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From his earliest days in the Saudi government, Fahd has been a close friend of the U.S. Today, he and Sadat are Washington's two most important allies in the Arab world. The Crown Prince is responsible for the Saudi policy of holding the line on oil price rises, reasoning that his country ultimately must look to the U.S. for its security and therefore that anything damaging to the American economy will eventually endanger Saudi Arabia. He is also responsible for the Saudi decision to increase its productive capacity, which was requested by Washington.
With oil production declining in the U.S., the Soviet Union and even in many Middle East states, the one country in which large increases are still feasible is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis' present capacity is 11.9 million barrels per day, though their current production ceiling is 8.5 million per day and actual production last month dropped to 6.6 million per day. Nonetheless, on Fahd's orders, Saudi Arabia is proceeding with an $11 billion program aimed at increasing production capacity to 14 million barrels per day by the early 1980s. Saudi Arabia hardly needs the extra revenues. As Planning Minister Nazer said last week, "Production of between 5 million and 7.9 million barrels would produce enough revenue to meet our development needs." But Saudi Arabia is going ahead with the expansion program, primarily as a concession to the U.S. The program, says Oil Minister Yamani, "is not really in our interest. It is only in the interest of the West that we are carrying out this expansion."
That kind of friendship in international politics is not easy to come by. It extends at least back to 1938, when Americans brought in Saudi Arabia's first oil well. Four American oil companies later formed the Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco), which eventually developed Saudi Arabia into the world's pre-eminent petroleum power. Through negotiations with the parent companies, the Saudi government has gradually acquired 60% of Aramco and will eventually purchase the remainder, but it still has more than 2,600 American employees. Of the $142 billion that Saudi Arabia will spend during its current five-year plan, nearly half will go to American companies. Riyadh has invested between $35 billion and $40 billion in the U.S., which is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. One-third of the Saudi government's present Cabinet ministers are American graduates. So many of the country's young technocrats received their training at U.C.L.A., Stanford, Caltech and other nearby institutions that they are known collectively as the California Mafia.
Despite the enduring web of relationships, however, there has never been a formal treaty of any kind between the two nations. Abdul Aziz once railed at Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who had gone to Riyadh to get the King to sign some kind of agreement: "Why do you always want us to sign something with a lot of fine print? Out here, we consider it enough to shake hands and be friends."