Appearance and Evolution in Military Relationships Between US and Saudi Arabia

This article is concerned with the US-Saudi military relationship between the years 1943 and .1979 To explain why these ties emerged and how they evolved ,it examines the domestic and international factors that drove both Washington and Riyadh into a close embrace .It argues that in the years following the Second World War a relationship between the two took shape that was based on the exchange of petroleum for US security guarantees .As a part of those security guarantees ,the US undertook a program to help build the Saudi armed forces so that they could fend off the domestic and external threats to the survival of the royal family .This effort involved not only the large-scale provision of arms ,training ,and military infrastructure for the Saudi military but also the development of a military strategy for the defense of the kingdom .Consequently ,the US practically designed and developed the Saudi armed forces.