This paper will be concerned with the policy of the United States in the Persian Gulf. U.S. policy-makers see the Persian Gulf as being a strategically important area. In particular, the area is seen as being important because of the oil resources which are located there. By maintaining a presence in the Persian Gulf, the United States is not only protecting its own oil interests, but is protecting those of its Western allies as well. Prior to the United States adopting this role, Great Britain was the major Western force to be found in the Persian Gulf. Oil was first discovered in the region at the turn of the twentieth century. At about the same time, the British government began obtaining oil concessions there. These concessions gave Britain powerful control over the local politics of the Persian Gulf. However, after the Second World War, Britain began "abandoning much of [this] role . . . to the United States" (Mansfield, 1988, p. 475). By the early 1950's, the British government was finding it too costly to maintain its imperial designs in the Middle East. The United States became directly involved in Gulf policy during the Suez War in the mid-1950's. At that time, U.S. intervention helped stop a crisis when Britain and France became involved in a war with Egypt over the control of the Suez Canal. Soon after the Suez War, the United States government passed the Eisenhower Doctrine, which declared that American troops would be used to stop the spread of Soviet expansion in the Persian Gulf region. As a result of these policies in the 1950's, "the United States replaced Great Britain as the principal guardian of Western interests in the Middle East" (Ferrara, 1983, p. 15).
Throughout the history of the American presence in the Persian Gulf, the national interest has been focused on the economics of oil. Even before the Suez War and the establishment of the Eisenhower Doctrine, U.S. policy in the Gulf region was cen...