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U.S. foreign policy as well, persuading Nixon to name him secretary of state in the weeks just prior to the outbreak of the October Yom Kippur War. Indicative of his central role in events, Kissinger retained both titles, as head of the White House National Security Council and as secretary of state, something no other individual has ever done, before or since. No other single person during the last months of the Nixon presidency wielded as much absolute power as did Henry Kissinger. To add insult to injury, Kissinger was given the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. Following a meeting in Teheran on January 1, 1974, a second price increase of more than 100 per cent brought OPEC benchmark oil prices to $11.65. This was done on the surprising demand of the Shah of Iran, who had been secretly put up to it by Henry Kissinger. Only months earlier, the Shah had opposed the OPEC increase to $3.01 for fear that this would force Western exporters to charge more for the industrial equipment the Shah sought to import for Iran’s ambitious industrialization. The support of Washington and the West for Israel in the October War had fed OPEC anger at the meetings. Even Kissinger’s own State Department had not been informed of his secret machinations with the Shah.6 From 1949 until the end of 1970, Middle East crude oil prices had averaged approximately $1.90 per barrel. They had risen to $3.01 in early 1973, at the time of the fateful Saltsjöbaden meeting of the Bilderberg group, which discussed an imminent 400 per cent future rise in OPEC’s price. By January 1974, that 400 per cent increase was a fait accompli. THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE OIL SHOCK The social impact of the oil embargo on the United States in late 1973 could be described as panic. Throughout 1972 and early 1973, the large multinational oil companies, led by Exxon, had pursued a curious policy of creating a short supply of domestic crude oil. They were allowed to do this under an unusual series of decisions made by President Nixon on the advice of his aides. When the embargo hit in November 1973, therefore, the impact could not have been more dramatic. At the time, the White House was responsible for controlling U.S. oil imports under the provisions of a 1959 U.S. trade agreements act. In January 1973, Nixon had appointed Treasury Secretary George Shultz to be assistant to the president for economic affairs as well. In
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