The Cold War in the Middle East
This was the most volatile region of the three covered in my mini-series: decolonisation, oil and Arab-Israeli conflicts and, later, Islamic fundamentalism made it so.
But first, another reminder of the conflicts you look at as a direct part of your course:
The French Indo-China War, 1946-54
The Korean War, 1950-53
Hungary, 1956
The Berlin Wall Crisis, 1961
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
The Vietnam War, 1965-75
Czechoslovakia, 1968
Solidarity, 1980-82
And the conflicts in the Gulf:
British problems in Iran, 1951-4
The fall of the Shah in Iran and the American hostage crisis, 1978-81
The Iran-Iraq Gulf War, 1980-88
The Second Gulf War, 1990-1
The Iran Crisis, 1946
Though Iran would be the cause of much bigger crises, the crisis in 1946 was nevertheless significant as it helped set the tone for the Cold War, one of containment on the side of the Americans and attempts to break out of that containment by the Soviet Union. Iran had been occupied by both Britain and the Soviet Union during the war, it served as a supply route from the West to the Soviet Union. It was agreed, though, that both sides would withdraw from Iran once the war was over. However, in order to maintain an influence there, the Soviet Union supported a separatist government in Azerbaijan in northern Iran, What was more, the Soviet Union didn’t withdraw their forces. America sent a battleship, the USS Missouri (the ship on which the Japanese surrendered) into the eastern Mediterranean and the Iranians were encouraged to appeal to the UN. Under pressure the Soviet Union did withdraw and the separatist movement in Azerbaijan was ended too, at least for the time being.
The First Arab-Israeli War, 1948-9
In November, 1947 the UN voted to partition Palestine between the Jews and Arabs and Britain, which had been mandated to oversee the country by the League of Nations, left in May, 1948 (they were very glad to do so). The Jews lost no time in declaring the state of Israel but were immediately attacked by Arab forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The Israeli’s fared best and when a UN attempt to bring about a settlement broke down, they went back on the attack. When a ceasefire was finally agreed in January, 1949 the Israeli’s had control of most of Palestine, Egypt took control of Gaza and Jordan took control of the West Bank. The Arabs became anti-Western as Israel came under the protection of America.
The Suez Crisis, 1956
Britain was still the major power in the Middle East but was facing a growing challenge everywhere in the region from Arab nationalism, and nowhere more so than in Egypt. The Egyptian monarchy had been overthrown by a military coup in 1952. General Nasser came to lead the country and he steered it towards a closer tie with the Soviet Union. As a result, the Americans withdrew their economic support for the Aswan Dam project, and as a result of that, Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal, which was largely owned by Britain and France, in order to fund the dam. What then followed was a truly desperate and highly controversial plan by the British and French to have Israel attack Egypt so that Britain and France could send in troops to protect the canal. The Israeli’s did their bit, Britain and France made a mess of their end of the bargain. The result was a PR disaster for the West at the very time the Soviet Union was sending tanks into Hungary. Arab nationalism was given a boost, as was Soviet influence amongst the Arab states, whilst America’s relations with its European allies took a hit.
The Six-Day War, June 5th – 10th, 1967
The Arab nations had not accepted the existence of Israel and it was clear that they were planning to attack Israel again. On May 18th Nasser had asked the UN to withdraw its troops from the Sinai desert (where they had been stationed since 1957) and on May 22nd he closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli ships. On May 30th Jordan entered a defence pact with Egypt. But it was the Israeli’s who struck first on June 5th, destroying the Arab air forces on the ground and moving right up to the Suez Canal as well as forcing the Jordanians from the West Bank of the River Jordan. The Egyptians and Jordanians were stunned and asked for a ceasefire. On June 9th-10th the Israeli’s also took the strategically important Golan Heights on the Syrian border. It was Syria’s turn to ask for a ceasefire. In the aftermath, the Arab states looked to the Soviet Union to help it rebuild its forces, and they placed an oil embargo on America that lasted June until the end of August.
