U.S. Petroleum Diplomacy in Venezuela during World War II
https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-9-530-546
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between the United States and Venezuela during World War II with a focus on the role of petroleum resources in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela. It analyzes how Venezuelan oil reserves influenced American strategic interests and examines diplomatic efforts by the United States to secure stable access to Venezuelan oil amid competition from Britain. The research draws upon archival documents from the U.S. State Department, treaties between American and Venezuelan officials, as well as scholarly publications related to international relations, history of the petroleum industry, and U.S.-Latin American relations. Special attention is given to key figures within both governments who significantly impacted decision-making processes concerning petroleum matters. The findings reveal that America's wartime interests in Venezuela necessitated new approaches and structural changes in implementing its petroleum diplomacy: an office dedicated specifically to addressing oil-related issues was established at the State Department, while foundations for cooperation were laid between the U.S. government and private American oil companies. These results contribute to understanding the origins of contemporary Venezuela's dependence on the petroleum sector and its ties with the United States.
About the Author
O. A. Khlopov
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Oleg A. Khlopov - PhD in Political, Associate Professor, Department of American Studies.
Moscow
References
1. Goodrich, L. M., Carroll, M. J. (eds.). (1945). Documents on American Foreign Relations. July 1943 — June 1944, VI. Boston: World Peace Foundation. 700 p.
2. FRUS 1942a — The American Republics. Document 703. 831.6363/1301½. (1942). The President of Venezuela (Medina) to President Roosevelt [Translation]. Miraflores, VI. Available at: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1942v06 (accessed 21.08.2025).
3. FRUS 1942b — The American Republics. Document 704. 831.6363/1811. (1942). Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles), VI. Washington. Available at: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1942v06/d486 (accessed 21.08.2025).
4. FRUS 1942c — The American Republics. Document 706. 831.6363/1321½. (1942). Memorandum by the Petroleum Adviser (Thornburg), VI. Available at: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1942v06/d706 (accessed 24.07.2025).
5. Hull, С. (1993). The Memoirs of Cordell Hull. London: Reprint Services Corp. 1804 p. Thornburg, M. W. (1964). People and Policy in the Middle East; a Study of Social and Political Change as a Basis for the United States Policy. New York, Norton: Middle East — Social conditions., Middle East — Politics and government. 249 p.
6. Baloyra, E. A. (1974). Oil policies and budgets in Venezuela, 1938—1968. Latin American Research Review, 9 (2): 28—72.
7. Brinkley, A. (1989). The New Deal and the Idea of the State’. The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930—1980. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 85—121.
8. Bulavin, V. I., Semenov, V. L., Dabagyan, E. S. (2002). Venezuela in search of an alternative. Moscow: URSS. 216 p. ISBN 5-201-05397-1. (In Russ.).
9. Burns, E. B., Charlip, J. (2001). Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hal. 378 p. ISBN 9780135013212.
10. Dallek, R. (1995). Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932—1945. New York: Oxford University Press. 657 p.
11. Darwin, J. (2009). The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World System, 1830— 1970. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. 800 p.
12. Davis, S. (2009). Contested Space: Anglo-American Relations in the Persian Gulf. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 352 p. ISBN 978-90-04-17130-5.
13. Ergin, D. (1999). Mining. The world history of the struggle for oil, money and power. Moscow: DeNovo Publ. 938 p. ISBN 978-5-9614-1269-7. (In Russ.).
14. Espinasa, R. (2018). 75 Years After the 1943 Agreements. Lessons and Proposals for the Reconstruction of the Oil Sector. Washington: Center for Strategic & International Studies. 25 p.
15. Ewell, J. (1996). Venezuela and the United States: from Monroe’s Hemisphere to Petroleum’s Empire. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 267 p.
16. Irwin, F. G. (1979). Good Neighbor Diplomacy: United States Policies in Latin America, 1933—1945. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 296 p.
17. LaFeber, W. (1993). Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. New York: WW Norton & Company. 452 p.
18. Lucas, S. (1999). Freedom’s War: The American Crusade against the Soviet Union. New York, NY: Freedom’s war. 301 p.
19. Mills, T. C. (2011). The ‘Hemisphere Isolationists’ and Anglo-American Economic Diplomacy during the Second World War. Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 9 (1): 63—75.
20. O’Sullivan, Chr. D. (2008). Summer Welles. Postwar Planning, and the Quest for a New World
21. Order. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. 280 p. ISBN 9780231142588.
22. Painter, D. S. (1986). Oil and the American Century: The Political Economy of U.S. Foreign Oil Policy, 1941—1954. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. 302 p.
23. Pike, F. B. (1995). FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy: Sixty Years of Generally Gentle Chaos. Austin: University of Texas Press. 394 p.
24. Rabe, S. G. (1982). Wartime Policies, 1939—1945. In The Road to OPEC: United States Relations with Venezuela, 1919—1976. University of Texas Press. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/760202.7 (accessed 24.07.2025).
25. Randall, S. J. (1985). United States Foreign Oil Policy, 1919—1948 for Profits and Security. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 328 p.
26. Salazar-Carrillo, J., West, B. (2004). Oil and Development in Venezuela during the 20th Century. Westport, Conn: Praeger. 280 p.
27. Sampson, А. (1975). The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shaped. Toronto, New York: Bantam Books. 334 p.
28. Stoff, M. B. (1982). Oil, War and American Security: The Search for a National Policy on Foreign Oil, 1941—1947. New Haven: Yale Historical Publications. 262 p.
29. Venn, F. (1986). Oil Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 228 p.
30. Volsky, V. V. (1964). Latin America, oil and independence. Moscow: Mysl Publ. 363 p. (In Russ.).
Review
For citations:
Khlopov O.A. U.S. Petroleum Diplomacy in Venezuela during World War II. Nauchnyi dialog. 2025;14(9):530-546. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-9-530-546
Views:
60
Email this article 