Beyond oil: The Cold War relationship between the United States, Britain, and the Iraqi monarchy, 1946-1958

ABSTRACT

   This thesis examines Anglo-American relations in Iraq during the Cold War and evaluates the way that the conflict, along with the growing demand for oil, shaped the relationship between Great Britain and the United States and influenced the Iraqi perspective of Anglo-American relations from 1946-1958. This thesis covers the aspects of cooperation and rivalry between the United Kingdom and the United States in the period immediately following WWII during the administrations of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Through close examination of both Western and Arabic sources, this thesis argues that dissention between the Western allies, which both powers attempted to conceal, indirectly contributed to the toppling of Iraq’s pro-Western monarchy in 1958. Thus, the Cold War trigged tensions not only between the United States and the Soviet Union but between the Western Allies as well.