ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapter of this book. The book crises in Iran and Afghanistan were a turning point in the United States global strategic posture in general and its Persian Gulf policy in particular. The Carter administration's early efforts to put the post-Vietnam US foreign policy on a new moral footing were abandoned in the face of rising domestic disapproval. The Nixon Doctrine, which had been applied to the Gulf in a situation where alternative options were severely restricted by the Vietnam debacle, survived as the basic framework of US policy in the aftermath of the 'first oil crisis'. The Nixon Doctrine can be more properly described as a stop-gap arrangement forced on the US by the Vietnam predicament. The Carter and Reagan administrations carefully avoided any talk of using force to break an oil embargo, which was first indicated by the Ford administration.
