Search -
Inside the Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia
Inside the Mirage America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia Author:Thomas W. Lippman The 60-year marriage of convenience between Saudi Arabia and the United States is in trouble--with potentially rocky consequences for the United States and its relationship to Islam. The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has always been a marriage of convenience, not affection. As the result of a bargain struck between Pre... more »sident Roosevelt and Saudi Arabia's founding king in 1945, Americans bought Saudi Arabian oil, and the Saudis bought American: American planes, American weapons, American construction projects, and American know-how. In exchange, the Saudis got modernization, education, and security. The marriage of convenience suited both sides. But how long can it last? In Inside the Mirage, journalist Thomas Lippman shows that behind the cheerful picture of friendship and alliance, there is a grimmer, grimier tale of experience and repression. Saudi Arabia is changing as younger people less enamored of America rise to prominence. And the United States, scorched by Saudi-based terrorism, is forced to rethink this bargain as it continues to play the dominant role in the ever-volatile, ever-shifting Middle East. With so much at stake, this compelling and absolutely necessary account looks at the relationship between these two countries, and their future with one another.« less