HMG, AIOC and the Anglo‐Iranian oil crisis: In defence of Anglo‐Iranian

Abstract

At the interface of big business and government, with whom does influence and responsibility lie? Rarely is the answer clear‐cut, yet accounts of the Anglo‐Iranian oil crisis of 1948–54 have often roundly blamed the Anglo‐Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) for British mishandling of it. This article seeks to redress the balance. Whilst no apologia for AIOC policy, it contends that HMG should shoulder much more responsibility than hitherto allowed. From clandestine partnership through to sacrificial pawn, the government used the company as an instrument of foreign policy as it sought to marry the protection of AIOC interests in Iran with wider concerns for combating communism and promoting the Anglo‐American ‘special relationship’.