ABSTRACT
The slow unfolding of US policy contributed to the development of the modern Persian Gulf. This chapter focuses on a few key turning points, when seemingly unrelated US policy choices eventually resolved themselves into a surprisingly coherent strategic posture. The result of global effort was the Nixon Doctrine, which placed primary reliance on security cooperation with regional states as a means of protecting US interests around the world. In the Gulf, it was decided to rely heavily on the two key states of Iran and Saudi Arabia, a strategy that quickly became known as the "Twin Pillar policy". On May 18, 1993, two months after President Clinton took office, Martin Indyk of the National Security Council staff spelled out the broad outlines of what he called America's "dual containment" policy in the Persian Gulf. The United States also announced a major redeployment of its Persian Gulf forces, sharply reducing the number of ships and aircraft permanently stationed in the region.
