Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States since FDR (Geopolitics in the 21st Century) Hardcover – November 21, 2017

This book is profoundly instructive and insightful about Saudi Arabia and its relationships with neighboring Arab nations and the United States.Despite spanning a mere 203 pages in length, this book provides a full understanding of Saudi Arabia from its birth to its current influential position as a powerful driver of global economic life. Yes, the book is that good, because the author, Bruce Riedel, wrote a superb book, where each chapter is styled like an executive brief, and he and his team of editors and collaborators rendered the book highly readable and made it a page-turner. The book is eminently concise, profoundly insightful and richly detailed. This book provides a wealth of insightful information.Anyone who drives a car and has to fill up gas, flies on passenger airlines, commutes to work on public transportation, buys consumer electronics made in China, cares about the seemingly never ending violent conflicts in the Middle East, and seeks to live a fulfilling life in America, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Israel, or East Asia, should read this important book.Here are some instructive excerpts from this book:Prologue IX: "Fifteen of the nineteen [September 11, 2001] terrorists were Saudi citizens and the leaders of al Qaeda was another Saudi, Osama bin Laden. Indeed, bin Laden had wanted to create a crisis between Americans and Saudis and deliberately chose his countrymen to attack the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Capitol to damage the relationship."Page 33: "Saudi Arabia was firmly in the anti-communist camp during the Civil War, not just because it is a deeply Islamic country, which regards atheist communism as anathema, but also because the House of Saud recognizes that only the United States could provide security against the Soviet Union, British imperialism, revolutionary Arab nationalists, and other perceived threats."Pages 51-52: "On October 19 [1973] Nixon announced a $2.2 billion emergency military aid package for Israel. The next day Saudi Arabia cut all oil exports to the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, and Rhodesia for helping Israel. In December 1973 another OAPEC [Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries] meeting in Kuwait cut oil production by 25 percent. Oil prices quadrupled, causing severe disruption in the United States and long lines at gas stations. . . .The impact on the American economy was devastating. American gross domestic product fell 6 percent due to the Arab embargo between 1973 and 1975 and unemployment doubled to 9 percent; later in the 1970s, inflation soared well into the double digits, prolonging the economic impact of the embargo long after it had ended."Page 95: "By 1988 the relationship between [President Roland] Reagan [King] Fahd had been deeply shaken by another secret deal, this time an American plot to sell arms to Iran in return for help in freeing American hostages in Lebanon held by the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group Hezbollah. The operation also funded aid to right-wing guerrillas fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua, aid that the Congress had banned. The secret dealings broke into the public domain in November 1986 when the Iranians leaked news about some aspects of them to a Lebanese magazine."Page 130: "Saudi worries about Israel's political influence in Washington, always just below the surface . . . . In Riyadh, it seemed the Tel Aviv tail wagged the Washington dog. On his last day in office, [President Bill] Clinton gathered his NSC staff for a group picture. He turned to me and said, 'You were right about [Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser] Arafat.' The next day Clinton called incoming Secretary of State Collin Powell and told him never to trust Arafat."Page 134: "The key commitment [to Saudi Arabia] was the president's [George W. Bush] promise that the goal of American policy in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute would be the creation of an independent Palestinian state. While [President Bill] Clinton had implicitly been working for a two-state solution after Oslo., [President George W.] Bush's letter [given to Crown Price Abdallah] was the first overt and formal American commitment to a Palestinian state."Page 143: "But al Qaeda had even bigger ambitions than to turn Iraq into a quagmire for America. [Osama] Bin Laden's goal was to overthrow the House of Saud itself.Bin Laden accused the House of Saud of betraying the Ottoman Empire to the British in the First World War and opening the door to Western (Crusader) and Jewish (Zionist) domination of the Muslim world (the ummah)."Page 154: "The Saudis have long been willing to have discreet contacts with Israel, often via third parties, to contain regional threats. . . .But they are not willing to compromise their policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian question or to meet publicly and officially with Israeli leaders. . . .The Saudis are not interested in an alliance with Israel."Page 156: "[President Barack] Obama wisely kept [Robert] Gates on as secretary of defense. Both feared that if Iran got close to building a nuclear weapon, Israel would take military action to try to stop it, just as it had done to Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007. [On March 21, 2018, Israel finally formally acknowledged that its air force blew up a Syrian nuclear reactor in Operation Orchard in the early hours of September 6, 2007.]""After dinner [in March 2010 at King Abdallah's farm] Gates and the king agreed on a massive new U.S. arms sales to the Kingdom, the largest ever. It would cost at least $60 billion and include the purchase of eighty-four new F15S fighter planes, upgrades for the seventy F15S jest the Saudis already owned . . . . The enormous sale was intended to increase Saudi capabilities to defend against Iran, but Gates found 'Abdullah was very cautious about any kind of overt military cooperation or planning with the United States that the Iranian might consider an act of war.' Later, after intense discussions between [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and Gates, Israel agreed not to press its supporters in Congress to fight the sale to Riyadh, in return for a promise of twenty more F35 'stealth' aircraft from the United States."Pages 160-161: "Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who had left Washington under a cloud of misinterpreting George [W.] Bush, had been given a job as national security adviser to the king [Abdallah]. In March 2011 he was dispatched to Pakistan and China. In Pakistan Bandar asked for assurances that, if requested, Islamabad would send elite troops to the Kingdom to restore order if demonstrations got out of hand. This was a repeat of King Khalid's request to Pakistani dictator Zia ul Haq in the 1980s for help after the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Again the Pakistanis promised they would send troops if needed. More immediately they augmented the battalion of troops they had in Bahrain with a recruiting drive that hired experienced Pakistani soldiers to join the Bahrain Defense Forces, giving it more muscle to quell Shia unrest.In Beijing, where Bandar had secretly negotiated the East Wind [Chinese-made CSS2 intermediate-range ballistic] missile deal two decades earlier, he pressed for Chinese political support for the Saudi counterrevolution. It was an easy sell since the Chinese were no fans of democracy, and Bandar could also promise that future investment and business deals would be steered toward China. . . .Yemen, Saudi Arabia's traditional nemesis to the south, had its own version of an Arab Spring. Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had backed Iraq in 1990 and who the Saudis had tried to overthrow in 1994, faced massive demonstrations call for an end to his decades of misrule. The opposition was deeply divided, however. Some were democracy advocates and wanted to end corruption and misrule. Others were southern separatists who wanted to restore South Yemen's independence, which Saleh had ended in 1990. In the north, the Zaydi Shia tribes that Saudi Arabia had backed in the 1960s had found a new leadership in the Houthi family, which sought to restore Zaydi dominance and flirted with Iranian support. The Saudis and Houthis had engaged in border clashes for years. Saleh fought six major military campaigns against the Houthis before 2011."Page 162: "The king [Abdallah, who ruled Saudi Arabia for two decades,] had a carefully prepared message for [Defense Secretary Robert M. "Bob"] Gates to [President Barack H.] Obama. Saudi Arabia and the United States had been partners in a strategic relationship for seventy years, but he said American behavior in Egypt and Bahrain had threatened that partnership. . . .Finally, the king gold Gates, 'Iran is the source of all problems.'"Page 174: "The Saudis are increasingly concerned about the expansion of Iranian influence in the Arab world. In their eyes Iran is the dominant power in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and it aspires to turn Yemen into a proxy. Iran also supports terrorist groups like Hezbollah and subversion in Bahrain and the Eastern Province."Page 177: "Barack Obama understood the importance of Saudi Arabia before he was elected president, and he made reaching out to its kings a high priority during his entire term in office."Page: 189: The United States and Saudi Arabia "have shared interests but no shared values.""[T]he relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is far more transactional one, based on overlapping, often temporary, interests.""The strongest advocates of close ties with Saudi Arabia are, of course, the oil companies, arms dealers, and financial interests that make so much of their money doing business in the Kingdom. This is a strong and powerful lobby."

