‘Nixon doctrine’
opinion
II
ilitarizes Gulf region
This is the second article in a spe
cial three-part series prepared by
the Gulf Solidarity Committee on
the political and economic situa
tion in a potentially explosive part
of the world, the Arabian Gulf reg
ion of the Middle East. - ed
The deteriorating position of the
U.S. after Vietnam ruled out the
possibility of the maintenance of a
solely U.S. global military network
for both financial and political con
siderations. In the revised
strategy, the “Nixon Doctrine” —
fighting by proxy — client states
such as Saudi Arabia and Iran
have gained a more powerful posi
tion in the imperialist system
through their roles in maintaining
capitalist “stability” in their re
spective regions. The Shah of
Iran, the ruling family of Saudi
Arabia and to lesser degrees the
ruling families of Bahrain and
Kuwait, the Sultan of Oman and
the Sheikhs of the United Arab
Emirates integrate themselves
into the world capitalist system.
This is being accomplished by re
investment of oil revenues in the
developed capitalist economies
(U.S., Britain, France), by making
funds available for loans to under
developed countries (i.e., con
structing highways in Brazil), by
extravagant consumption of
Western luxury goods, and by as
suring export, contracting and in
vestment opportunities for
market-hungry firms, especially
weapons manufacturers in the
U.S., France and Britain.
THE POLICY
The Nixon Doctrine was de
scribed by Nixon's first term De
fense Secretary Melvin Laird:
“Each partner does its share
and contributes what it best can
to the common effort. In the major
ity of cases, this means indigen
ous manpower organized into
properly equipped and well
trained armed forces with the
help of material, training, technol
ogy, and specialized skills fur
nished by the United States. ”
The goal is not military self
sufficiency for the client states but
closer integration and fuller par
ticipation in the U.S. global military
network. The Nixon Doctrine
seeks to reproduce American
style forces, using U.S.-built
weapons, to ensure a continuing
dependence on the U.S. which
does not at the same time require
a massive U.S. military presence.
Military and related personnel at
tend courses and visit military in
stallations to observe U.S. de
fense management and training
methods, systems and opera
tions. This kind of training is only
re-enforcing their dependency
through standardization with U.S.
doctrine, tactics, techniques and
methods of operation. “The im
pact of such training is multiplied
many-fold — when they return
home to positions of increased re
sponsibility and influence.”
THE PRACTICE
According to the Washington
Post, Dec. 1976, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers has 720 milit
ary and civilian employes detailed
to work in Saudi Arabia — at the
kingdom’s expense — on projects
totalling $17 billion. They include
corps-contracted ports, canton
ment areas, medical centers, and
military academies. Also, the
Saudi naval expansion program
includes two naval bases and a
naval headquarters designed and
supervised by the corps, ships
built by U.S. firms and about 2,000
Saudi officers and men trained in
a speciai Saudi school at the San
Diego Naval Training Center. The
U.S Air Force Logistical Com
mand, with 50 persons assigned
to the job, supervises 1,000 North
rop Corp. employes in the Saudi
F-5 warplane program.
The pattern is the same for Iran.
The New York Times, August
1976, stated that since 1972 more
than $10 billion in American-made
military equipment has been sold
to the Iranian regime. According to
the article, "English has been
made the basic language for
many military activities...and that
Iran could not wage full-scale
war...without U.S. support on a
day-to-day basis." In April, 1977,
a new Airborne Warning and Con
trol System (AWAC) was sold to
Iran, which includes five highly
sophisticated planes at a cost of
$850 million. Since major
weapons systems are sold as
complete packages, including all
training, services and logistical
support required for their opera
tional use the total cost for AWAC
will probably reach $1 billion. The
Iranian aircraft arsenal, either de
livered or on order, includes
McDonnell Douglas F-4’s, North
rup F-5’s, Grumann F-14's, Gen
eral Dynamics F-16's, Bell
helicopters and Lockheed and
Boeing patrol and cargo planes.
(NYT, January 30,1977). The air
crafts mentioned above are just
Iranian purchases from the U.S.
and does not include the
weaponry purchased from Great
Britain and others.
THE SELLERS
The U.S. is by far the foremost
arms merchant to the Gulf, fol
lowed by France and Britain. In
1963, then-Deputy Assistant Sec
retary of Defense, William Bundy,
pointed out the possibilities for
government-industry cooperation
in increasing military sales. Bundy
stated that the international mili
tary markets offered a potential
solution, in part, to the unfavora
ble balance of payments. (Accord
ing to a New York Times Article,
January 1977, “In the coming year
the U.S., the world’s leading pur
veyor of munitions, will ship $10
billion worth of arms to scores of
other nations. For every $12 the
U.S. earns from exports, $1 will
come from the arms trade, provid
ing profits for 1,100 American
companies dealing in munitions. ”)
The intimate relationship between
the military, industrial and finan
cial sectors has expanded greatly
since the early sixties. Today, rep
resentatives of specified U.S.
firms peddle their wares around
the world under license from the
State Department. Military Advis
ory Assistance Groups, consisting
of U S. military personnel and
U S. civilians paid out of military
funds, are stationed around the
world. They submit, on a regular
basis, complete information to the
Department of Defense on any
thing which might help the military
sales program. The U.S. civilians
included in these groups are usu
ally representatives from the
major arms firms — General Elec
tric, Lockheed, RCA, Northrop,
Hughes Aircraft, Pratt and Whit
ney, General Dynamics,
Grumann, Curtiss-Wright, etc.
