Oil Powers: A History of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance

372 Pages·2020·7.95 MB·English

by  Victor McFarland

O I L

POWERS
A History of the U.S.–Saudi Alliance

VICTOR McFARLAND
OIL POWERS

VICTOR MCFARLAND
OIL POWERS
A History of the U.S.- Saudi Alliance
Columbia University Press / New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup . columbia. edu
Copyright © 2020 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: McFarland, Victor, author.
Title: Oil powers : a history of the U.S.-Saudi alliance / Victor McFarland.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2020. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019056209 (print) | LCCN 2019056210 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231197267 (cloth) | ISBN 9780231197274 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780231552073 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Petroleum industry and trade—Saudi Arabia. |
United States—Foreign relations—Saudi Arabia. | Saudi Arabia—Foreign
relations—United States. | United States—Foreign economic relations—
Saudi Arabia. | Saudi Arabia—Foreign economic relations—United States.
Classification: LCC E183.8.S25 M38 2020 (print) | LCC E183.8.S25
(ebook) | DDC 327.730538—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019056209
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019056210
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
Cover image: Getty Images © Dirck Halstead
CONTENTS
Acknowl edgments vii
A Note on Arabic Transliteration xi
Introduction: Jeddah, 1974 1
1 Wheels of Empire 15
2 Roads to Profit 46
3 Ignition 79
4 Machines in Motion 102
5 The Cutoff 123
6 Unmoored 152
7 Turning Right 181
8 Ascent 209
Conclusion 235
CONTENTS
Notes 251
Bibliography 313
Index 331
vi
ACKNOWL EDGMENTS
I
t is a plea sure to thank the many friends and colleagues who helped this
book come together. While working on Oil Powers, I was fortunate to
make my academic home at Yale University, the Miller Center at the
University of V irginia, the Dickey Center for International Understanding
at Dartmouth College, the Charles Warren Center for Studies in Ameri-
can History at Harvard University, and the University of Missouri.
Funding from Yale University, the University of Missouri, the Gerald R.
Ford Presidential Library, and the Society for Historians of American For-
eign Relations (SHAFR) supported my archival research. Those travels
took me to libraries and archives in the United States, Saudi Arabia, and
beyond. I am grateful to the staff at the Center for Research Libraries in
Chicago, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the Univer-
sity of Texas, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (with special thanks
to Jay Sager), the Rockef el ler Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, George-
town University, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor,
Harvard University, the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, the Insti-
tute of Public Administration in Riyadh, the Jimmy Cart er Presidential Li-
brary in Atlanta, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston,
King Abdulaziz University, King Saud University, the University of Jordan
ACKNOWL EDGMENTS
(with special thanks to Afnan Rafeeq), Lafayette College, the National Ar-
chives and Reco rds Administration in College Park, the National Center
for Documentation and Research in Abu Dhabi, the Organi zation of Pe-
troleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, the Organ ization of Arab Petro-
leum Exporting Countries in Kuwait City (with special thanks to Omar
Karameh), Prince ton University, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library
in Yorba Linda, and the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley.
I could not have conducted research in Saudi Arabia without the sup-
port of Prince Turki al-F aisal, Naila al- Sowayel, Ibrahim al- Hadlaq, and
the staff of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in
Riyadh, as well as Mohammed Al Fahad and Majid Al-M oneef at the
Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. Thanks to Abdulaziz Al
Fahad, Saeed Badeeb, and Hassan Husseini for their hospitality and
their insights into Saudi history, and to Daniela Olivier, Hamed Tabrizi,
Michael Farquhar, and Nadav Samin for our shared adventures in the
kingdom.
I am grateful to the former U.S. and Saudi officials and others who
agreed to be interviewed for this book. Special thanks to William
Quandt for being exceptionally generous with his time and for helping
me to understand what happened b ehind the scenes in the Nixon and
Car ter administrations.
I received valuable advice on work in pro gress from the organizers and
participants of workshops, seminars, and conferences with the American
Historical Association, the American Po liti cal Science Association, Ca’
Foscari University of Venice, the Seminar on Twentieth C entury Politics
and Society at Columbia University, the Dickey Center at Dartmouth Col-
lege, the Warren Center at Harvard University, the International Studies
Association, the Middle East Studies Association, the University of Mis-
souri, the Abu Dhabi Institute and the Remarque Institute of New York
University, SHAFR, the Maison de la Recherche of Sorbonne University,
the University of Tübingen, the Miller Center at the University of Virginia,
and Yale University.
My academic advisors, John Lewis Gaddis, Abbas Amanat, and Beverly
Gage, guided this proje ct from the beginning. I am also deeply indebted
viii
ACKNOWL EDGMENTS
to David Painter and Salim Yaqub for their generous mentorship and
support over the years.
Many other colleagues, teachers, and friends read and discussed this
proj ect with me. They included Sultan Alamer, Marino Auffant, Fritz Bartel,
Amanda Behm, Jadwiga Biskupska, Rosie Bsheer, Daniel Chardell, Dag
Harald Claes, Jeff Colgan, Guillemette Crouzet, Christina Davidson,
Michael Farquhar, Kevin Fogg, Jeffrey Friedman, Joe Fronczak, Giuliano
Garavini, Nils Gilman, Gretchen Heefner, Ryan Irwin, Rose Kelanic,
Paul Kennedy, Josh Kertzer, Sulmaan Khan, Kevin Kim, Jenny Lind,
Doug L ittle, Fred Logevall, Chris Low, ShawnaKim Lowey- Ball, Erez
Manela, Emily Meierding, Chris Miller, Ed Miller, Jennie Miller, Mike
Morgan, Sam Moyn, Marta Musso, Aaron O’Connell, Lindsey O’Rourke,
Ken Osgood, Daryl Press, Paul Sabin, Daniel Sargent, Kathryn Schwartz,
Kristina Shull, Jeremi Suri, Laura Thaut Vinson, Bob Vitalis, Jessica
Wang, Odd Arne Westad, and Bill Wohlforth. Special thanks to Chris
Dietrich, Molly Geidel, Nathan Kurz, and Saje Mathieu for g oing above
and beyond the call of duty in their thorough reading of the manuscript
and their detailed and insightful comments.
Kevin Kim and Daniel Sargent generously shared material they had
collected on their own trips to the archives. Molly Bradtke, Oksana
Levkovych, and Natascha Otoya gathered critical sources at the Library
of Congress, the Guildhall Library in London, and the Georgetown
University Library. Amro Alansari, Mohammed Alaskari, Duaa Alhou,
Ali Almajed, Eissa Almoteiri, and Laith Hujab helped transcribe Arabic
documents into electronic formats. Their help was invaluable, especially
with older newspapers whose smudged and blurry text was a challenge
even for native speakers. All translations, and any resulting errors, are
my own.
I am grateful to Dick Doughty at Saudi Aramco World and Sharon Sey-
mour at the Sausalito Historical Society for sharing images from their
collections.
Thanks to the editors and staff at Columbia University Press (including
Stephen Wesley, Christian Winting, and Kat Jorge) and to Susan Ecklund
and Helen Wheeler at Westchester Publishing Serv ices for their expert
ix