not heard of it. ian: no they haven t. but you d have heard about if we d lost it, i can tell you. anthony: right. the war began as a local rebellion by the dhofari people against the autocratic and outdated rule of then sultan said bin taimur. who had kept his nation isolated and stunted, out of concern for his hold on power. what started as a local uprising quickly became a serious full blown communist backed insurgency, as soviet and chinese influence poured in from yemen. ian gardiner remembers the conflict well. he fought in it, alongside omani infantry as a british royal marine. and later wrote about the experience in his memoir in the service of the sultan. a rare chronicle of the brutal incredibly difficult and almost entirely unknown war, fought in the rugged southern mountains.
ian gardiner remembers the conflict well. he fought in it, alongside omani infantry as a british royal marine. and later wrote about the experience in his memoir in the service of the sultan. a rare chronicle of the brutal incredibly difficult and almost entirely unknown war, fought in the rugged southern mountains. ian: the old sultan was not an inhumane man, but he was an old man, and he was deeply reactionary, so he wanted to keep his country in a medieval time warp. the thing that changed it, was the advent of a japanese transistor radio. for the first time his people could hear what other arab countries were doing with their oil, and they wanted some of that. anthony: by the 1920 s winston churchill switched the royal navy s mode of power from coal to oil. and suddenly, everything changed. they needed oil, and lots of it. which made oman vital not for its limited oil resources, but
he fought in it, alongside omani infantry as a british royal marine. and later wrote about the experience in his memoir in the service of the sultan. a rare chronicle of the brutal incredibly difficult and almost entirely unknown war, fought in the rugged southern mountains. ian: the old sultan was not an inhumane man, but he was an old man, and he was deeply reactionary, so he wanted to keep his country in a medieval time warp. the thing that changed it, was the advent of a japanese transistor radio. for the first time his people could hear what other arab countries were doing with their oil, and they wanted some of that. anthony: by the 1920 s winston churchill switched the royal navy s mode of power from coal to oil. and suddenly, everything changed. they needed oil, and lots of it. which made oman vital not for its limited oil resources, but for where it is, the strait of hormuz. the persian gulf s femoral artery, 20% of the world s oil
the smell of the tea. i loved it. this was a civil war. civil wars, typically, are the worst wars of all. you know that well enough in your country. anthony: but most people have not heard of it. ian: no they haven t. but you d have heard about if we d lost it, i can tell you. anthony: right. anthony: the war began as a local rebellion by the dhofari people against the autocratic and outdated rule of then sultan said bin taimur. who had kept his nation isolated and stunted, out of concern for his hold on power. what started as a local uprising quickly became a serious full blown communist backed insurgency, as soviet and chinese influence poured in from yemen. ian gardiner remembers the conflict well. he fought in it, alongside omani infantry as a british royal marine. and later wrote about the experience in his memoir in the service of the sultan.
this was a civil war. civil wars, typically, are the worst wars of all. you know that well enough in your country. anthony: but most people have not heard of it. ian: no they haven t. but you d have heard about if we d lost it, i can tell you. anthony: right. the war began as a local rebellion by the dhofari people against the autocratic and outdated rule of then sultan said bin taimur. who had kept his nation isolated and stunted, out of concern for his hold on power. what started as a local uprising quickly became a serious full blown communist backed insurgency, as soviet and chinese influence poured in from yemen. ian gardiner remembers the conflict well. he fought in it, alongside omani infantry as a british royal marine. and later wrote about the experience in his memoir in the service of the sultan. a rare chronicle of the brutal