ABSTRACT
Before World War II, the United States had few economic or strategic interests in the Middle East, and little official presence. After the demise of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, the region was essentially divided into British and French spheres of influence. In February 1951, the State Department distributed to all its posts in a region a comprehensive "Policy Statement" about the kingdom. It said, in effect, that Americans were in Saudi Arabia to advance US interests, not to tell the Saudis how to run their lives or organize their society. In 1979, the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan further bolstered the strategic importance of Saudi Arabia. President Harry Truman declared Saudi Arabia eligible for technical assistance under his Point Four program. The Truman administration, in fact, fully recognized and accepted the anomalies inherent in a strategic and economic partnership with an absolute monarchy dominated by xenophobia and religious intolerance.
