Dance of swords: United States military assistance to Saudi Arabia, 1942--1964

The United States and Saudi Arabia have a long and complex history of security relations. These relations evolved under conditions in which both countries understood the need for cooperation, but also were acutely aware of its limits and the dangers of too close a partnership. U.S. security dealings with Saudi Arabia are an extreme, perhaps unique, case of how security ties unfolded under conditions in which sensitivities to those ties were always a central---oftentimes dominating---consideration. This was especially true in the most delicate area of military assistance. This dissertation examines the first twenty years of the U.S.-Saudi military assistance relationship. It seeks to identify the principal factors responsible for how and why the military assistance process evolved as it did, focusing on the objectives and constraints of both U.S. and Saudi participants.; Drawing heavily on U.S. primary source materials, the research traces the history of military assistance from 1942--1964 using six time periods. The first is from 1942 to 1945, tracing early political relations and the initiation of military assistance by the U.S. during the war years. The years 1945 to mid-1950 examine the transition from world war to cold war, and the first serious long-term plans and actions between the two countries on military assistance. The period from mid-1950 through 1953 focuses on efforts to formalize U.S.-Saudi military assistance and to establish a regular military advisory group inside the Kingdom. The years 1954--1956 are investigated during a key phase of Arab nationalism and British decline in the region. The period 1957--1960 focuses on the effects of the Saudi internal power struggle between King Saud and Crown Prince Faisal on the military assistance process. Last are the years 1961 through 1964, characterized as an era of Arab polarization and direct security threats to the Kingdom, most notably the war in the Yemen. The work concludes with a summary of the principal findings and patterns of behavior observed over the entire period. It also addresses the historically important question of how to evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia.