King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia meets President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard the USS Quincy Feb. 14, 1945.
Posted on 01/06/2016 10:33:09 AM PST by Trumpinator
That’s a very good comparison.
This not going to end well
“Because the Muslim Brotherhood freaks even the Saudis out (probably because they are not a jihad group founded by the Saudis) they shored up Sissi in Egypt but Egypt quickly also saddled up to Russia.”
Whoa—Sisi declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and went against Obama in doing so. As a result of our government trying to help bring back the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Egyptians have chosen the Russians as their BFF.
Also, our State Dept tried to contact both the Saudis and the Iranians after the recent violent flare-ups, but the Saudis would not answer the telephone calls. They are finished with Obama.
The world has not seen so many at odds alliances since the 19th century.
Too late....
Russia is already allied with Iran, Syria and Iraq against Saudi Arabia’s proxy army ISIS aka Al Qaeda. Putin is the master chess player at the moment.
I guess Saudi Arabia has realized they jumped the shark?
Remember it was only two months ago Saudia Arabia was fuming over Russia taking out ISIS in Syria.
We must have privately told Saudi Arabia we are not going to back them. Hence, why Saudi Arabia is now wanting to be friends with Russia.
I have no doubt Putin and China will take advantage of this.
Russia...yeah, they will be good friends to the Saudis.
What is it? 80% of their income comes from energy sales. They want to be friends with Saudi Arabia just to get close enough to stick a dagger in their back.
Russia will talk to them, but allow their buddies from across the way to sneak up and stick it to the KSA.
The House of Saud is done. Stick a fork in them.
I was going to say since 1913...but late 19th century works.
WW1 really transformed the world and I tend to see WW2 as a continuation of that war. Sort of a 30 years war thing.
So really we had one world war from 1914 to 1945 and you can throw in the Cold War and make it a 100 years kind of war. So technically. So if you really want to think out of the box, WW1 ended when the USSR collapsed.
They were never our friends.
I didn’t say friends. I said ally. Do you understand the difference?
I question ally as well. They undermined us at every turn while taking our money. I have not heard them once condemn radical Jihadists/Islamist.
LOL. Taking our money? Do you think we provide foreign aid to Saudi Arabia? Do you realize that we sell to them billions of dollars of weapons, aircraft, etc. Wew have a large US military training mission there. American companies have built their roads, telephone systems, oil facilities, etc. Saudi Arabia is our biggest trading partner in the region.
On October 20, 2010, the US State Department notified Congress of its intention to make the biggest arms sale in American history—an estimated $60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, trumping the former US/Saudi AWACS Sale that took place during the Reagan administration.
King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia meets President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard the USS Quincy Feb. 14, 1945.
Is that Eisenhower on the left?
Don’t know
WINCHESTER, Va. - On February 14, 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake on the Suez Canal. This meeting would have lasting implications on U.S. - Saudi relations for years to come.
Though the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1939, no American official higher than a minister in the diplomatic service had ever met the king. It wasn’t until 1942 that the State Department posted its first resident envoy in Jeddah, a career officer named James Moose, the second diplomat assigned to the nation and the first to live there. In 1943, Roosevelt recognized that Saudi Arabia was important to war efforts during World War II due to its oil production and declared the country eligible for financial aid. Later that year, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Jeddah was upgraded to legation and Moose was replaced with a higher ranking official, Marine Col. William Eddy. Eddy developed a close relationship with King Abdul Aziz and it was his efforts that made the meeting with Roosevelt possible.
The two leaders were very different. Roosevelt was knowledgeable, well-traveled, and president of one of the world’s most advanced nations. By contrast, the 64-year old Saudi King was semi-literate, had traveled no further than Basra, Iraq, and was king of one of the world’s most impoverished nations.
Though they had more differences than similarities, Roosevelt and Abdul Aziz immediately developed a strong rapport.
The king told the president that his legs were getting weaker each year and that the president was lucky to have a wheelchair to get around. This caused Roosevelt to give Abdul Aziz one of the two wheelchairs he had with him on the trip. The king was grateful and called it his “most precious possession” and said it was “a gift from my great and good friend,” Eddy recounted in a brief narrative, “F.D.R. meets ibn Saud,” published in 1954.
In addition to the impromptu gift of the wheelchair, Roosevelt gave the king a DC-3 passenger airplane. The plane even included a rotating throne so the king could always face Mecca when flying. This gift would have major effects on the country’s future in aviation and would become the first plane in the fleet of what is now the Saudi Arabian Airlines.
During his trip, the king was treated by the Americans to great food including apple pie a la mode, a dish he especially grew to love. He enjoyed the food so much that he requested the cook be given to him as a gift from the President. Roosevelt explained that the sailor had a commitment to the Navy and giving him as a gift wouldn’t be possible. As an alternative, he offered to have the cook train some of the king’s staff, according to Tom Lippman, author and former diplomatic correspondent and Middle East bureau chief for the Washington Post.
Roosevelt and Abdul Aziz spent several hours speaking in private about the relationship between the two countries. Roosevelt, who was known for being charming and well-liked, made a great impression on the king.
Roosevelt was not the only world leader who Abdul Aziz met at that time. Having learned about the meeting with Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to meet with the king. He viewed Saudi Arabia as part of Britain’s sphere of influence in the Middle East and didn’t want to be upstaged by the United States. A meeting was set up with Churchill, but the meeting was not as productive as the meeting with the president.
During the visit with the king, Roosevelt refrained from smoking and drinking in front of the king, however, Churchill did not.
“If it was the religion of His Majesty to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also drinking alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them,” Churchill wrote in his memoirs.
In addition, Churchill’s gift of a Rolls Royce further offended the king because the driver’s side was on the right and required the king to sit on the left, which was considered a “position of dishonor.” He never once used the car, according to Lippman.
Overall the king’s impression of Churchill was not favorable. He compared the two during a private meeting with Eddy.
“’The contrast between the president and Mr. Churchill is very great,’ the king said,” wrote Eddy. “’Mr. Churchill speaks deviously, evades understanding, changes the subject to avoid commitment, forcing me repeatedly to bring him back to the point. The president seeks understanding in conversations; his effort is to make the two minds meet, to dispel darkness and shed light upon the issue.’ The king concluded: ‘I have never met the equal of the president in character, wisdom and gentility.’”
Even after Roosevelt’s death shortly after the meeting, the strong impression left on the king allowed President Truman to continue the relationship with Saudi Arabia. One of the results of the meeting was the king’s approval of U.S. military to build the Dhahran Airfield, but more on that in the next installment of this series.
Not as much as others get but we still give them money.
In 2007: In 2005 and 2006, US$2.5 million went to Riyadh to train Saudis in counter-terrorism and border security and to pay for Saudi military officers to attend U.S. military school.
http://us-foreign-aid.insidegov.com/l/150/Saudi-Arabia
Give me a break. This is laughable. Bottom line: The US doesn’t provide foreign aid to Saudi Arabia.
Giving them $1 is more than we should. They can afford anything they want to get.
Again, we do not provide foreign aid to Saudi Arabia.
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