The ‘Yom Kippur’ War, 1973
After the Six-Day War, the Soviet Union had increased its advisers in Egypt though after the death of Nasser in 1970 the new Egyptian leader, Sadat, confused everyone by first making a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in 1971 and then expelling their advisers in 1972. Then in 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur. Other Arab states sent forces too. The attack was well planned but Israel fought back and Egypt was soon fighting on its own soil. America had tried to contain the conflict whilst the Soviet Union had urged a ceasefire in the early stages when the Arab forces had the initiative. With the initiative with Israel, they made sure American-Soviet talks came to nothing. This left the Soviet Union considering stepping in to help the Egyptians. Sadat, now wholly on the defensive and desperately so, let it be known that he would accept a joint American-Soviet peace-keeping force but America didn’t want Soviet troops in the region. America responded by going on a high level of nuclear alert. The conflict had certainly not been contained. It was not only a body blow to détente, it was now the most dangerous Cold War confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, the American move did bring about a ceasefire.
An upshot of the conflict, however, was an Arab oil boycott against America and other Western states that in turn led to a massive increase in oil prices from OPEC countries that seriously affected Western economies.
The Soviet-Afghan War, 1979-89
Afghanistan had had a long relationship with Russia and then with the Soviet Union though as the Cold War got underway it was also on good terms with America whilst it also joined the non-aligned movement. But in 1979 a Marxist government found itself clashing with tribal and Islamic Afghans and the upshot was that in December, 1979 Soviet troops were deployed to ensure a pro-Soviet regime, of one sort or another, stayed in power. The Soviet Union was concerned to suppress Islamic fundamentalism lest it spread into the Soviet Union itself, but it was also concerned about the growing influence of America in the Gulf as well as the PRC’s growing influence in Pakistan and Central Asia. In a single stroke, the Soviet Union upset America and the West in general, bringing an end to détente and ushering in the ‘Second’ Cold War (leading initially to a boycott of the Moscow Olympics and the suspension of the ratification of SALT II), upset the PRC as well as Iran and Pakistan, Afghanistan’s neighbours to the west and east respectively.
Like Vietnam for the Americans, Afghanistan quickly became The Soviet Union’s worst nightmare. Like the Americans in Vietnam they were propping up a very unpopular regime. Like the Americans in Vietnam, they were fighting a war they couldn’t win against an enemy they couldn’t identify. Like the Americans in Vietnam they were trying to fight a conventional war but were forced into fighting a guerrilla war. And whereas the Vietcong were aided by the PRC and the Soviet Union, the Mujahedin were aided by America (aid that was able to reach the Mujahedin with help from the PRC). The only difference was that the mountains of Afghanistan became the jungles and paddy fields of Vietnam. It took Gorbachev to get the Russians out of their Vietnam.
Lebanon, 1982-4
Lebanon had been relatively peaceful post WW2 when it gained independence from France. Christians and Muslims seemed to be showing that they could live together in peace, though there were problems in 1958 when radicalism in Iraq (the pro-Western monarchy was overthrown, indeed murdered) threatened the relative harmony. But that harmony was threatened again, as it was in Jordan, when Palestinian refugees, including the Palestinian Liberation Front (the PLO) flooded into Lebanon following the Six Day War in 1967, and then again when the Palestinians were thrown out of Jordan in 1971.
The Israelis repeatedly attacked the Palestinian bases and there was fighting in Beirut between Christians and Muslims whilst the Muslims, Sunnis and Shiites were fighting amongst themselves. A Syrian-led Arab peace-keeping force tried to resolve matters but failed, a UN peace-keeping force also failed. Then in 1982 the Israelis invaded Lebanon forcing the PLO out. With regional and Cold War tension rising, American, French, British and Italian forces moved in to keep the peace as the Israelis withdrew, but faced a campaign of ‘suicide bombings’ before they were withdrawn in 1984. Not until 1987 did Syrian forces install some sense of order.
