Conclusions

Abstract

Viewed from one angle, the differences between Britain and America over strategy in the Middle East were small. If one accepts that the three dynamic factors in the region from the perspective of the Western powers were the increasing economic importance of Persian Gulf oil, the attempts of the Soviet Union to gain a political foothold in the area, and the desire of radical Arab nationalists to extirpate Western influence, then one can point to a broad unity of purpose between the governments of the two countries. Both agreed that access to oil supplies must be secured; both agreed that the Soviet Union was a threat to unhindered access; and both agreed that where Arab nationalists allied themselves with the Soviets in a bid to eject the Western powers from the area, they must be opposed.