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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
Although Saudi Arabia and the United States obviously did not
share any borders, the kingdom's relationship with Washington was
the cornerstone of its foreign policy as well as its regional
security policy. The special relationship with the United States
actually dated to World War II. By the early 1940s, the extent of
Saudi oil resources had become known, and the United States
petroleum companies that held the concession to develop the oil
fields were urging Washington to assume more responsibility for
security and political stability in the region. Consequently, in
1943 the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that
the defense of Saudi Arabia was a vital interest to the United
States and dispatched the first United States military mission to
the kingdom. In addition to providing training for the Saudi
army, the United States Army Corps of Engineers constructed the
airfield at Dhahran and other facilities. In early 1945, Abd al
Aziz and Roosevelt cemented the nascent alliance in a meeting
aboard a United States warship in the Suez Canal. Subsequently,
Saud, Faisal, Khalid, and Fahd continued their father's precedent
of meeting with United States presidents.
The United States-Saudi security relationship steadily
expanded during the Cold War. This process was facilitated by the
shared suspicions of Riyadh and Washington regarding the nature
of the Soviet threat to the region and the necessity of
containing Soviet influence. As early as 1947, the administration
of Harry S. Truman formally assured Abd al Aziz that support for
Saudi Arabia's territorial integrity and political independence
was a primary objective of the United States. This commitment
became the basis for the 1951 mutual defense assistance
agreement. Under this agreement, the United States provided
military equipment and training for the Saudi armed forces. An
important provision of the bilateral pact authorized the United
States to establish a permanent United States Military Training
Mission in the kingdom. This mission still operated in Saudi
Arabia in 1992.
The United States-Saudi relationship endured despite strains
caused by differences over Israel. Saudi Arabia had not become
reconciled to the 1948 establishment of Israel in the former
Arab-dominated territory of Palestine and refused to extend
Israel diplomatic recognition or to engage in any form of
relations with Israel
(see Cooperation with the United States
, ch. 5). Despite this position, Riyadh acknowledged that its
closest ally, the United States, had a special relationship with
Israel. After the June 1967 War, however, Saudi Arabia became
convinced that Israel opposed Riyadh's strong ties with
Washington and wanted to weaken them. During the 1970s and 1980s,
periodic controversies over United States arms sales to the
kingdom tended to reinforce Saudi concerns about the extent of
political influence that supporters of Israel wielded in
Washington. In several instances congressional leaders opposed
United States weapons sales on the grounds that the Saudis might
use them against Israel. Despite assurances from Saudi officials
that the weapons were necessary for their country's defense,
Congress reduced or canceled many proposed arms sales. Although
the debates over Saudi weapons purchases were between the United
States legislature and the executive branch, these political
contests embittered Saudis and had an adverse impact on overall
relations. From a Saudi perspective, the public policy disputes
among United States leaders seemed to symbolize a weakening of
the United States commitment to defend the kingdom's security.
Saudi uneasiness about United States resolve was assuaged by
the United States response to the crisis unleashed by Iraq's
invasion and occupation of Kuwait. In this ultimate test of the
United States-Saudi security relationship, Washington dispatched
more than 400,000 troops to the kingdom to ward off potential
aggression. This was not the first time that United States forces
had been stationed on Saudi soil. The huge Dhahran Air Base had
been used by the United States Air Force from 1946 to 1962. In
1963, President John F. Kennedy had ordered a squadron of
fighters to Saudi Arabia to protect the kingdom from Egyptian air
assaults. In 1980 President Jimmy Carter loaned four
sophisticated airborne warning and control system (AWACS)
aircraft and their crews to Saudi Arabia to monitor developments
in the Iran-Iraq War. However, the presence of United States and
other foreign forces prior to and during the Persian Gulf War was
of an unprecedented magnitude. Despite the size of the United
States and allied contingents, the military operations ran
relatively smoothly. The absence of major logistical problems was
due in part to the vast sums that Saudi Arabia had invested over
the years to acquire weapons and equipment, construct modern
military facilities, and train personnel.
After the war, Saudi Arabia again faced the prospect of
congressional opposition to its requests for weapons. Riyadh
believed that it cooperation in the war against Iraq demonstrated
the legitimacy of its defense requirements. Nevertheless, the
United States informed Saudi officials that Saudi Arabia's
request to purchase US$20 billion of United States military
equipment probably would not win the required approval of
Congress. Riyadh reluctantly agreed to an administration proposal
to revise its request into two or three separate packages, which
would be submitted in consecutive years. This process tended to
erode the positive feelings created during the war and revive
Saudi resentments about being treated as a less than equal ally.
Data as of December 1992
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