ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the extent to which American dominance in world affairs is based on the control of oil resources and the changes which will inevitably take place with the end of the oil era. The oil industry played a key role in this expansion. Though investment in manufacturing in 1970 was greater than in oil, the rate of growth in oil investments during the post-war period was greater than for any other industry. World War II illustrates even more dramatically than World War I the importance of oil in modern warfare. The German drive to Stalingrad was motivated partly by the desire to cut off oil shipments to the Red Army coming up the Volga from Iran and partly by an attempt to secure the oil-rich Caucasus for the Third Reich. Arabian oil is the greatest opportunity they have ever had to stimulate interest in the Middle East and US government backing against their long-time adversaries, the British.
