Thomas W. Lippman - Crude Oil, Crude Money: Aristotle Onassis, Saudi Arabia, and the CIA
First as Middle East bureau chief of The Washington Post and then in acclaimed studies including Egypt After Nasser, Inside the Mirage, and Saudi Arabia on the Edge, Lippman has been writing about Saudi Arabia for some forty years. His new book tells the little-known story of Aristotle Onassis’s 1954 effort to corner the crude oil shipping market by making a deal with the Saudi king. This alarmed U.S. and British oil companies, and the Dulles brothers, worried about its effect on Cold War geo-politics as well as fearing that it would lead to the nationalization of Saudi oil, worked to undermine it.