Abstract
The origins of the “special relationship” between the United States and Saudi Arabia are rooted in the politics of World War II, driven by America’s growing demands for oil. Roosevelt understood that the war offered an opportunity for the emergence of new political relationships in the Middle East designed to challenge European influence and foster the new economic and political order he envisioned. He admitted to being “greatly interested” in developments in Saudi Arabia and he aimed to build a strategic partnership, a kind of Good Neighbor Policy for the Middle East, with the Saudi king as one of its cornerstones. The Americans saw him as the most important figure in the Middle East, not only due to his kingdom’s oil wealth and its importance to postwar plans, but also because of Ibn Saud’s political and religious standing with the Arabs throughout the region.
[King Ibn Saud] is the most influential figure in the Arab and Moslem world generally, in and through which a very important part of the war effort is taking place …. It is entirely possible that as the result of military developments in the Middle East it will be necessary for our armed services to obtain, sooner or later, rather extensive facilities from the King of Saudi Arabia.
Sumner Welles to FDR, February 1942.1
In view of the rapid decline of the oil resources of the United States, the War and Navy Departments are interested in obtaining military and naval reserves in the ground in Saudi Arabia.
Cordell Hull to FDR, March 30, 1943.2
Saudi Arabian oil constitutes one of the world’s greatest prizes.
Cordell Hull to Harold Ickes, November 13, 1943.3
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Notes
Memorandum of conversation between the King of Saudi Arabia and President Roosevelt, February 14, 1945, FRUS, 1–4; “Cairo Conversations,” February 17, 1945, FO 141/1047; Annex to the “Cairo Conversations” between Churchill and Ibn Saud, February 17, 1945, FO 141/1047; William A. Eddy, FDR Meets Ibn Saud (New York: American Friends of the Middle East, 1954), 29.
Donald Cameron Watt, “The Foreign Policy of Ibn Saud, 1936–1939,” Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 50 (April 1963): 152–160, reveals the King’s deliberate strategy of facilitating the needs and interests of the Americans.
See also William A. Eddy, FDR Meets Ibn Saud (New York: American Friends of the Middle East, 1954);
and Thomas W. Lippman, Arabian Knight: Colonel Bill Eddy USMC and the Rise of American Power in the Middle East (Vista, CA: Selwa Press, 2008).
Barry Rubin, “Anglo-American Relations in Saudi Arabia, 1941–1945,” Journal of Contemporary History 14 (April 1979): 253–268, argues that American policy toward Saudi Arabia grew out of concerns about British interest in Saudi Arabian oil, and that the Saudis shrewdly exploited American interests in the Kingdom at the expense of the British.
David Aaron Miller, Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy, 1939–1949 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980) explores the origins of the US-Saudi “special relationship” that emerged during World War II.
John Franklin Carter to Roosevelt, “Memorandum on Saudi Arabia,” October 29, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President, President’s Secretary’s File, box 97, FDRL; “The Situation in Saudi Arabia,” by Wallace Murray, October 30, 1941, Central Files, 890F.00/70, NARA.
“Memorandum for the President,” by William J. Donovan, Office of Strategic Services, January 25, 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President, PSF 147, FDRL; “Memorandum for President Roosevelt,” No. 331, by William J. Donovan, March 14, 1942, Central Files, 890F.001 Ibn Saud/30, NARA.
“Economic Development of the Near and Middle East,” in Agenda for the Post war Planning Meeting of March 20, 1943, P 215, March 19, 1943, Notter Files, NARA; “The Impact of Modernization on the Arab Economy,” in T minutes 47, April 30, 1943, Notter Files, NARA; Roosevelt to Ibn Saud, August 9, 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President, Official File 3500, FDRL; Paul H. Alling, “Financial Assistance to the Saudi Arabian Government,” November 22, 1944, Central Files, 890F.6363/11–2244, NARA.
“Memorandum for the President: Subject: Mid East Oil Proposal,” by James F. Byrnes, January 25, 1944, Official File no. 56, box 3, FDRL.
“Memorandum by the State Department,” April 21, 1941, PSF 50, FDRL; “Memorandum for the President,” by William J. Donovan, Office of Strategic Services, January 25, 1942, PSF 147, FDRL.
William A. Eddy, “Remarks about Jews Made by King Abdul Azizal Saud,” October 30, 1944, Central Files, 890F.001 Ibn Saud/10–3044 NARA.
Just as during the time of FDR, this US-Saudi relationship has remained smooth so long as Washington averted its eyes from the more troubling aspects of the regime. See Rachel Bronson, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006);
and Thomas W. Lippman, Inside the Mirage: America’s Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Westview Press, 2004).
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© 2012 Christopher D. O’Sullivan
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O’Sullivan, C.D. (2012). FDR and Saudi Arabia: Forging a Special Relationship. In: FDR and the End of Empire. The World of the Roosevelts. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137025258_6
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