Tom Lippman, a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and an expert on the Middle East, discussed the history of Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States in a speech at the Bunn Intercultural Center last Thursday.

Lippman described the Saudi-American relationship as neither a “colonial [nor] exploitative relationship . at all times, agreements were negotiated; they were not imposed.” The countries have historically maintained a mutually beneficial relationship in which each country willingly accepted the help of the other. This relationship was, and continues to be, a cornerstone of both countries’ power in world affairs, he said.

Lippman traced at length the century-old relationship between Saudis and Americans. According to Lippman, this started with the Saudis’ contact with American missionaries and the missionaries’ willingness to use Western medical procedures to heal sick Saudi officials and soldiers.

This created an image in the minds of the Saudi elite that Americans could be partners in good faith with the Saudi government. Lippman claims this relationship paid off later, when oil was found in Saudi Arabia. The “Oil Concession” was signed between Saudi Arabia and the Standard Oil Company of California in 1933, giving the Standard Oil Company the right to mine, produce and export oil in the Persian Gulf.

“Americans did not go to Saudi Arabia to take over the country,” Lippman said. “They went there to make money by producing oil. And the way to do that is to stay in the good graces of the king.”

The discovery of huge oil deposits in the Persian Gulf bolstered Saudi Arabia’s international importance and the Standard Oil Company of California’s profits. Lippman said the onset of World War II marked the beginning of the security relationship between the United States and Saudi governments, as the Allies recognized the strategic importance of having access to Saudi oil. This security relationship manifested itself most prominently in the creation of a Saudi air force created and maintained by Americans.

“For the next 30-plus years, beginning about 1945 [there was] a large cadre of Americans in Saudi Arabia who flew, maintained, equipped . the Saudi Arabian national airline and trained Saudi flight crews,” Lippman said.

In return for access to Saudi oil, Americans aided Saudi Arabia in developing modern infrastructure such as airlines, modern agricultural techniques and Western methods of accounting for government revenues.

Lippman said he currently sees a deep and widening chasm between Saudi popular opinion and Saudi elite opinion regarding the United States. Many Saudis were disenchanted with the United States following the Gulf War and the consequent presence of American troops on Saudi land. Western culture conflicts with traditional Saudi culture, especially in regard to their different treatment of women. Furthermore, though the Saudi government wants to maintain their security relationship with the United States, they no longer need Americans for their economic endeavors, according to Lippman.

“The Saudis now had their own contracting firms, their own managers, their own accountants . they were no longer dependent to the extent that they were,” Lippman said.

Lippman said he sees the conflict between the differing views that Saudis hold toward Americans as persisting into the future. There are those who still want a close relationship with the United States, and those who criticize Western culture and American foreign policy toward Israel and Iraq. He also stressed that the days of American companies overseeing the development of all Saudi Arabian industries were over. Lippman did, however, voice optimism that Saudi Arabia and the United States could continue a relationship that has proved profitable for both countries for so long.

“I don’t believe there is a permanent rupture . Saudi Arabia is not Iran,” he said. “I don’t see the rise of some anti-American fanatic . but the relationship is diminishing toward what would be a more normal one between developed countries.”