The Saudi Arabian Connection

A massive surge of American support for Saudi Arabia, backed by the desert kingdom’s huge surpluses of petrodollars and involving powerful U.S. political and economic interests, emerged in the open today.

In Washington, Saudi Arabia was exposed as having retained the U.S. public relations company of a close friend and political associate of the American Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, John C. West, to lobby in Congress for the 60 F-15 warplanes and also help improve the relationship of Saudi Arabia with Americans.

Frederick G. Dutton, the Washington lawyer who was on associate of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, confirmed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he is on an annual retainer of $200,000 from Saudi Arabia, plus four or five trips to the Middle East each year. The fee, he pointed out, includes his office expenses. “It’s a lot of money though,” he laughed.

Dutton, who observed that he campaigned for Arthur J. Goldberg when Goldberg was running for Governor of New York, has been working for the Saudis since 1977 in a variety of jobs. Among his tasks will be to help get Congress not to object to the warplanes President Carter has put in a package for the Saudis along with planes for Egypt and Israel.

Reminded that he is considered a good friend of Israel, Dutton replied emphatically, “I still am.” He added that he would like to see Israel with secure and recognized borders and that there should be “some adjustment” to Israel’s borders. He emphasized, however, that the Israelis “must face realities” which, he suggested, were the 120 million Arabs against three million Israelis and Arab resources in oil and finance.

INDIVIDUALS AND FIRMS INVOLVED

The public relations firm that has received a contract from Saudi Arabia includes Crawford Cook, who was Ambassador West’s campaign manager in 1970 when West was elected Governor of South Carolina. Cook’s firm has received a contract for $65,000, the Washington Post said, to promote the sale of the F-15 planes to Saudi Arabia during the next two months and an additional $100,000 as the “initial payment” for a plan for promoting Saudi-American relations. It is understood that the firm stands to have millions of dollars in funds to promote the Saudi effort.

Besides Dutton, Cook and his associates, the Saudi campaign for the aircraft and image building will be assisted by Stephonen Conner, a former vice-president of Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith, the giant brokerage firm, who is a financial and economic consultant to the Saudi government. Another consultant to the Saudis is former Sen. J. William Fulbright, who also is in the pay of the Persian Gulf Emirates.

Clark Clifford, who was counselor to President Truman and upheld Truman’s ideas for a viable Israel in the difficult period when Israel’s fate was in question, is serving the Algerian government, JTA was told. Cook and an associate; it was reported by the Washington Post, worked for Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D. SC) before establishing their present firm called Cook Ruef Spann and Weiser. According to the Post, their clients included Democratic Senators Walter D. Huddleston and Wendell Ford, both of Kentucky and Robert Morgan, North Carolina.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS CITED

Meanwhile, in New York, former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller was reported “deeply involved” in negotiating with Saudi Arabia for a development corporation that would use Saudi money in food and energy projects primarily in the United States but also in underdeveloped lands. George Woods, former World Bank president, and Arthur Taylor, former CBS president, would be principals in the new corporation to be based in New York City, according to the New York Daily News, which quoted Rockefeller on the subject.

In a related development, the Coca Cola Company was reported by the New York Times yesterday to be accelerating a campaign to enter the Arab market with major new projects in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Both are contingent, it was said, on its removal from the Arab blacklist of American companies doing business with Israel or which have Jewish Americans in important management positions.

Coca Cola has been barred for more than 10 years by the Arab Boycott Office for doing business with Israel. In Egypt, Coca Cola is reported as planning a plant in Alexandria to produce soft drink concentrates for the entire Middle East. The Saudi project would involve construction of a canning factory.

Still another development that entered the public domain that reflected the tidal wave of Saudi influence at a critical time in U.S.-Israel relationships and the Middle East peace process is a report of a study by specialists of six nations.

The study, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, says an oil supply drop in the 1980s may split the industrialized nations and raise new military threats in the Middle East unless the oil producing and oil consuming nations coordinate their efforts. This has been one of the major arguments being advanced by the Carter Administration for U.S. association with Saudi ideas on peace terms for Israel and which Israel has been rejecting as destructive for its nationhood.