5 has been to develop and maintain American hegemony over the crude oil resources of the region. I will argue further that the American hegemony over Middle East crude oil has been and is sought more for international economic control than for either the energy supply or strategic needs of the United States. Lastly, I will argue that the apparent imperatives of American foreign policy in the Middle East the preservation of American access to crude oil reserves in the Middle East, the protection of the state of Israel, the maintenance of a strategic position to counter the Soviet threat to the United States, and the prevention of international terrorism were and are largely political tactics designed to secure the support of the American general public and America's allies for American foreign policy toward the Middle East.
The Early Post Second World War Period
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United States began its efforts to become the dominant power of influence in the Middle East. Prior to the war, Britain has exercised this role. Initially, the United States attempt to form a Middle East Treaty Organization which would be complementary to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Chomsky, 1991). Had this effort been successful, it would have provided a framework for American hegemony from Scandinavia to Arabia. As it turned out, the United States was required to pursue its policy objectives through bilateral actions involving the separate states in the Middle East. American efforts to this end were directed at both the Islamic states in the region as well as the newly created state of Israel.
In Iran, the Shah, who had assumed governmental control from his father in 1941, sought to free Iran from the control of "the Great Powers and restore national confidence after the Allied occupation in the Second World War" (Graham, 1979, p. 61). The Shah nearly succeeded in this effort. He did achieve t...