Question. If all else should fail, would the United States consider military intervention in the Middle East to secure oil at prices that we can afford?
Secretary KISSINGER. I don't think that would be a cause for military action.
Question. You don't think that the financial bankruptcy of the West would be a casus belli?
Secretary KISSINGER. The financial bankruptcy of the West is avoidable by other means. We will find other solutions.
Question. That doesn't answer the question, with all due respect.
Secretary KISSINGER. What we would do if there were no other way of avoiding
financial bankruptcy and the whole collapse of the Western structure, I cannot
now speculate. But I am convinced that we won't reach that point.
Source: U.S., Congress, Committee on International Relations, Special Subcommittee on Investigations, Oil Fields as Military Objectives: A Feasibility Study, Report Prepared by the Congressional Research Service, 94th Cong., 1st sess., August 21, 1975, (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1975), p. 78.
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