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Saudi Arabia
World War II and Its Aftermath
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Saudi Arabia was on good
terms with the Axis powers, concluding an arms agreement with
Nazi Germany on the eve of the war. Abd al Aziz maintained formal
neutrality during most of the war, gradually leaning toward the
Allied side. In early 1945, he abandoned his neutral posture and
made a nominal declaration of war against Germany. The outbreak
of the war and attendant shipping dangers had brought Saudi Arabian
oil sales to a halt. As Allied needs for oil rose, the safeguarding
of the Saudi oil reserves began to be regarded as of great strategic
importance. In 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that
the defense of Saudi Arabia was of vital interest to the United
States, thus making the kingdom eligible for Lend-Lease assistance.
By the end of World War II, British power and influence in Arab
affairs had begun to wane, and during the late 1940s and early
1950s the United States emerged as the dominant Western power
on the Arabian Peninsula.
Abd al Aziz was instrumental in forming the League of Arab States
(Arab League) in 1945, and in 1948 he sent a token battalion of
noncombatant troops to participate in the first Arab-Israeli war.
Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, after leading the coup that deposed
King Faruk in 1952, had become a spokesman for republicanism among
the Arabs, vying for power and influence with the Arab monarchs.
Nasser's broadcasts against the royal regimes and his calls for
nationalist revolutions grew more inflammatory after Egypt's war
over the Suez Canal with Israel, France, and Britain in 1956.
Saud ibn Abd al Aziz Al Saud, who became king after Abd al Aziz's
death in 1953, was associated with a clumsy plot to assassinate
Nasser. This embarrassing episode, plus Saud's extravagance and
lack of leadership qualities, compelled him to turn over executive
power to his brother, Faisal, in 1958 (see The Reigns of Saud
and Faisal, 1953-75 , ch. 1). Faisal, who would become king six
years later, dedicated himself to the development of a modern
military force to protect the monarchy.
Egyptian intervention in the civil war of neighboring Yemen in
1962 provided ample proof of the need for reliable Saudi armed
forces. An army coup against Imam Muhammad al Badr in Yemen triggered
a civil war that was not resolved until 1967. The insurgents were
supported by Nasser, who committed a large expeditionary force
of Egyptian troops to the conflict. Imam Badr fled north, rallying
loyal tribes and seeking support from Saudi Arabia. Within a short
time, the royalist supporters of Imam Badr were engaged in combat
against the insurgents, who established the People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen (PDRY--South Yemen). Saudi troops were deployed
to the border, and the royalist guerrillas were given supplies
and safe havens.
In November 1963, Egyptian aircraft overflew Saudi territory,
dropping bombs on border villages. At the request of Saudi Arabia,
the United States dispatched a squadron of F-100 jet fighters
to the kingdom. Faced with this show of force and unity, the Egyptians
backed off. Nevertheless, the presence of Egyptian military on
the peninsula convinced Faisal of the need to upgrade the Saudi
armed forces still further with United States and British assistance.
During the June 1967 War against Israel, Faisal sent a Saudi
brigade to Jordan to bolster King Hussein's war effort. The brigade
was still in Jordan at the time of the October 1973 War launched
by Egypt and Syria against Israel. When war broke out, Faisal
dispatched another brigade to Syria to lend support to the Syrian
army. Neither of the Saudi brigades was involved in combat.
Data as of December 1992
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