Thomas W. Lippman > Quotes

“Several prominent Saudis have told me that King Fahd at the time was nearing a decision to permit women to drive but was forced to back off by the furious public reaction”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“Bill Eddy and the few other Americans posted to Jeddah in that period faced a wholly different set of hardships from those in the oil camp on the other side of the country. Jeddah was a settled community, but it was hot, dirty, and smelly, and communications were primitive.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“On February 5, 1951, the State Department transmitted to all posts a “Comprehensive Statement of United States Policy” toward Saudi Arabia. This was a classified paper, not intended to be shared with the public or with the Saudis; it was to be used by American diplomats as guidance for local decisions and for their discussions with Saudi and other Arab leaders. It represented a definitive statement of American policy on, and aspirations for, the Kingdom and the House of Saud. Although it was written more than fifty years ago, in another geopolitical era, most of this paper articulates policies still in place today—a remarkable consistency in policy that has survived multiple wars and upheavals in the Middle East, to say nothing of multiple changes of administration in Washington.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“Many Saudis are deal-making opportunists who will invest anything to make large, quick profits with minimal effort, and get rid of their business at the first sign of a declining market.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“In your country,” a young Saudi doctor told him “you protect the rights of the individual at the expense of society.” In Saudi Arabia, Seymour Gray concluded, it is the other way around.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“The very word “bank” caused heartburn among the Saudis, who associated it with the collection of interest. For that reason, when the king accepted Young’s draft charter and created the central bank by royal decree in 1952, the institution was called the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, or SAMA, the name it still bears.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“I was appalled at the pervasive ignorance and illiteracy of the common people.”30 This was fifteen years after the discovery of oil; it helps to explain the State Department’s concern about whether the government was spending its money wisely, a concern that would eventually prompt the United States to take a direct hand in running the Kingdom’s affairs.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“ever since the 1979 Iranian crisis, civilized life in Saudi Arabia that was gradually attained up to that point has been regressing. Human rights and conventional civilized practices are now taking a back seat to a snow-balling, over-zealous Muslim religious and national movement that affects everyone’s daily life. Hit broadest by this movement are (1) Christian church gatherings; (2) women; (3) Westernized Muslims; and (4) Westerners and”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“There exists in this country a serious personal motivational problem related to undesirable attitudes toward care of public and private property, quality of work, integrity, accepting responsibility, serving the public, working in private industry, accepting change, etc.,” one memorandum said. “The foremost problem facing the Kingdom may well be to modify the value system as it relates to achieving appropriate personal enlightenment.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

“It was more like the relationship between a man and his mistress than between a man and his wife,” he said, “because both sides preferred to conduct that relationship quietly, even in some cases covertly. Metaphorically the sex was great—big money, big deals, exciting covert programs like Afghanistan. Whenever that kind of relationship gets exposed in the media and the ugly aspects of it revealed, you can never expect your mistress to defend you in public like your wife would.”
― Thomas W. Lippman, Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia