There is no question that the Middle East Arab-Israeli-oil situation is one of the world's most enduring and vexing problems.
Almost every economically significant country in the world has a major stake in how this scenario plays out and most countries orient and arrange a large part of their foreign policy and energy strategy with Middle East considerations front and center in their planning.
FDR arranged a meeting with Saudi King Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud aboard the American Navy cruiser Quincy on Roosevelt's way home from the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin.
With the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East looking more and more like the only viable solution to the problem of Jews displaced by the war, Roosevelt made an offer to King Saud that would forever change and shape the post-WWII world: FDR said that America would never make any move with respect to the Jews and Arabs without first consulting him and other Arab leaders, and would not do anything for the Jews at expense.
Roosevelt used his own sophisticated communications experience and his personal connection with the King to essentially deceive the King into believing that official U.S. policy was to not make any preemptive pro-Israel moves to the detriment of Arab interests.
Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman, felt no obligation to honor Roosevelt's informal personal assurances.
Saudi Arabia would gladly accept American investment, American military protection and the infusion of American technology into their economy, but the good feelings and burgeoning trust between the two countries engendered by the Lake Bitter meeting was shattered forever once the Saudis realized that Roosevelt had deliberately misled them into thinking his personal word was official U.S. policy.
https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2019/04/11/another_fine_mess_in_the_middle_east_431.html
Almost every economically significant country in the world has a major stake in how this scenario plays out and most countries orient and arrange a large part of their foreign policy and energy strategy with Middle East considerations front and center in their planning.
FDR arranged a meeting with Saudi King Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud aboard the American Navy cruiser Quincy on Roosevelt's way home from the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin.
With the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East looking more and more like the only viable solution to the problem of Jews displaced by the war, Roosevelt made an offer to King Saud that would forever change and shape the post-WWII world: FDR said that America would never make any move with respect to the Jews and Arabs without first consulting him and other Arab leaders, and would not do anything for the Jews at expense.
Roosevelt used his own sophisticated communications experience and his personal connection with the King to essentially deceive the King into believing that official U.S. policy was to not make any preemptive pro-Israel moves to the detriment of Arab interests.
Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman, felt no obligation to honor Roosevelt's informal personal assurances.
Saudi Arabia would gladly accept American investment, American military protection and the infusion of American technology into their economy, but the good feelings and burgeoning trust between the two countries engendered by the Lake Bitter meeting was shattered forever once the Saudis realized that Roosevelt had deliberately misled them into thinking his personal word was official U.S. policy.
https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2019/04/11/another_fine_mess_in_the_middle_east_431.html
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