Word: east
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...this encounter of East and West, the rage on either side has a way of spiraling up in a murderous double helix: the anger of the Muslims may feed on itself, and the countering anger of the West may further ignite the anger of Islam. So great is the mutual incomprehension that international relations degenerate rapidly to the chaotic psychology of the mob. Although U.S. reactions have been, all things considered, remarkably mild, the Iranian crisis has legitimized among Americans a new stereotype of the demented Muslim. Says University of Wisconsin Historian Kemal H. Karpat: "Khomeini has done more harm...
After the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by Iranian radicals, some of Washington's Middle East experts predicted that this outrageous violation of international custom would brand Ayatullah Khomeini as a pariah in the Islamic world. The experts were wrong. Certainly the majority of Khomeini's neighboring rulers disapprove of the embassy invasion and the holding of diplomatic hostages. But the denunciations of the Ayatullah have not been as loud or as specific as the U.S. would like. That is partly because Khomeini's skill at rousing Iranian mobs to a pitch of zealotry...
Last week, as the war of nerves between Tehran and Washington continued, U.S. policymakers were pondering three questions: 1) What was the impact of the crisis on other key states in the Middle East, notably Saudi Arabia? 2) What role was being played by the Soviet Union? 3) How would other nations respond in the event of retaliatory action against Iran...
From the U.S. viewpoint, the linchpin of the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, which currently supplies the West with about 22% of its oil imports. U.S. security depends, quite literally, on continued oil production by Saudi Arabia-and thus on the staying power of a royal family that faces many of the problems of religious and tribal instability that afflicted the deposed Shah. The Saudis, whose semifeudal society is trying to cope with both Western technology and hordes of unassimilated foreigners, are exceedingly vulnerable to both external and internal threats. That was proved by the recent seizure of the Sacred...
...they must realize that they do not necessarily reap benefits when the U.S. loses. Moscow's experience has been that even some of its most faithful clients rebel in exasperation. As one top Administration expert puts it: "When the Soviets go into a country in the Middle East, they tend to muck around and not really achieve much improvement in the local way of life...