This is a very interesting recounting of the historical record between Saudi Arabia and American leaders since the meetings between King Abdulaziz and FDR in 1945. It's value lies in the details of the relationships and policies of KSA and USA over the years. However, hindsight being 20/20, Riedel miss read King Salman and the new Crown Prince's intentions predicting not much change and/or reform in KSA. How vision 2030 will work out is not at all clear, but Riedel's historical recounting is excellent.

Reidel is a brilliant storyteller. In 200 pages, he successfully outlines the key drivers and constraints of the US-Saudi relationship, and does so using a framework that’s easy to remember. Through the lens of that difficult partnership, he also sheds light on all of the major modern conflicts faced by the middle east.This book is packed with useful facts and statsistics, but reads like a novel. Great for anyone with an interest in the history and future of the modern Middle East.

I read this book because Riedel was by the far the best talking head in the recent BBC series on Saudi Arabia. He was authorative and thoughtful. I live in Saudi Arabia and was also here in the 90s, and what he says has really helped me to understand matters better.

I learn only President Roosevelt recognized the Saudi intention. Worst are Presidents Kenedy and Carter.

For those wanting to learn more about the Middle East through the years since 1945, this is an excellent book to read. Well written and highly informative. Very recommended.

The author did an excellent job detailing the history of US Saudi relations between Presidents and Kings. All the US news stories on what is going on in the Middle East now make sense to me. I have a better understanding on why the US did not blame Saudi Arabia for the 9/11 attacks. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what really is going on in the Middle East.

Really worth reading ! With many anecdotes and analyses clarifying what's going on in the Kingdom right now.