Policy Of Eisenhower Administration Towards Saudi Arbia

There is a little contact between the United States and Saudi Arabia before the Second World War, mainly concentrating on the economic trade between American companies (especially Arabian-American Oil Company) and Saudi Arabia. As the Second World War proceeded, the United States gradually became aware of the importance of the Saudi Arabia’s strategic position and its potential wealth of oil resources, so the US. started to strengthen the political contact with Saudi Arabia. After World War II the United States and the Soviet Union began to fight for the world hegemony. As the strategic areas of great importance in the world, the Middle East was the target of both the U.S. and Soviet Russia. During Eisenhower government, The policy of U.S. toward the Middle East mainly served for two goals. One is to ensure the oil supply of Middle East and the second is to achieve hegemony in the Middle East against Soviet force. It is clear that Saudi Arabia is difficult to become the backbone of the policy of U.S.(at least in the1950’s) because of its weak national strength (mainly including its sparse population and relatively weak military power). However, Saudi Arabia still played an important role in the policy of U.S. toward the Middle East during the Eisenhower government. Objectively speaking, as the leading power in Arabian areas, Egypt is the key of the policy for its military and political power. Therefore, at that time, the policy of U.S. toward Saudi Arabia was greatly affected by that toward Egypt.In a sense the policy toward Saudi Arabia could be even called the satellite policy toward Egypt. Nevertheless, the draft of U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia had its own independence due to the oil interests, international environment and the political change of Saudi Arabia. That is precisely the reason why U.S. had different policies toward Saudi Arabia during different times. The dissertation bases on declassified documents of Foreign Relations of the United States, and Mainly probes into the Saudi government policy, Eisenhower administration’s U.S.-Saudi relations and the history of the influence of the main factors U.S.-Saudi relationship and their influenceThe Introduction part mainly states the object and the contents of this thesis, literature review on this study at home and abroad, as well as its academic significance and application value.The Body expatiates the background and the foreign policies of U.S. toward Saudi Arabia during the Eisenhower government, which will be divided into four parts.Part Ⅰ focuses on the background of the policy of the U.S. toward Saudi Arabia before and after Eisenhower took office. It starts with the importance of strategic significance for the United States in Saudi Arabia, and then recalls the foreign policies of successive U.S. governments toward Saudi Arabia from the Franklin Roosevelt era when the two countries began to exchange. As the situation in the Middle East changed, the diplomatic background of the U.S. and the position of Saudi Arabia changed too after the Second Middle East War when Eisenhower came to power.Part Ⅱ and Part Ⅲ are the crucial parts of the thesis, systematically illustrating the Eisenhower government’s policies toward Saudi Arabia and the development of their relations during this period. According to the different features of their relations between the two countries in different periods, the Eisenhower government’s policies could be divided into three stages. Part Ⅱ mainly discusses the first stage from1953to1955, when the U.S. negatively offered aid to Saudi because it focuses on Egypt. Meanwhile, after King Abdullah passed away, the King of Saudi had more relationship with Egypt, which also had a great effect on the policies of the U.S. Part Ⅲ states the second stage from1956to1958, when the U.S. believed that Nasser was inclined to the Soviet, so the U.S. invited the King of Saudi to pay a visit and support him in the policies, for the purpose that he could challenge the leading position of Nasser in the Arabian world.Part IV mainly discusses the third stage from1958to1960, when two events happened-the Saudi royal coup and Egypt’s moderate attitude toward the U.S.. Thus, the U.S. reconsidered the policies toward Saudi, indicating that it failed to help the King of Saudi in the confrontation against Nasser and put the focus back on Egypt in the Middle East policies.Part V summarizes the characteristics of the policies of the U.S. toward Saudi, analyzes the status and role of Saudi Arabia during the Eisenhower government in its Middle East strategy, and explores the factors and restrictive conditions in the policy-setting of U.S. toward Saudi, in terms of the strategic status of Saudi Arabia, U.S.-Egypt relations, U.S.-Israel relations, oil, etc.The last part briefly concludes the impacts of U.S.-to-Saudi policies on U.S.-Saudi relations during Eisenhower government, and the historic significance and effects of assessing the policies.