Better Lucky Than Good: Operation Earnest Will as Gunboat Diplomacy - Reagan Era Confrontation with Iran and Tanker War, Oil Tanker Protection by American Forces, Vincennes Iranian Airliner Incident

This informative report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. In 1987 the United States agreed to register eleven Kuwaiti oil tankers under the American flag and provide them naval protection at the height of the Iran - Iraq War. Motivated primarily by Cold War considerations, the United States embarked on a policy of "neutral intervention" whose intended effects were certain to be disadvantageous to Iran. American planners failed to adequately anticipate Iranian reaction to the American policy, which led to a number of violent naval actions and American retaliatory strikes on Iranian oil facilities. Nevertheless, by April 1988, the United States had largely achieved its declared objectives, which were to secure the safe transit of Kuwaiti oil through the Gulf, and forestall the expansion of Soviet influence in the region. On April 29, 1988, however, the United States expanded the scope of the protection scheme, extending the U.S. Navy's protective umbrella to all neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf. This decision divorced the American policy from its original limited objectives, increased the likelihood of further confrontation with Iran, and laid the groundwork for the destruction of an Iranian airliner by USS Vincennes (CG-49).

Operation Earnest Will was a seminal event in the history of American involvement in the Persian Gulf. It marked the first time military force was called upon to support the Carter Doctrine. It denoted the passage of responsibility for Persian Gulf Security from Great Britain to the United States and commenced an era of continuous U.S. Navy presence in the region that has extended up to today.

This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Chapter I discusses the purpose and importance of the study. A description of the research methodology and major sources used in the study follows. A review of existing literature introduces the reader to the major sources influencing the study's central argument. Chapter II focuses on American involvement in the Middle East prior to the Iran -Iraq War. A discussion of the Carter Doctrine sets Operation Earnest Will within a strategic context. The chapter examines United States Navy involvement in the Persian Gulf between 1945 and 1981 and demonstrates the limited involvement of the United States Navy in the Persian Gulf prior to 1987. Chapter III provides an overview of the first six years of the Iran - Iraq War with emphasis on the role of the Tanker War in the strategies of both belligerents. Careful study of the ferocity of shipping attacks and the attack methods employed by the belligerents provides critical background to understanding the circumstances surrounding the Kuwaiti government's approach to the United States in December 1986. An investigation of the U.S. Navy's presence in the Persian Gulf between 1981 and 1986 provides a historical link between the prewar American naval presence in the region and Operation Earnest Will. Chapter IV centers on the January 1987 Kuwaiti request to register eleven vessels under the American flag and the American response to same. As the Soviet Union weighed heavily in the United States agreeing to the Kuwaiti request, a short discussion of Kuwaiti foreign policy vis-a-vis the superpowers is necessary. An examination of the objectives of Operation Earnest Will follows. A brief description of the USS Stark incident is necessary, as this "mistaken" Iraqi attack resulted in increased Congressional focus on the Reagan Administration's reflagging scheme. A discussion of gunboat diplomacy provides the analytical framework within which American planning assumptions regarding the anticipated Iranian response to the American operation is critiqued.