It was done to prop up the US dollar.

When Nixon removed the US dollar from the gold standard, the dollar had nothing to back it up.

So, they worked a deal with the oil producing companies in the Middle East to only sell oil in US dollars and no other currency, in exchange for military protection of their oil fields.

THIS is why there is so much US involvement in the Middle East. This is also why the US economy remained strong long after the welfare state should have melted it down.

The US economy stopped growing in 1970. It grew if you include inflation as part of the growth, but real growth slowed way down or stopped in 1970.

This is when the welfare state (started by FDR in 1935, and accelerated greatly by LBJ in 1965) became such a burden on the economy that real growth stopped.

That is also when national debt started to soar.

The economy could continue the illusion of growth due to an artificially propped-up dollar because of the petro dollar, as well as massive borrowing and Federal Reserve money printing.

When there is no gold to keep the corrupt politicians from doing stupid things, then they do stupid things that will get them re-elected. Personal power is more important to them than oath of office.

Also, I read an article several years ago. No way to really verify, but the writer was very convincing because of the level of detail. He said that part of the petro dollar scheme was that Saudi Arabia would invest its oil profits in US bonds, thereby propping up the bond market.

In addition, the interest earned by SA that was not needed by them, would be "made available" for secret, black ops by the CIA. This would be a pot of money that was not just off-budget of the US Congress, but unknown to them, as well. The CIA could do literally anything with it.

This may be what funded the economic hit teams that John Perkins revealed in his book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."