Page 482 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

Gazelles and Lions 479

students of the Middle East, most of them from academic institutions. In the

case of the oilmen and other financial or commercial representatives, the object
they had in view in presenting a case for the close identification of American
interests with those of the oil-producing countries of the Gulf was fairly

obvious, even if some of the representatives of the parent companies of
ARAMCO revealed more than a hint of that devout sense of mission which has
long marked ARAMCO’s approach to the affairs of Arabia. The academic
witnesses, by and large, seemed to be more concerned with burnishing their
individual images and reputations than with presenting sober, lucid and

informed assessments of the history, politics and societies of Arabia and the
Gulf. This, perhaps, is understandable, for while a handful of them were
scholars of genuine distinction in their fields, only one was an acknowledged
authority on the area and he had acquired his expertise as an employee of

ARAMCO. Because of their unfamiliarity with the subjects upon which they
were called to discourse, the majority were driven to take refuge in pedestrian
generalities or theories of international relations, in which the peoples and
countries of the Gulf were reduced to mere symbols. A few of the cast of
witnesses were instant experts, bright young men on the make, programmed

with the fashionable ideas and jargon of the day, who awakened uncomfortable
memories of the early years of ‘Camelot’ and the beginning of the American
involvement in Vietnam.
What the academics and the officials expressed in

roseate view of the Gulf states, whet er: itwas pid pr0-
I
condition or of their future prospects. Every coun y of
gress, some, of course, more rapidly than others^ and

great vision and infinite resource, devoted not jeast as
acutely conscious of their responsibilities to t e wor reasonable
regards the continued supply of oil in adequate quantities and « reason
prices. Every regime was firm and stable, s ore UP ,kat of the Al Saud,

esteem of its people. None, naturally, was more solid 'hat of the Al Sa ,
who enjoved a special eminence and spiritual dominion as ei f d
Reformation’. Under the benign guidance of their rulers the peoples of the
Gulf were evolving their own democratic institutions, as j-^onof
expected of tribesmen reared in the proud and fiercely in epe^ miracles and
the Arab of the desert and in the brotherhood of Islam. _ coasts and

wonders of all description were being performed to trans cliches
deserts of Arabia into modern, dynamic, thriving economi veager,
tended to tumble forth by the barrelful during the hearings) ir
vigorous, resourceful local managers and entrepieneurs, ma nisra-

course, graduates of American universities and schools of busineS^d^ides
fion. There were, it hardly needed to be emphasized, enormous ngonin
for the United States to profit from the ferment of economic ac ivi anc|
the area, opportunities which stemmed as much from the natura