Until recently, one of the leased export regions of the world was saudi arabia. Int went drove there this fast desert without rivers, apart. , they were far it was built more than 1000 years ago on a caravan from baghdad. The eat out ays, meager existence in a lost world eked out a meager existence and a lost world. On the same desert through the summer and winter of 1947, motor caravans appeared. Camps were set up, the sorts never seen here before. Airplanes on a Reconnaissance Mission roared overhead. Arabs andcarrying americans, surveying the root for a great pipeline, a pipeline along western europe, the middle east, and the stability of the world. Oil is garrison many areas today. Is scarce in many areas today. The causes they lack of economical distribution. The logical source of oil for u. S. Is the middle east. Here are more crude and readily accessible reserves than in all of north and south america together. The region is rapidly being developed. In eastern saudi arabia, the Arabian American OilCompany Discovered five major fields during the decade after the first commercial producing well was come pleaded in 1938. The output was over 400,000 barrels. This posed a problem of transportation. ,he arabian sea, the red sea and the gulf of suez and the privately owned suez canal. A total of . 18 per barrel was imposed. To increase the volume of Oil Delivered to europe, more tankers would be needed, plus expanded ports and loading facilities. It Companies Owning decided was a Pipeline System from the oilfields of the persian gulf plotting a direct course across the Arabian Desert to the mediterranean. A little more than a thousand miles. Substantialffect savings. To construct and operate this pipeline, the company was formed. International incorporated was to perform the work of construction in saudi arabia on the pipeline. This amounted to 80 of the entire project. A Service Organization was set up in San Francisco and in march 1947, planning for the project got underway. It was to be a major feat of logistics. Everything would have to be shipped nearly halfway around the world from the United States to the persian gulf. Special equipment of all sorts was designed. More than 7000 different kinds of items had to be requisitioned. There were over 30,000 different types. Hundreds of skilled men, engineers, office workers, machinists, welders, equipment operators, and many others had to be recruited in various parts of the United States and in carefully screened. Only if theyed were eligible in all respects and for pair to serve in the persian gulf area for an Employment Contract. Of 18 months. Then they took off from new york on an aerial journey across the atlantic and across europe to the middle east. Todays, they got their first view of saudi arabia falls their plane landed at headquarters. Thus began their venture. 1927, with a temperature around 120 degrees, a little group of arabs and american set up tents northwest. Assemble thes to supply gap though. Deb supply depot. It offered one of the few good routes for traders along the western coast of the persian gulf and it gave ready access to the saudi portion of the pipeline. Arab laborers and craftsmen were integrated into the project. Others were trained on the spot. Very beginning was to employ as many arabs as possible. Local clay was turned into brick. These bricks were used by arab laborers for the construction of some of the permanent buildings. Rock from a nearby quarry was dumped into the Shallow Water of the gulf to make piers for barges. Because of the shallowness of the water, oceangoing freighters could not approach closer than 2. 5 miles. At the outset, everything from sent tooods have to be sure. Five or six barges were unloaded every day. Before long, it was well stocked. As more and more material arrived, construction went on at a faster pace. Concrete foundations were used as shops and warehouses. Tanks were erected for the storage of water as well as fuel. As the work of construction went on, there was one conspicuous difficulty, length. Fuel a few of the arabs knew american, but knewy any of the americans the language. The americans adjusted themselves to arabian customs. Five times a day, they said their prayers. Radio communication was of vital importance to operations extending across the desert. Outlying camps had to be equipped for twoway shortwave transmission. A few months after the first tent was pitched, the camp became a modern city with its own power supply, water and sewage system, shops, warehouses, laundry, mess halls, hospitals, and comfortable quarters. 