The Relationship between The First Saudi King Abdulaziz and The US

The Relationship between The First Saudi King Abdulaziz and The US

The Saudi Arabia-United States relations have existed for several decades since the 1930s. The relationship primarily embedded in the security of the gulf, oil, and royal family of Saudi. The two countries have very limited commonalities, but despite the differences, the special relationship has existed for almost 100 years, although the description of “special” was adopted post the Second World War (Al-Rasheed, 2019). Saudi and the United States have had a union that is based on the oil in Saudi in return for the security cover of the United States towards the Kingdom to secure the entire region from foreign foes. This relationship is based on the state interests, not commons social systems or political systems, or ideologies that have remained at extreme odds with one another.

The Saudi Arabia kingdom lacks any practical civil society as it is under the adminstration of the al-Sud royal family that partners with the highly religious institution under a fundamentalist theology referred to as Wahhabism, since the 18^th Century. Both the leadership parties dispute the freedom of press, religion, democracy, and public blend of unmarried women and men. Wahhabi clericals also despise movie houses, drinking, girls’ workout in schools, public dancing, women sports centers, and women driving. Neither the Wahhabi religious institution nor the royal families have an interest in elections. The only form of votes allowed in Saudi Arabia is in the chamber of commerce that comprises of business people who entire do not impose any threat to the security of the region.

King Abdulaziz was the founder of the Kingdom after crushing his opponents that existed within the area (Al-Rasheed, 2019). In less than twelve months, the King signed a consigning agreement with California Standard Oil, which today is referred to as Chevron, to search for oil within the eastern region of Saudi. The step was quite extraordinary, alluding to the fact that the United States lacked any involvement with Saudi Arabia. The Christian missionaries who lived in Bahrain at the time are the group which assisted in convincing King Abdulaziz that there could be a mutual relationship between his country and America. Bahrain is an Island existing off the Saudi Arabian coastal region. The Christians went to Saudi Arabia with the intent of providing medical treatment to particular soldiers of the King although made not even a single attempt in converting anyone.  The mission was entirely medical and also treated the King in a specific moment. The missionaries were the only foreigners which Saudi dealt with since their encounter with the British- an element which prompted Abdulaziz to see American as purely different from their colonizers.

King Abdulaziz provided the explanation of his encounter with the missionaries regarding his work with American in a memorandum which was initiated by George McGhee, Assistant Secretary of the United States during a meeting  with King Abdulaziz in 1950 (Gause III, 2016). The public only learned about the memorandum during the late 1970s upon the declassification of the document. The King unwrapped himself of his great fears, which emanated from the safety of the Al Saud house. Abdulaziz’s key concern was not related to the one which haunted Washington during the time, which is the expansionism of the communist. However, they feared the impending attacks from the forces of royal families of Hashemite, who ruled in Jordan and also in Iraq. The Kingdoms had a grudge because the al-Sauds drove them away from the holy cities of Medina as well as Mecca in the 1920s. In order to solve the threats from the Hashemite royals, Abdulaziz aspired to enter a formal alliance, which ensured that they receive military assistance from the U.S and the U.S obtain oil. Early on, the British had offered a military alliance with the Kingdom but there was a lack of trust between the two parties. The British had become the primary supported of the Hashemite, who were his enemies at the time. It was the reason why the King informed McGhee that he provided an exclusive concession of the oil to the American firms and denied their British counterparts all the shares in the permit. The King allowed the United States to develop and utilize the airbase at Dammam- which was a sign that the security of Saudi Arabia needs to be an essential concern to the two allying nations (Al-Rasheed, 2019).

Towards the beginning, the Second World War, the production and shipping of oil had reduced upon the first significant discovery oil that took place at Dammam in 1938 (Long, 2019). However, in 1943, the president of the United States at the time, Roosevelt, in conjunction with his administration, realized that oil was going to be an essential element in the future of the United States. It was then that the United States began creating a relationship with King Abdulaziz. In order to issue economic and military assistance to Saudi Arabia, the U.S president declared that Saudi Arabia’s defense force is essential to the United States defense arena- an element that surprised a significant bit of the Americans who were not familiar with Saudi Arabia.

In March 1944, William Knox, who was the Roosevelt’s Navy Secretary, told Congress that the Second World War prompted the government of the US to be extremely anxious regarding the production of oil (Gause III, 2016). The secretary announced the element, which was to turn in to postwar oil policy to America. The policy was to issue the acquisition of oil resources far from the US boundaries for the security as well as the safety of the nation. The policy statement was the rationale regarding America becoming extremely involved in oil from Saudi Arabia. The Standard Oil Company of California-Arabia, which the Chevron company has created, was given the name ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company). Chevron enhanced relations by bringing three more partners who were leading companies in the United States: Texaco, Exxon, and Mobil.  ARAMCO was never just an oil firm. During the early years, King Abdulaziz consistently turned to it for loans since there were not yielded profits from the oil until later in the years. ARAMCO turned into an element resembling s proxy for the government of the U.S in Saudi Arabia. ARAMCO was the factor that led to modernization in Saudi Arabia.

Roosevelt met King Abdulaziz personally in 1945 at the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake of Egypt (Mazzetti & Apuzzo, 2016).  It was from the meeting that the two countries created their “special relationship.” The meeting was never about oil but rather Palestine. Abdulaziz had concerns regarding the step that the U.S was to take about the Jewish state establishment and if Palestinians would create a state. The issue existed at the beginning of the two parties’ relationship, and it consistently emerged. ARAMCO later discovered a pot of gold in 1948.  The company had discovered an oil field in the Ghawar area, which serves as the mother-lode of all fields in the world. In 1951, Ghawar was 20 miles wide and 170 miles (Long, 2019). There was a time that the region had more than 170 billion barrels of oil reserves. ARAMCO company has pumped oil from the reserve for more than half of the years that it has existed. A significant bit of Saudi exports emerge from Ghawar with barrels amounting to 5 million per day. Today, the oil reserve has more than 70 bb compared to the U.S, which has only 20 bb reserves. Meaning, the region comprise of oil reserves that are three times greater than that of the United States.

In 1950, the California based Company, Bechtel built a pipeline which was 100-miles long to connect the oil fields in Saudi across Jordan as well as the Golden heights and transmit oil to Sidon in the region of Lebanon. The oil firm was attempting to solve the issues of transferring Saudi oil to the Western markets. The oils ease the process of directly taking oil to the Mediterranean through pipeline. In 1953, the King Abdulaziz died where the son, Abdulaziz, took over to further with the relationship that had earlier been created by his father and the United States. As of 1980, the Saudi owned 100% of the ARAMCO (Long, 2019). However, they treat their partners from America well. The country provides the U.S partnering companies the priority of selling the oil at discounted rates to please the companies as well as Washington. Since then, the relationship between Saudi and America had grown close and strong.