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The Iranian Crisis of 1945–1946 and the Spiral Model of International Conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Fred H. Lawson
Fred H. Lawson
Affiliation:
Department of GovernmentMills College
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Extract

Diplomatic historians of all persuasions agree that the Iranian Crisis of 1945–1946 played a considerable part in initiating the Cold War. For revisionist writers, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that took place during these months resulted from American efforts to carve out a sphere of influence in the oil-producing areas of the Middle East. By the autumn of 1945, according to this view, U.S. firms had gained controlling interests in the consortia holding exclusive rights to work the extensive petroleum deposits located in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; more importantly, Iranian officials were making repeated overtures to American concerns in an effort to counterbalance established British interests with more dynamic ones based in the United States. When the Red Army prevented the government in Tehran from suppressing separatist movements in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan in December 1945, the Truman Administration manipulated the Security Council of the United Nations into mandating a Soviet withdrawal from northern Iran.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , August 1989 , pp. 307 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

Author's note: Robert Jervis, Charles Larsen, and Melvyn Leffler provided suggestions that substantially improved earlier drafts of this essay. Cristi Leibenson masterfully processed the final drafts.

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