Word: arabia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...these shortcomings combined to make the AWACS deal a nightmarish brush with disaster. The story began in a way, in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter pushed through a reluctant Congress the sale of the 60 F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia. He did so. with arguments remarkably similar to those that Reagan was to use three years later, chiefly that the U.S. had to increase its influence in the Middle East by helping moderate Arab states to defend themselves. Harold Brown, then Secretary of Defense, had to pledge that Saudi Arabia's F-15s would not be equipped with such...
Indeed, any overt American military embrace would run the risk of smothering other U.S. friends in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia. Riyadh already fears that it might be perceived by radicals as a puppet of the U.S. ? a worry heightened by Reagan's ill-conceived declaration last month that Washington would not let Saudi Arabia become "an Iran." The President never made clear how he would back up his unsolicited promise to protect the Saudi monarchy from internal or external threats to its power...
...converted Boeing 707s, which must be built first; so, probably, will be ten of the AWACS requested by the U.S. Air Force. In addition, there can be no deliveries until an elaborate support structure, including more than 800 trained technicians and maintenance workers, is in place in Saudi Arabia...
Only twelve hours before the start of the dramatic Senate roll-call vote on the AWACS, Prince Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia received a group of businessmen and TIME editors at his palace in Riyadh. Since King Khalid was ill and Crown Prince Fahd was out of the country, Abdullah, commander of the 30,000-man national guard, was the ranking member of the royal family...
Asked what constituted the greatest threat to Saudi Arabia's security, Abdullah answered, "American aid to Israel." In an implicit but stinging refutation of the Reagan Administration's notion that an anti-Soviet "strategic consensus" can be built around Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel, Abdullah said: "We hear constantly that the Soviet Union and Communism constitute the greatest danger to the Middle East. But as a friend, I tell you that you Americans constitute the greatest danger. The reason is your total alliance with Israel. The Arab masses feel abandoned by the U.S. and find it convenient...