The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East Paperback – Illustrated, 11 Sept. 2012

If you think the US's alternative energy policy is forging ahead, think again. It has been stalled for decades, largely because of US reliance on oil from Iran and Saudi Arabia. Andrew Scott Cooper, a historian and NGO activist, offers a dense presentation about the geopolitics of oil from 1969 to 1977. He focuses on the politicians and diplomats of the time, covering their relationships and limitations. Cooper discusses the flawed decision making that shaped American foreign policy and the US's dependence on foreign oil. He tells a powerful story, much of it revealed for the first time, since he culled research from newly declassified documents. While the book occasionally gets bogged down in minutiae that distracts from the more interesting main narrative, getAbstract recommends it to anyone intrigued by the convoluted mechanics of oil geopolitics.

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As an Iranian, I was always asking myself that why Iran and US relation ended up to such a disastrous situation and I think, when you read the book, you'll have some ideas about why this happened. Perhaps three elements caused this:First American politicians that as a superpower, they think they know the best of everything however this is not true and in many cases, they take actions based on simplified realities and their horrible mistakes make great catastrophes for many people especially American people at the end. Part of what happened in relation to Iran was exactly their fault and short-sighted policies.Second, stubborn and supper ambitious Shah that didn't know his place and real power in the game and his dictatorship and faulty decisions caused lots of troubles for Iranians.Third, mysterious and opportunist Saudis that in one hand supported and financed fundamentalists in the world and on the other hand, they established a very close and good relation with US as an ally. At least, they've shown that they have learnt good lessons from the fate of Shah of Iran and they tried not to destroy their own position as an ally of USA.No matter how the conflict between Iran and USA was generated and who was responsible, it seems the winner was Saudis and the biggest losers were people of Iran and America. These days, Iran and USA are trying to resolve decades of mistrust and you see Saudi's opposition overtly to the progress of negotiations. This clearly shows how they will find themselves in trouble if Iran and USA start a new and close relation and sure the book provide you the answer why Saudis are worry about this.If you are Iranian or American and want to see some facts behind the scene, read this very well-written and informative book.

Author Andrew Scott Cooper's first book "Oil Kings" is surprising well written and entertaining. The book is primary about the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his dealings with President Richard Nixon and the duplicitous Henry Kissinger. The book centers around a secret deal between the Shah, Nixon, and Kissinger which allowed Iran to purchase best of class U.S. weapons systems, advance jet fighters, smart bombs, etc. in any quantity desired. Basically anything weapons short of nukes were available for purchase by the Shah. In return, the President would allow the Shah to raise oil prices through OPEC to cover the costs of the weapons. The U.S. was reeling from its involvement in Vietnam. The mood of the country was against any military action abroad. The country was being torn apart by protest and incidents such as the Kent State shootings still fresh in the minds of Americans. The Shah was ambitious and saw himself as the heir to the great Persian Kings of the ancient world. The Shah would use his newly acquired weaponry to protect the Persian Gulf and Israel from Soviet influence.The first series of oil price increases implemented by OPEC shocked the economies of the west. The Shah waved aside any suggestion that the price increases were endangering the oil consuming nations especially the Europeans. The Shah was blinded by his grand vision of a modern westernized Iran. No one realized the Shah was racing against time after being diagnosed with cancer.Watergate was a disaster for the U.S. - Iran relations. With the resignation of Nixon, the Shah lost his most powerful supporter in Washington. Kissinger was still Secretary of State but more and more Kissinger was finding himself on the losing side of the debate on U.S. - Iranian policy discussions in Washington. Slowly members of the Ford Administration were realizing that additional price increases would crush Europe and possibly lead to communist takeovers of the European countries. Secretary of the Treasury Simon and others were pushing for a closer relationship with the Saudis. The Saudis were opposed to rapid increases in the price of oil. As the Shah would soon learn concerning oil revenues, too much too fast was not desirable. Inflationary surges and lack of resources would lead to domestic unrest.Secretary of Defense, James Schlesinger, was one of the first cabinet members to raise concerns about the ambitions of the Shah. As the Shah became more independent of Washington and more friendly with Sadat of Egypt, Israeli interests were being threatened. Israel was being pushed to give back territory captured from Egypt in the war so it was necessary to secure their supply of oil from Iran. Egypt was also a soviet satellite, so the friendship between Iran and Egypt was causing policy makers in Washington to realize that no one had throughly thought thru the consequences of Nixon's policy towards Iran.Some Arab OPEC members were trying to link the Israel - Palestine question to the oil embargo. The Shah had pledged to protect the flow of oil and to kept Israel supplied with oil. There was even a joint U.S. and Iranian plan to invade Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to protect the flow of oil. As this plan was leaked to the press Saudi Arabia was outraged and had to move to protect their interest.Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney would enter the Ford Administration and work to neutralize Kissinger's influence and together with Secretary of Treasury Simon and Alan Greenspan finally convince President Ford to initiate closer relations with the Saudis in an successful attempt to call the Shah's bluff on oil prices. Saudi is the swing producer in OPEC, meaning that the Saudi oil production can be used to meet demand. The Saudis refused to back the Shah's push for another price increase at the OPEC meeting, which meant that the Shah was financially ruined as he committed Iran to a massive spending program that was no longer affordable for Iran.The Shah had heated up the Iranian economy to a point beyond its capacity to absorb the cash coming in. There were cargo ships that were waiting to be unloaded for over 200 days, resulting in capital equipment rusting on the docks. Saudi Arabia was eager to avoid this in their country; in fact, petro-dollar recycling became a major issue for the international banking system. For example, if a bank did accept large petro-dollars deposits they could be susceptible to collapse if the funds were suddenly withdrawn.The book continues into the Carter Administration and moves quickly up to the revolution; although, the book doesn't cover the revolution itself other than the lead up and it is quickly glazed over to the end.I've summarized the story above but I didn't do the story justice as Mr. Cooper does. I've had many insights while reading this book that explained other books I'ver read on related topics. In "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" by F. William Engdahl, the 1973 Bilderberg meeting minutes were published that discussed increasing the price of oil. Kissinger attended this meeting so it makes sense that Kissinger was working against the best interest of the U.S. in secrectly supporting the increase in the price of oil. The oil price was increased to make the investments by the major oil companies in the north sea profitable and to cause economic problems for the Europeans to help cover the financial problems the U.S. was having after closing the gold window.Another insight that left me wondering was how the U.S. seemed to have toppled the Shah after they lost control over him. Although Mr. Cooper never suggested that the U.S. was involved in the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, he does layout a sense of dissatisfaction with the Shah. I also got a feeling that certain insiders seem to be looking after Israel's interest once the Shah started asking for Nuclear reactors. The book will definitely provide an interesting view into the machinery of foreign policy in action. It feels like you are getting an insiders look.Get the book you won't be disappointedFor example I suggest reading the following books along with this book.A Century of War: : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World OrderOil, God, and Gold: The Story of Aramco and the Saudi KingsThe Hidden Hand of American Hegemony: Petrodollar Recycling and International Markets (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)Myths, Lies and Oil Wars

Pure pleasure.