Richard Nixon’s Road to Tehran: The Making of the U.S.–Iran Arms Agreement of May 1972

McGlinchey, Stephen

Abstract

In May 1972, Richard Nixon travelled to Tehran and signed a deal with the shah of Iran that allowed the Iranian monarch to purchase any U.S. weapons system he desired, in any quantity, short of nuclear weapons. This so-called 'blank cheque' was a highly irregular move, and a revolutionary change in both U.S. arms sales policy and U.S.–Iran relations. It formed the major component of a new U.S. Persian Gulf policy and became a major application of the Nixon doctrine. Exploring in detail how and why this agreement came to pass form an important, and so far overlooked, episode in U.S. foreign policy.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Journal: Diplomatic History
• Print ISSN: 0145-2096
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-7709
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 841-860
• Keywords: Iran, Shah, Nixon, Nixon doctrine, arms, Cold War, American foreign policy, Persian Gulf
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/928599
• Publisher URL: http://dh.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/4/841.full.pdf+html