In a comparatively brief analysis it is clearly not feasible to provide detailed historical discussion of each national area in which the United States following the First World War established petroleum relations. The extant literature on inter-American relations in those years is now sufficiently well established, however, to provide an opportunity to assess the general nature of American oil policy and of the state-private sector relationship in particular.

This literature enables us to explore the state–private sector relationship on several levels; firstly, the relative importance of the two sectors in the formulation of policy; secondly, whether that relationship altered significantly during the period in question; thirdly, whether or not policy itself altered. On an entirely distinct level, one might examine the nature of United States policymakers' attitudes toward the involvement of the Latin American states in indigenous oil development. Finally, the historical record enables us to consider the extent to which United States policy influenced the role of the Latin American state in the oil industry. The answers that are offered here to these questions are suggestive only. The analysis is historical in nature, intended to explore ideology, political developments, and international relations rather than to evaluate in economic terms the actual importance of the oil industry to host societies, the private companies, or to the United States.