Tensions between Libya and the West reached a peak during the Ronald Reagan administration, which tried to overthrow Gaddafi. The Reagan administration viewed Libya as a belligerent rogue state because of its uncompromising stance on Palestinian independence, its support for revolutionary Iran in its 1980-1988 war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and its backing for “liberation movements” in the developing world. Reagan himself dubbed Gaddafi the “mad dog of the Middle East.” In March 1982, the U.S. declared a ban on importing Libyan oil and exporting US oil industry technology to Libya; European nations did not follow suit.
