If Iraq invaded Kuwait any time between 1963 and 1971, would Britain have stopped Iraq cold?

Britain could/would have stopped any Iraqi invasion of Kuwait cold between 1963 and 1971

  • Yes

    Votes: 25 96.2%
  • No

    Votes: 1 3.8%

  • Total voters
    26

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
In OTL, shortly after Kuwait was made formally independent from Britain in 1961, Iraqi dictator Kasem threatened to invade Kuwait. Kuwait invoked British help, and in "Operation Vantage" British naval forces and marine commandos deployed to ward off any Iraqi attack. After a few months, the British departed and an Arab League force replaced them for an undetermined period of time.

However, according to wiki, Britain kept a security commitment to Kuwait until May 1971, although probably the intention to let the commitment lapse in 1971 was communicated earlier as part of London's withdrawal of commitments from "East of Suez".

In OTL, after Kasem's ouster, there was some additional governmental stability and regime changes in the remainder of the 1960s, which kept the Iraqis too busy to reassert claims to Kuwait.

However, what if and Iraqi government any time between 1963 and 1971 gained enough authority and invested enough in military hardware to be able to conquer Kuwait, and used means up to and including outright invasion to seize the country? Could Iraq have succeeded in getting away with it?
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Due to the size of Iraq's military force, Britain would, with co-operation of other Arabic nations in the gulf, be able to keep Iraq out of Kuwait. Enough arms could be pumped through to ensure this. If Iraq is backed by the USSR, then all bets are off.
 
Also depends on Egypt at the time

Would they and the OPEC nations side with Kuwait or Iraq (both of whom are members)

If they sided with Kuwait then British forces could relatively quickly move assets by sea from the Med and Europe into the Gulf via the Suez Canal

If they instead sided with Iraq then Britain has several problems - Oil (and the ability to threaten western powers who would in turn apply pressure on the UK) and no Suez Canal available to move assets
 
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