ABSTRACT
Kuwait oil royalties were the most important new purchasing power in the region." Kuwait thus became "the largest producer in the Gulf, only being outstripped by Saudi Arabia in 1966," according to the same source. In 1951, the US Legation concluded that Lebanese aviation "provided an access to the strong new market in Kuwait for Lebanese foodstuffs, manufactures, and transit goods. The foundations of US-Lebanese relations in Lebanon's first regime after independence rested on PACLIFT, an acronym for petroleum, aviation, commerce, labor, intelligence, and the Friendship Treaty. When Secretary of State Acheson recommended caution in responding to the demise of Rene Busson and its implications for Lebanon's political and economic orientation, he did so with a purpose. In the fall of 1947, some months after the historic merger of ARAMCO and the announcement of the Truman Doctrine, the question of pipeline construction was still being debated in Washington, as the State Department threw its weight behind the plan.