500 americans and 1500 arabs. In addition, it had its own airfield. Each flight brought more skilled craftsmen. The recruits were taken in hand by personal officers who drove them from the airfield a mile into camp. Each man was assigned to living quarters in one of the barracks. His roommate was usually an old hand who could show him the ropes. Step was a physical examination by the resident physician. The recruit had passed rigorous test and had been inoculated against various maladies before leaving the states, he still had. O be found fit at the job site having met the requirements, the recruit signed their Employment Contract number welcomed into the project and were welcomed into the project. Lecture given by the personal manager. He made it clear that they were guests in a country not their own and must abide by its laws and customs. With a growing backlog of skilled manpower and the base camp wellestablished, the project is ready to begin receiving a very important kind of freight pipes. Back in the United States, at thisnd of september 1947, was the birth of steel for the great transarabian pipeline. Conveyed. Slabs were they were reduced to plates to the required dimensions. The plates were delivered to the california plant of the consolidated western steel corporation. Fabricatedere to be into the largest diameter pipe ever designed for the passage of oil. From a quarter of an inch to 7 16 according to the pressure they would have to withstand. Fed into one end of the plant, they would emerge as pipe joints ready for shipment. They passed through one Great Machine after another. They were leveled out. Their edges were trend. Trimmed. The first semblance of pipe joints. The plates, which had now become cylinders, the outside scene was well the first. Well the first. Then the inside seam was welded. The operator study the growing metal reflected in a mirror. And were placed hydraulically expanded. There ends were smoothed and beveled. An inspector examined the measured each joint. Remained unseen. The inspector examined the inside as thoroughly as the outside. Jointy, joint after rolled down. The joints were fabricated in 31 foot length. Within the joints larger ones, a new and ingenious idea for transportation of pipe. Miles. E was moved 15 ship, taken aboard the his destination was the persian gulf, 12,000 nautical miles and 45 days across. Towards the end of december, 19 47, they dropped anchor as close as they could get. The first of the pipes. Finished, project was there would be 100 ship loads pipe another cargo delivered, totaling 3 billion. Half of the pipe joints were 30 inches in diameter, the rest of them were 31 inches. Both having been nested with the smaller inside the larger. Was a 50 saving in shipping cost. Each barge carried about 100 joints. At the landing, a crane lifts the pipe onto a waiting trailer. The loads were hauled to a nearby pipe yard. The pipe yard was more than just a place to store pipes. It had been carefully designed for the performance of a series of precise operations. It was fitted to the inner join to hold it firm. The outer joint with switch to another part of the plant to be dealt with separately. The joint was prepared for welding. Each and was cleaned. The joint move forward to a lineup. Already in place with other joints of the same diameter. When the george two joints came exactly end to end, they were ready for welding. Wasutomatic welding machine adapted for use in the field. Designed by engineers, it averaged four or five complete rounds per hour. Four of these machines were installed year. This1 but joint by two thirdsdown the amount of welding that would have to be done manually. The 93 foot sections were loaded onto the trailer. More and more pipe was scheduled to arrive over a period of many months. In all, the system would take 265,000 tons. Additional facilities were unloading the pipe were constructed. An installation originally developed in the Pacific Northwest as a means of moving logs was adapted here for the first time to bring cargo ashore. Timber avy there were two dozen of them in all extending and 700 foot integrals over a distance of three miles. From the towers, to strong cables were suspended from hooks or jacks. Anchored. Were i promoted from freighters onto fromeck pipes freighters onto the deck could be carried swiftly to shore. The skyline served as overhead rails on which it could travel. Tower g the between towers, it gained a maximum speed of 35 miles per hour. The skyline was selfpropelled. It was equipped with a gasoline engine to run forward or backward. It told itself along by traction cables. With three machines running in tandem and taking about 20 minutes for around ship, it could deliver more than a thousand times a day. Work on the pipeline itself could now go forward. The transarabian pipeline miles was to comprise two distinct divisions. The first was to be a 350 mile gathering line owned and operated connecting present or potential oilfields of to appoint a point where the world would be metered. To the mediterranean. An uninterrupted artery. Leveling began of the direction from a point 40 miles north. This would become a proving ground for most of the new series in the engineering for the greatest crude oil Pipeline System ever undertaken. Through this area, sand had to be pushed aside. Thousands