Join the Salisbury Branch of the ESU for a discussion on the country of Oman and its journey from medievalism to modernity with Angus Ramsay. The talk will begin at 11 am at the Mercure White Hart Hotel, Salisbury.
In 1970 the world, if it had heard of Oman at all, expected the tiny, wretchedly poor, and backward Sultanate of Muscat & Oman to be taken over, Crimea-style, by communist revolutionaries. Post Vietnam, communism seemed everywhere unstoppable, and its acquisition of Oman would have given Moscow control over the vital Straits of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf. Both the Middle East and the West would have lost abundant resources and had to develop in very different ways.
For ten years the Sultanate fought back, and under a charismatic Sandhurst-trained young ruler, it won a genuine victory and rapidly fashioned an enduring peace. Low-profile Oman is now one of the safest, loveliest, and friendliest of all Arab countries. Angus Ramsay, who from 1973 – 1975 led an Omani rifle company in the war-torn province of Dhofar, charts the astonishing development of this fascinating country.
To book please contact Julia Tibbs at ESUSalisbury-EventsSec@esu.org.
Tickets: £28 for lecture and lunch, £12 for lecture only.
