fighting a recession . European nations at risk of defaulting on the loans . . . A possible global financial crisis. It happened before, in the 1970s.

Oil Kings may be the tale of how oil found dominate U.S. domestic and international affairs. As Richard Nixon fought off Watergate queries in 1973, the U.S. overall economy reacted for an essential oil shortage initiated by Arab nations in retaliation for American support of Israel in the Arab- Israeli war. The price of oil skyrocketed, leading to about The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East severe inflation. One guy the U.S. could depend on in the Middle East was the Shah of Iran, a loyal ally whose grand ambitions experienced made him a leading consumer for American weapons. Iran sold the U.S. essential oil; the U.S. marketed Iran missiles and fighter jets. But the Shah’s overall economy depended almost entirely on oil, and the U.S. overall economy cannot tolerate annual double-digit increases in the price of this essential item. European economies were hit even harder with the soaring oil prices, and many NATO allies had been vulnerable to default on the debt.

In 1976, using the U.S. overall economy in peril, Leader Gerald Ford, locked in a tight election race, decided he had to find a country that could sell oil to the U.S. even more cheaply and break the OPEC monopoly, that your Shah refused to accomplish. On the suggestions of Treasury Secretary William Simon and against the tips of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Ford made a deal to sell advanced weaponry towards the Saudis in exchange for a humble price hike on essential oil.

Ford shed the election, but the deal had lasting effects. The Shah’s overall economy was destabilized, and disaffected components in Iran mobilized to overthrow him. The U.S. got embarked on an extended relationship with the autocratic Saudi kingdom that continues even today.

Andrew Scott Cooper draws on recently declassified papers and interviews with some essential figures of that time period showing how Nixon, Ford, Kissinger, the CIA, and the Condition and Treasury departments-as well as the Shah and the Saudi royal family members- maneuvered to control events in the centre East. He details the trick U.S.-Saudi intend to circumvent OPEC that destabilized the Shah. He reveals how close the U.S. found sending troops into the Persian Gulf to break the Arab essential oil embargo. The Oil Kings provides solid evidence that U.S. officials disregarded warning signs of a potential hostage crisis in Iran. It discloses that U.S. officials wanted to offer nuclear power and nuclear gasoline towards the Shah. And it shows the way the Ford Administration hardly averted a Western debt turmoil that could possess triggered a economic catastrophe in the U.S. Brilliantly reported and filled up with astonishing information regarding a number of the key figures of the time, The Essential oil Kings is the history of a time that we believed we knew, an era whose momentous reverberations still influence events in the home and overseas today.