of cubic yards were disposed of every day. Guidelines and bulldozers were brought to bear. Drag lines and bulldozers were brought to bear. The soil was so moist and corrosive, the lines would have to be supported above ground. Talledriver about 40 feet was used to drive piles i66 foot intervals at 66 foot intervals. The piles went down 1020 feet. The top for cut off and turned into cross pieces to support the pipe. On the first hundred miles of the route. No more piledriving would be necessary farther along. Machine stretches, a raised about a mile a day. Four feet wide and five feet deep, the machine was effective so long as it did not encounter hard rock. Limestone called for other equipment. The most spectacular was the giant river. It was a 20 ton goliath. Behind the river came arabs would wagon drills. They enjoyed setting off firecrackers. They were well instructed and safety precautions, however. When the charge was said, everybody was well behind the firing line. The broken rock was cleaned out by a backhoe was operator never complained about a lack of exercise. More than 2. 5 million cubic yards of earth and rock would have to be moved before the project was done. Phenomena of saudi arabia, a violent northwest wind across the open plains and over the dunes whipping up curtains of dust and sand. Sometimes lasting days on end, it it immobilizes almost every living thing in the desert. Everything that is but the pipe liner. Midfebruary 1948 that the first load of pipe came to the right away. Was onek trailer unit of 150 such giants that would eventually be used on the project. The trailer carried nine or 1093 foot sections of pipe weighing as much as 40 tons. Section after section was lifted off. Following came the welding crew. The 93 foot sections were brought into place by tractors. Clamp was brought into position. Sections. When the two sections were brought together, the clamp expanded inside the pipe until it gripped and held both ends in precise alignment. The stringer bead was applied to the joint. The internal clamp traveled on its rollers through the pipe to its position for lining up the next section. The operation was repeated mile after mile. When an liners endured dust and flies and the annoying monotony of the desert. Behind the stringer man were followup welders who made additional passes with different size rods and give it all the strength of the pipe itself. Were ever there was a change of were ever there was a change of direction on the line, anchors were installed. As the aboveground portions of the line were erected, they became barriers. There were no expansions joints in the pipe was held stationary. When the time came to tie in the final joint between anchors several miles apart, the crew was faced with a delicate operation. The to answer quickly brought together. Ends were quickly brought together. The union had to be made at approximately 90 degrees. It was a ticklish business. There were is no margin for ever four error. Signals had to be explicit and movement exact. Bead wasthe stringer applied. The critical moment was had. The crew did not yet relax. The product the pipe had to be lowered into its final position. Then the rain girders were bolted together to hold it firm. In areas where the pipe was to be buried, the procedure was more conventional. The floor of the ditch had to be smoothed out and patted. Many of the arabs were desert tribesmen. Once the trench was ready, tractors led to the pipe and supported it in motion. Behind them came a selfpropelled machine. Its function was to clean off rust and apply a coat of primer. Arab workers touched of any spots that were missed. In the wake of the cleaning this also selfpropelled coat of the pipe with hot liquid asphalt. Wrapped it with glass fiber and encoded it again. Now the pipe was ready to be put underground. It was lowered gently into its trench, but not to rest. Its life was only beginning. The great stockpile of pipe continued month after month to feed the plant where the 31 foot joints were automatically welded together. Each with its 40 can trailer load lined up ton trailer load lined up for inspection and they rolled out of the base camp and headed for the rightofway. They were always on the move. The truck trailer combination carried the Freight Train the tonnage of the Freight Train. The freight was growing into a total of 150 million miles. Such loads could not be delivered with dependable regularity. Men and machines forged ahead building and maintaining access roads that would stand up under constant heavy traffic. More than 1200 miles of highway and access roads were built, not only serving the immediate needs of the construction and operation, but opening up in artery for commercial for the first time across saudi arabia between the persian gulf and the mediterranean. It was a big job just to keep in repair the lowpressure tires used along. Tractors for hauling pipe and hundreds of other vehicles of various