A 'tanker war' with Iran would be more complicated than the 1980s version
WASHINGTON - The president was named Reagan, and Iran and Iraq were locked in a horrific war with each other over control of land and the Persian Gulf.
The United States and other nations entered the fringes of the conflict when the warring neighbors launched attacks on international oil tankers transiting the strategic waterway - at that time, the route for most crude reaching the rest of the world.
The U.S. Navy was among several forces that began to escort the vessels, clear mines floating in the sea and patrol the shores in search of missile batteries, launching what became known as the "tanker war" of the 1980s. More than 200 boats
