http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/01/1072908854403.htmlAmerica was prepared to use force to secure Arab oil supplies in 1973, reports Glenn Frankel in London.
he United States seriously considered sending airborne troops to seize oilfields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi during the 1973 Arab oil embargo, according to a top-secret British intelligence memorandum released yesterday.
The document, titled Middle East - Possible Use of Force by the United States, said that, if faced with deteriorating conditions such as a breakdown of the ceasefire between Arab and Israeli forces following the October 1973 Yom Kippur War or an intensification of the embargo, "we believe the American preference would be for a rapid operation conducted by themselves" to seize the oilfields.
It cited a warning from then defence secretary James Schlesinger to the British ambassador in the US, Lord Cromer, that Washington would not tolerate threats from "under-developed, under-populated" countries and that "it was no longer obvious to him that the United States could not use force".
Seizure of the oilfields, the memo said, was "the possibility uppermost in American thinking . . . reflected, we believe, in their contingency planning".Definitely a republican thing... :eyes:
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