Also, U.S. military service manu
als direct all personnel to advise
foreign military personnel to
purchase directly from U.S.
manufacturers.
THE BUYERS
The regimes of the Gulf depend
heavily upon the armaments and
personnel to maintain their reac
tionary and undemocratic re
gimes. In Iran, as well as Saudi
Arabia and the other Gulf states,
the law comes to mean whatever
the ruling Shah, Prince, Sultan or
sheikh determines it to be. There
is no freedom of the press or
speech, political activities are con
trolled or outlawed, the right to or
ganize or demonstrate is forbid
den, and violators are imprisoned
and tortured. The military expendi
tures, the extravagant consump
tion patterns and the investments
in the capitalist economies of the
West have done nothing to al
leviate the poverty, illiteracy and
inadequate health care of the
people of the Gulf. The ruling royal
families and their associates know
full well that it is only the army of
"advisors" and these technologi
cal tools of death that keep their
undemocratic rule alive.
THE COMMON EFFORT
The common effort Laird spoke
of is the suppression of any prog
ressive movement that poses a
threat to these regimes and con
sequently to U S. interests. The
Gulf Security Pact, a task force
Saudi Arabia and Iran have been
attempting to form, is a manifesta
tion of this common effort, as is
their concerted effort to put an end
to the revolutionary struggle of the
PFLO (People’s Front for the Lib
eration of Oman). Though con
fronted with regimes armed to the
teeth the PFLO heroically con
tinues to wage revolutionary
struggle. The next article in the
series will deal with the move
ments in the Gulf.
Submitted by the
Gulf Solidarity Committee
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TOPICAL (
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Letters
Campus concerns
Is anyone awake out there9
This letter is to the 601 people out
there who did not vote for
Feldman-Tyler in the last election.
To you 600 (the other one was
myself) I thought I would take the
time to point out to you that your
votes were not counted. Even
though the ASUO does not have
the power to do so, they did it.
Unfortunately the Emerald does
not think that just because no one
won a majority (a constitutional
requirement) that this falls under
the heading of campus news.
Likewise the Emerald does not
think that when Jamie Burns of
fers my money back if I would quit
campaigning that this is news
When Gordon Hanna of the
ASUO Constitution Committee, in
response to my attorney's ques
tions about their procedural
guidelines says, "We ll do as we
damn well please the Emerald
does not feel this is newsworthy.
Obviously these are not cam
pus concerns. We all know that
politics is as dirty as a tongueless
dog's asshole. Why expect or
even hope for anything better?
Who would have the audacity to
think anything can be changed?
Unfortunately us 601 people are
pissing in the wind. What differ
ence does it make when your rep
resentatives argue that they are
not bound by state law and further
that students have no rights. Seri
ously, these people, obviously ig
norant of the "real world' and the
larger values like due process,
equal protection of the laws,
notice and hearing, feel they live
and operate in a vacuum. We 600
shall see for how long
Craig W. Geary
Senior-Political Science/History
Us 601 non-counting people
contribute $51,085 a year in inci
dental fees.
Hasty decision
President William Boyd of the
University of Oregon has recom
mended closing its School of Lib
rarianship. A special committee is
now studying his recommendation.
President Boyd may have made
a hasty decision based on insuffi
cient facts. For example, he says
his decision is due to financial
reasons. Yet, the School of Lib
rarianship is self-supporting, with
an enrollment of 123 students.
Also, it appears that President
Boyd has made his decision with
out consulting library leadership in
this state. Neither has he con
sulted the educational community
nor members of Oregon s political
community. Therefore, no sig
nificant public discussion accom
panies a decision that will have far
reaching effects on Oregon's fu
ture.
The School of Librarianship is
the only school in Oregon offering
the Master of Library Science de
gree. To dose its doors means
closing education opportunities in
Oregon to students wishing to
prepare for public, special, and
academic librarianship careers.
The University of Oregon
School of Librarianship has sig
nificantly strengthened library
services and development in
Oregon, and therefore deserves
the support of the community.
Lannie Hurst
Peggy R. Burrell
Patricia Mansfield
Student Public Information
Committee
Associated Library Students
Wrongly quoted
I wish to comment on the article
in May 13's Emerald about writer
John Barth s appearance on
campus this week, which I at
tended along with an enthusiastic
SRO audience My mam com
plaint is that the article is poorly
and inaccurately written If one
had not attended Barth's talk, one
would, from reading this article,
not only have very little idea of
what went on, either in the perfor
mance or in the draft of Letters,
but would gam the mistaken im
pression that the talk was jum
bled, confusing and even boring
In addition to this, the article con
tains several out-and-out mis
takes and (horrors!) misquota
tions, which could easily have
been avoided by either getting the
quotes right in the first place or
writing the column as a subjective
piece, giving the reporter s impre
ssions of what Barth said. Exam
ple: marganayfael spells leafy
anagram' backwards, not
beefy," as Barth is wrongly
quoted as saying in the story
Pointing out this sort of thing may
seem like quibbling, but I believe,
perhaps naively, that it is one duty
of a good reporter to quote ex
actly, not approximately, in a
story.
In short, I don't believe that the
article does justice to either Barth
the man or his work. I don t wish to
discourage the efforts of budding
journalists on the Emerald, but in
the future it might be nice for a
reviewer to be someone who 1)
has read something of a famous
writer s work and 2) understands
the presentation, or, failing that,
takes careful notes dunng it It
would seem that finding a person
with these minimal qualifications
would not be very difficult.
Alice Persons
Senior-Anthropology