The Tanker War (1984-1988)
During the Iran-Iraq War, both sides attacked commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf to damage each other's oil revenue. Iraq struck 283 vessels and Iran struck 168, for a total of roughly 411 merchant ships hit over four years. The United States intervened in 1987 with Operation Earnest Will, reflagging Kuwaiti tankers under the American flag and escorting them through the Gulf — the largest naval convoy operation since World War II.
Despite hundreds of ships being attacked, the Strait of Hormuz never fully closed. Oil prices spiked during individual incidents but the sustained flow of crude continued, partly because both Iran and Iraq needed oil revenue to fund their war.
The Tanker War established the precedent that the US would use military force to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. It also demonstrated that even sustained attacks on shipping could not fully close the strait — but that disruption alone could roil global energy markets.
The current crisis tests whether Iran can succeed where it failed in the 1980s: actually closing the Strait. Iran's asymmetric arsenal is far more sophisticated than in 1988, but it faces a US Navy that has spent decades preparing for exactly this scenario. The economic stakes are higher — global oil dependency on the Gulf has not declined since the 1980s despite decades of rhetoric about energy independence.