Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership

From the opening of a U.S. consulate in Dhahran in 1944 through the conclusion of his ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia in 1965, Parker T. Hart played a critical part in building the U.S.-Saudi security relationship, a key aspect of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East to this day. Drawing on his personal involvement in events as well as the documentary record, Hart provides fresh insights into early Saudi-U.S. diplomatic relations - from, Franklin D. Roosevelt through Lyndon B. Johnson - and details the construction of the Dhahran airfield, King Faisal's consolidation of the Saudi nation, and U.S./U.N. intervention to halt Saudi-Egyptian hostilities sparked by the revolutionary war, in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the United States also offers perspectives on politically sensitive current issues, such as U.S. military bases in the Middle East and the security of the vast Saudi oil reserves.

"... a unique historical document about one of the key relationships we have with states of the Middle East." --Richard B. Parker

From 1944 to 1965, concluding with his ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia, Parker T. Hart played a critical role in building the U.S.-Saudi security relationship that remains to this day a key aspect of American diplomacy in the Middle East. His account sheds new light on watershed events in our diplomatic history, and his portraits of three Saudi rulers provide insights into current issues that have been politically sensitive over the long term.

Parker T. Hart is a retired Career Minister of the United States Foreign Service and former assistant secretary of state for Near East and South Asian affairs. He has served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey. His other diplomatic posts have included minister to the Yemen and director of the Foreign Service Institute. He is author of Two NATO Allies at the Threshold of War.

Foreword by Walter L. Cutler

About the Author

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue--History in the Making: A Portrait of King Abd al-Aziz Saud

Part 1: Diplomacy of an Air Base

1. Troubled U.S.-British Cooperation

2. Early Presidential Assurances and the Arab Call to Unity

Part 2: The Restless Search for Boundaries

3. The Eleven Year of King Saud: Cold War and Area Pressures

4. Saud Besieged: Nasser, Dhahran Airfield, and Faisal

Part 3: Collapse of an Ancient System

5. Buildup to Confrontation: Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia

6. Yemen: Collapse of an Ancient System

Part 4: Violence and Mediation

7. The 1963 Bunker Mission and Beyond

8. Operation Hardsurface and the UN Observer Mission in Yemen

9. The Deposing of King Saud: Faisal's Accession

Epilogue

Postscript

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index