The Second World War and Superpower Competition in the Gulf: General Patrick J. Hurley’s Wartime Visits to Tehran

The Second World War’s impact on the Arabian Gulf was significant, not least in terms of the impact it had on Iran and its post-conflict development. The “Big Three”—the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain—took a keen interest and, despite previous accounts more often placing an emphasis on frictions between the wartime leaders in London and Moscow, in many respects it was the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was responsible for the greatest intrigues. Employing the Atlantic Charter, an agreement he had reached with the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in August 1941, as the basis for his actions, and with General Patrick J. Hurley, acting as a personal representative and regular visitor to Tehran, he sought to ensure a much greater level of access, influence, and even control following the war’s end. While there is evidence to highlight that he held, at least in part, an altruistic outlook, geopolitics were a key driver behind the actions he undertook as he strove to strengthen American regional and global standing.