Bubble, Bubble, Oil and Trouble

While Russian and American newsmen comment fiercely on each other's origin and the United Nations becomes snarled in a welter of tedious recriminations, a vicious behind-the-scenes economic battle comes far closer to splitting the East and West than any so-called ideological warfare. Iran, keystone of an important Anglo-American oil reservoir, is the stage for an oil dispute that threatens to boil over momentarily. Skittish over Russian expansion towards the Persian Gulf, the United States has influenced Iran to disavow a proposed oil-rights contract with Russia in a move that has Moscow frothing. This most recent indication of a return to the naked power politics of pre-war years defeats the purpose of the U.N. and suggests a headlong race for natural resources.

Although both the United States and Russia are naturally wealthy nations, the allocation of Iranian petroleum becomes a prime consideration when one country wants to conserve its oil and another attempts the upkeep of a large military machine. Any Russian entrenchment in northern Iran comes as an economic and strategic threat to the Anglo-American interests in nearby Arabia. Besides giving the Soviet Union sufficient oil to maintain the ambitions of the Red Army, the plan for twenty-five years of Russian exploitation would weaken Allied control of the Iranian government and weaken the entire Anglo-American position in the Middle East. The United States alternately prodded and soothed Iran's Premier Ghavam into refusing Russian demands for immediate action on the pact. An explosion of threats and ultimatums from Moscow was countered with the warning that twenty-five million dollars worth of American military credits might be turned down if the treaty went through. Iran became the pawn in a rousing game of power politics that showed two nations battling for world leadership. The struggle is as dangerous as it is anachronistic.

The greatest danger to the peace lies with this increasing emphasis on sheer economic and military power. A disagreement on German economic reconstruction, the collision over American aid to Greece and Turkey, and the enervating process of finding a suitable peace treaty all point up a short-sighted conflict of material interests which is ultimately more dangerous than a difference over political theories. Ideological name calling will hardly lead to a third world war, but the intense and ultimate clash of interests and ambitions must be resolved if peace can be secured.