A history of American destroyers in Arab waters

Some see its arrival as a prelude to the US entering the new war in the region. Others believe that such a show of force in the eastern Mediterranean could signify the exact opposite – exerting pressure on all sides to end the violence while deterring other nations from entering the conflict zone.

Washington & Lincoln

Destroyers were first conceived by the Spanish Navy in 1885 but have since become hallmarks of the United States.

Most 19th-century presidents gave their names to vessels engaged in active combat during the First World War.

However, ships named in honour of 20th-century presidents more frequently appeared in Arab waters – like the USS Gerald R. Ford.

On the other hand, the USS George Washington was a ballistic missile warship launched during the Cold War in 1959. By September 1998, it had been completely recycled.

Other battleships have since emerged carrying Washington's name, including a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier deployed to protect New York City after the 9/11 attacks.

Another naval celebrity is the USS Abraham Lincoln, named after one of the greatest American presidents who fought and won the Civil War before being gunned down in 1865.

The aircraft carrier was used in August 1998 to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory suspected of helping Osama bin Laden make nerve gas for al-Qaeda.

True to President Lincoln's resolve, the ship was then used to bomb Bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in response to attacks against US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Roosevelt & Truman

With its early and minimal engagement in the First World War, the US only became involved in the Arab region during the Second World War.

Before that, interaction was limited – pre-oil, pre-Communism, pre-Israel, and pre-Islamic State (IS). During the Second World War, however, US President Franklin Roosevelt reached out to the Arabs to ensure they didn't join the Axis Powers, given their sympathy for Hitler and hatred for Great Britain and France.

He worked towards emancipation from the unpopular mandate system and invited them to join the founding conference of the United Nations in October 1945.

It was under Roosevelt that Saudi-American relations were cemented, and thanks to him, Syria and Lebanon achieved their independence from the French.

It's no surprise that the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt aircraft carrier spent most of its active years in the Mediterranean, patrolling the region as part of the famous Sixth Fleet.

Then came the USS Harry S. Truman, named after Roosevelt's successor. Launched in 1998, it famously took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, returning to the region in 2016 to strike at the Islamic State from the waters of the Mediterranean.

President Truman had presided over the last few months of the Second World War. It was under his administration that Arab states went to war against the State of Israel in May 1948.

Eisenhower & Kennedy

Truman's successor Dwight Eisenhower had a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier under his name, which was deployed to the region during the outbreak of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.

She would return to the region occasionally, first to evacuate US diplomats from Beirut after the Israeli occupation of 1982, and again the following year, when 241 Americans, mostly marines, were killed. That was thirty years ago today.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower made another appearance during the Second Gulf War in 1991, standing on high alert in case Saddam Hussein invaded Saudi Arabia.

Then came John F. Kennedy, one of the most well-known American presidents, owing to his charisma and widely broadcasted assassination in 1963.

The supercarrier carrying his name, launched by his widow Jacqueline Kennedy, was equally famous – and highly important to the Middle East.

The USS John F. Kennedy entered service on 7 September 1968 and sailed to the region to deter the USSR during the October War of 1973, much like the USS Gerald R. Ford is doing today.

It was redeployed after the marine bombings of October 1983 and spent the remainder of the year patrolling territorial waters.

In December, it took part in a bombing raid over the Lebanese capital, losing two aircraft and returning to active duty after 9/11, where it was used to establish security along the mid-Atlantic.

More recently in 2002, her aircraft dropped 31,000 tons of explosives on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

She was finally decommissioned and retired in mid-2007 and serves as a museum display as of 2023. As a supercarrier, she was succeeded by USS Gerald R. Ford.

A new ship carrying President Kennedy's name is scheduled to enter service in 2025. 

Other ships, other presidents

A destroyer named after President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was in power during the October War of 1973, will enter service next year.

President Jimmy Carter, whose era witnessed the signing of the Camp David Accords of 1978, is the only US president with a nuclear-powered submarine to his name.

His successor, Ronald Reagan, was honoured with a nuclear-powered supercarrier commissioned in June 2003, three months after the occupation of Baghdad. In 2006, it supported combat operations against al-Qaeda in Iraq, before returning to the region in June 2021, to help evacuate US troops returning from Afghanistan.

And finally, the USS George HW Bush, a supercarrier named after the 41st president of the United States, was constructed between 2003-2009, at a cost of $6.2bn.

President Bush himself was a naval aviator during the Second World War.

The ship carrying his name was deployed to support operations of the US Navy's 5th and 6th fleets before arriving off the southern coast of Turkey on 5 May 2014. It docked 500 miles away from Crimea, as tensions climbed between Russia and America over Ukraine.

Then, in June, she set sail to the Arab Gulf right after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared on the pulpit of the great mosque of Mosul, self-appointing himself as caliph of the Islamic World.

In the not-too-distant future, other ships will be named after presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump, should the latter not find himself in jail.

The world must wait and see what future wars they will be commissioned to deter – or join – in the Arab World.