Tanks for the Shah: Iran, the Leopard II, and Arms Exports in the Era of Oil Shocks

Abstract

Abstract:When in the 1970s the government of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi submitted a request in Bonn regarding the export of state-of-the-art tanks, this posed a problem to the Social Democrat–Liberal government under Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (SPD). Torn between its previous policies on weapons exports, the interests of the country's energy supply, and the foreign policy challenges of the Cold War, the federal government struggled internally to find an answer for Tehran. Simultaneously the occasion of the Iranian tank request was used in order to internally question West Germany's armaments policy.