2 the world was divided into two parts in an ideological conflict, East and West. This was known as the Cold War. U.S. policy during the Cold War focused on the containment of Communism. However before the Cold War the United States had an increasingly important role resulting from the two World Wars. Arab nations saw the United States as a “Benevolent Outsider” after its help with defeating the Ottoman Empire in World War 1 along with the mediation between the Middle East and the other Allied powers in World War 2. Nevertheless these pro American sentiments began to wane during the 1950’s.
Late 1951 saw Harry Truman, the president of the United States install a regional office in Beirut, Lebanon. The office worked in coordination with the United Nations Relief and Works Administration (UNRWA), Mutual Security Program (MSP), and Technical Cooperation Administration (TCA) commonly referred to as Pact Four (Kingston, pg 30). Edwin Locke Jr. was appointed the head of office and was given the task of an economic approach to peace through the “Injection of US finance and expertise into troubled parts of underdeveloped world could help to create a more empathetic political environment in the short run while laying the foundations for self-sustained growth and, thus, political stability in the long run.” (Lesch, Kingston, pg 31). The “Locke Mission” ultimately failed its objective of keeping the peace between the Arab states, Western powers, and Israel.
If securing peace in the Middle East was a secondary objective in US policy the headlining policies would be blocking Soviet intervention in the Middle East region, Arab-Israeli Conflict and securing oil production, with the latter becoming increasingly more important as the decades passed by. But during the 1950’s, the United States would even go against its closest ally’s political interests to prevent the Communist “domino effect” from spreading to the Middle East. This American and Soviet game of chess led to the pawn of Iran. Iran and the US formally created diplomatic relations in 1856. Contact and relations between the two countries were at best limited and finally in 1944 the US sent an ambassador to Iran. The late 1930’s and early 1940’s saw a political change in Iran, with the outbreak of World War 2. Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran to secure a Soviet supply route. During this time American, British, and Soviet troops dramatically increase in the region. During the last days of World War 2, the Soviet Union takes aggressive posturing in the regions of Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Iran. With support from Britain and the US, Iran repels the Soviet Union from the region.
After this point, Iran and US relations reached its peak and began to decline. Muhammad Mussadiq was appointed Iranian Prime Minister in April 1951. Mussadiq has two goals in mind, nationalizing Iranian oil from Britain and democratizing Iran. The United States in the beginning supported Mussadiq, mediating the transitioning oil control from Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) to the nationalized Iranian oil. A year earlier, the United States revised its global policy and gives birth to NSC- 68 “renewed initiative in the Cold War- increase in military and economic aid to countries along the Sino-Soviet Border.” (Lesch, pg 54). Mussadiq with his democratic revisions of Iran quickly fell out of favor with the West. Ultimately with the rise of the Iranian Tudeh party who were sympathetic to Mussadiq. This party was a liability to US and Britain policy because of its likelihood of falling into Soviet control. The CIA and British intelligence planned several coup d’états to eventually remove Mussadiq with the Shah of Iran’s help and put General Fazollah Zahedi as Prime Minister in 1953. The Shah of Iran was known as a despot to the people of Iran and resented American involvement with the overthrow of Mussadiq.
The United States and Britain had worked out other agreements with other countries in the region to prevent Soviet influence in the region. One of the most interesting moves was the inclusion of Turkey in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to bolster its defense against the Warsaw Pact. The inclusion of Turkey ultimately led to the creation of the Northern Tier policy in 1954, which was the alliance of Turkey, Greece, Iran, Pakistan, and Iraq to act as a defense ring around the Soviet Union, containing the spread of Communism. (Walker, pg 64). Years before the Northern Tier agreement, Turkey had done something strange in the Arab world. First, like most Arab states it voted against the partitioning of Palestine in creating Israel. Turkey’s motives were to prevent a Communist state from being created in the Middle East, but in 1949 Turkey officially recognized Israel as a state, eventually creating an alliance between the two states.
The Arab-Israeli conflict after the fall of the Soviet Union has been at the forefront of the conflict in the Middle East. The conflict has been ongoing since 1948, with the first conflict known as the 1948 War, and the following wars, Six Day War, Yom Kippur War, and the more recent Israel-Lebanon Conflict of 2006. One of the toughest balancing acts the US has had to face is between Israel and the Arab nations. The 1948 War saw the displacement of just under a million Palestinians (Smith, pg 41). Some of the greatest resentment towards the US comes from its support of Israel.
Egypt was another important factor in the containment of Communism, after World War 2, Britain had been in conflict with Egypt for control of the Suez Canal. Strategically bombers could fly from the Suez Canal to Moscow, which was the heart of the Soviet Union. However Britain, France, and Israel planned to attack Egypt in 1956. This had to be avoided in the eyes of the Eisenhower administration. The United States had to play a balancing act in the Middle East by appeasing developing countries near the Sino-Soviet border and keep their Western allies happy. October 29th saw the beginning of the conflict between Britain, France and Egypt. The US and UN worked to quickly develop a cease fire on November 6, 1956.
The 1950’s Middle East in regards to US policy could be seen as a balancing act of different powers. On one hand the US had to prevent the waning British Empire from invading a number of Middle Eastern Countries, its containment of Communism from spreading to the Middle East, and negotiating peace between Arab nations and Israel. All at the same time the US was working to secure its oil interests. Looking at the geopolitical climate a lot has changed from the 1950’s. The largest change was the fall of the Soviet Union and the power vacuum left in its wake. American meddling in the Middle East during the Cold War has resulted in a new Western opponent. However a few things have stayed the same. Arab nations still dislike Israel and the world is still struggling over the issue of the control of oil
Lesch, David W. The Middle East And the United States A Historical and Political Reassessment. New York: Westview Press, 2007.
Smith, Dan. The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008.
Alterman, Eric. "Israel at 60; State of the State. (Cover story)." Nation 287.8 (22 Sep. 2008): 11-20. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 26 June 2009 <
http://stats.lib.pdx.edu.proxy.lib.p...edu/login.aspx
Walker, Joshua. "Turkey and Israel's Relationship in the Middle East." Mediterranean Quarterly 17.4 (Fall2006 2006): 60-90. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 26 June 2009 <
http://stats.lib.pdx.edu.proxy.lib.p...du/login.aspx?
I originally posted it at
Middle East Relations during the 1950's