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“The Twilight of the Pax Britannica”: The United States and Britain’s Departure from the Persian Gulf Region, 1968–1972

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American Ascendance and British Retreat in the Persian Gulf Region

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Abstract

Early in the afternoon of December 19, 1971, the British warships HMS Achilles and HMS Intrepid weighed anchor and steamed slowly out of the port of Bahrain toward the open sea. Sir Geoffrey Arthur, the last British political resident in the Persian Gulf, reported poignantly to Foreign Secretary Lord Home:

There was no ceremony as the last British fighting unit withdrew from the Persian Gulf: a British merchant vessel in the opposite berth blew her siren, and Intrepid’s lone piper, scarcely audible above the bustle of the port, played what sounded like some Gaelic lament. That was all.1

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Notes

  1. “The Withdrawal of British Forces from the Gulf,” Her Majesty’s Political Resident in Bahrain to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Diplomatic Report No. 171/72, NB 10/1, 2 February 1972, FCO 8/1814.

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  1. W. Taylor Fain
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© 2008 W. Taylor Fain

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Fain, W.T. (2008). “The Twilight of the Pax Britannica”: The United States and Britain’s Departure from the Persian Gulf Region, 1968–1972. In: American Ascendance and British Retreat in the Persian Gulf Region. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613362_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613362_7

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-37082-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-61336-2

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