The degree to which the world depends on oil and gas is not well understood.
More than most, four men shaped the oft-cited “strategic tensions” over the South China Sea.
Can a onetime bargain-basement art promoter who strikes it rich in a deserted gas field out west find happiness in the coiling intrigue of international trade? Why, yes. But sometimes big deals move on greased wheels and sometimes they run head on into power politics—such as the Arabs’ quadrupling of the price of oil, and the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t state of Soviet-American détente.
“I haven’t waffled,” says Senator Henry M. Jackson, who offers consistency as his pre-eminent virtue. But consistency may prove to be the hobgoblin of his next bid for the presidency.