Carter Doctrine

Brzezinski modeled the wording on the Truman Doctrine,[1] and insisted the sentence be included in the speech "to make it very clear that the Soviets should stay away from the Persian Gulf.

"[4] On February 14, 1945, while returning from the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt met with Saudi king Ibn Saud on the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal, the first time a U.S. president had visited the Persian Gulf.

During Operation Desert Shield in 1990, U.S. defense secretary Dick Cheney cited the landmark meeting between Roosevelt and Ibn Saud as one of the justifications for sending troops to protect Saudi Arabia's border.

The Truman Doctrine, which stated that the U.S. would send military aid to countries threatened by Soviet aggression, was used to strengthen both Iran and Saudi Arabia's security.

In October 1950, President Harry S. Truman wrote to Ibn Saud that "the United States is interested in the preservation of the independence and territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia.

[10] National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski advised Carter that the United States's "greatest vulnerability" lay on an arc "stretching from Chittagong through Islamabad to Aden."

[12] In 2008, some scholars claimed that Carter's energy plan, had it been fully enacted, would have prevented some of the economic difficulties caused by American dependency on foreign oil.

In the interim, the administration asked Congress to restart Selective Service registration, proposed a five percent increase in military spending for each of the next five years, and expanded U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.