By Gannon Austin, VI Form

Operation El Dorado Canyon: A Defining Moment in American Foreign Policy

Editor’s Note: This paper was completed as a part of the History Research Fellowship, a one-semester course available to sixth form students.

Student-Submitted Note: This research paper was completed in my History Fellowship class where we had to pick a historical topic and conduct extensive research on it, which would culminate in a 25+ page paper. I chose Operation El Dorado Canyon because I’m interested in Muammar Gaddafi and I wanted to do an event that tied him and the United States together.

Introduction

Many Western countries now consider Libya a failed state and one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The CIA strongly recommends that U.S. citizens stay away from the country because of terrorism, civil unrest, crime, and kidnappings. Libya has been in a tailspin ever since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi during the Arab Spring in 2011. Many Libyans thought it was an obvious choice to overthrow the government and give democracy a go, after over four decades of tyrannical rule by one of the world’s most brutal and unstable dictators. However, following Gaddafi’s death, warring militia groups have struggled for power and have completely destabilized the country and undermined any attempt to form a democracy.

Gaddafi ruled Libya with an iron fist for 42 years and is known to history as one of the world’s most brutal dictators. In 1969, then Colonel Gaddafi and other fellow officers overthrew the pro-Western monarch, King Idris I. They and most of Libya’s civilians felt that the King was selling out to Western oil companies, by giving them generous deals and not using any money for the Libyan people, most of whom lived in extreme poverty. The coup was bloodless and swift. Once in power, Gaddafi began an adversarial relationship with the West by nationalizing Libya’s oil industry. He heavily supported Arab forces in their conflicts with Israel in the 1970s and made the proclamation that Libya would be expanding its territorial water in the Gulf of Sidra. Libya also financed several terrorist groups and activities around the world, even though it denied any links to the attacks. The United States protested diplomatically but didn’t make any forceful moves against Libya.

This would change, however, when Ronald Reagan took office in January of 1981. He took a much more aggressive foreign policy stance against Libya and its dictator, whom he nicknamed “The Mad Dog of the Middle East.” Over the next few years, the United States and Libya would clash in the Gulf of Sidra and would go to war on the diplomatic battlefield. Gaddafi kept further infuriating Reagan by acting as a state sponsor of terror. Finally, in April of 1986, Reagan decided he had had enough of Gaddafi’s antics and authorized a bombing run meant to subdue Gaddafi into submission once and for all. While in the short term, Operation El Dorado Canyon was a success, it failed to definitively put an end to Gaddafi’s support of terrorism. The operation showed that the U.S. military had far-reaching capabilities and was able to make precision strikes. In addition, the attack spooked Gaddafi so much that he stayed unusually quiet for the rest of 1986 and into 1987.

However, in 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. The discovery that the two responsible men were Libyan citizens signified to the world that Gaddafi was back to sponsoring terrorism. Over the next decade, Gaddafi’s regime continued to funnel money and supplies to various terror organizations around the globe and contributed to the deaths of thousands. Operation El Dorado Canyon may have been a short-term success, but in the long run, it failed to fully prevent Gaddafi from carrying out and supporting terrorist actions.

Gaddafi was at odds with the United States and the West from the moment he overthrew King Idris, and in the years preceding the 1986 bombing, he frequently butted heads with the U.S. and its allies, stoking tension and violence in the region. Regardless of whether or not the operation can be deemed successful, it was significant because it represented America’s first action against global terrorism. In the subsequent decades, regardless of what political party occupied the White House, the United States became the global leader in the war on terror, and Operation El Dorado Canyon set the precedent for that policy which has held true to this day.

Libya Pre-Gaddafi and the 1969 Coup

Before World War II, Italy controlled Libya as part of Mussolini’s African Empire. However, in 1940, British and Axis troops began fighting a long and bloody campaign that resulted in the British takeover of almost all Italian territory in Africa by 1943. In the aftermath of the Axis power’s defeat in World War II, Libya was partitioned into two military administrations, with the East run by the British and the West under French control. The two powers would control Libya from 1945 to 1951, while they sought to bring stability and help rebuild the war-torn country that had seen some of the most vicious fighting of the African campaign. On November 21, 1949, the U.N. passed a resolution stating that Libya would become autonomous by January 1, 1952.

The exiled ruler of Libya, Idris, was brought back to negotiate Libyan independence with the U.N. On December 24, 1951, Libya declared independence and unveiled a new constitution, the first piece of legislation that gave explicit rights to Libyan citizens in the post-war era. The new Libyan government would be a constitutional monarchy, with Idris as its head. Despite full autonomy, the new Libyan monarchy maintained close ties with the Western powers of Britain and the United States. In 1953, Libya signed a twenty-year friendship pact with Great Britain which gave the British rights to military bases across Libya in exchange for military and financial assistance. The following year, the United States signed a similar treaty, giving them access to multiple airfields nationwide, including the strategically important Wheelus Air Base where the U.S. Air Force would practice bombing runs and train their gunners. In return, the U.S. gave the Libyans financial aid.

The new Kingdom of Libya was a poor and underdeveloped nation that relied heavily on aid and rent from U.S. and British military bases. Economic improvement occurred, but it moved at a glacial speed. However, that would all change in June 1959 when petroleum prospectors from Esso, today’s Exxon Mobil, discovered large petroleum deposits in Eastern Libya. In the coming years, more oil was discovered and by the mid-1960s, Libya transformed from one of the world’s poorest countries to an affluent state. Libya not only had a large quantity of oil, but the oil was also high quality, making it appealing to Western oil companies. The foreign oil companies paid the Libyan government to drill on its land and returned fifty percent of their total profits to the government. Despite the enormous wealth generated by the oil industry, most of Libya’s population still lived in poverty, while King Idris and his ministers kept most of the money for themselves. Idris gave the money to family members and would use it to pay off tribal leaders who opposed the monarchy. Most of the Libyan people did not support what they saw as a corrupt pro-Western regime. According to historian Dirk Vadewalle, “(Idris) showed no real interest in ruling the three provinces as a unified political community.” The Libyan people were also frustrated that while they lived in squalor, Idris made no effort to improve their living conditions by investing in infrastructure or public utilities.

TO CONTINUE READING, CLICK HERE FOR A FULL PDF VERSION.

Gannon Austin is a VI form boarding student from Winchester, MA. Gannon enjoys studying finance and history. Gannon is an avid reader of historical biographies and hopes to minor in history in college.