types. There was about 18 billion worth of equipment, all of which had to be maintained. , mechanicsine camp and machinist were kept busy the clock around. New camps were set up at convenient intervals for the construction group. All of the buildings could either be dismantled or picked up and carted from place to place as needed. Each cap at its own selfcontained system so that men who came in from a hard days work tired and dirty could relax under a shower. Each camp had a mess hall where food was plentiful. The site canned goods, there were frozen fresh food and vegetables all caps and fridge rater boxes. All caps in refrigerator boxes. I was a commodity a commodity of far greater immediate value than oil. That, of course, was water. Drilled atre strategic locations and 40 of them brought in water. Most of it was brackish, but it was plentiful. Was createdsupply for future pump stations, but also for their livestock. As one well after another was brought in, the word spread among the tribes. The new watering stations were regarded as permanent public utilities. Life became easier for man and beast in a harsh environment. In the spring of 1949, construction was started on the first of four pump stations. 170 miles along the rightofway, there were to be sick stations for the entire Pipeline System, all within sick stations for the entire Pipeline System, all within saudi arabia. Unitswere to be pumping for the capacity exceeding 300,000 barrels of oil per day and accommodations at all facilities for permanent staff. In the tremendous programmer of transportation and construction, arabs outnumbered american spies many as 14 to one. More than 14,000 arabs were at work. Training,thejob they were playing increasingly important roles. Men whomployed only had never seen modern machinery were operating equipment of all sorts. Hadmajority of these men been reared in an atmosphere that i changed little in a thousand years. When they came to work with americans on the project, every american had to become a teacher. The arabs proved surprisingly adaptable. They managed to bridge a wide cultural, and we stick linguistic gap. Their basic thinking continue to. Bide faithfully the pipeline will be pushed simultaneously from both ends. The situation delayed fieldwork at the mediterranean and until the fall of 1949. The scenery was in sharp contrast. The city of beirut, the capital of lebanon, with headquarters. 35 miles to the south, the terminal site for the pipeline, the seaport with castles built by the crusaders. On ruggedofway hillsides. The root continued up until route continued uphill. Another stronghold of the crusaders. The rightofway went from lebanon into syria and then to jordan and saudi arabia. This comprised the western division, 214 miles. By september 1950, they were putting the finishing touches on the terminal. 16 180,000 storage tanks. Stations wereer put up by the Chicago Bridge and iron company. Liners were tiny and some of the last of the shorelines that would carry crude oil tying in some of the last of the shorelines that would carry crude oil. Along the rightofway from saudi arabia, installations had arisen on the empty desert and this was the magic of the arabian nights. Planning and the hard toil of hundreds of americans and thousands of arabs under the severest conditions nearly halfway across the world. All four of the pump stations were now in the final stages of cleanup and testing. Would behese stations dispatching its daily quota of oil. It would take 6 Million Barrels of oil, more than all of the oil pump in a day from all wells of the United States. One of the most extraordinary of all engineering and Construction Projects ever carried out a private enterprise was now about to bear fruit. The cost would be in the neighborhood of 230 million. It was financed by Standard Oil Company of california, a texas jersey, without Government Support of any kind. Of these companies, that are half a million private. The pipe liners were nearing the end of their stretch. Perfectly coordinated teams of arabs and americans had been finishing more than a mile of pipeline every day. In areas where solid blocks, the pipe was mounted on concrete piers. Around the end of the section of pipe, four men gathered wednesday in midseptember. Of was an executive transarabian pipeline company, two were executives of international incorporated, and the other was a construction superintendent. There is was an informal visit. They were inspecting the north. End of the continuous line windup of another contract. The last few hundred yards remained. Was oil lay behind already coursing through it from pump station to pump station. The arabs and americans guiding it performed their various jobs as though this day was no different from any other. Suddenly, their machine reach its goal. Through the transarabian Pipeline System, the oil and saudi arabia to the storage ranks storage banks and into the blue waters of the mediterranean sea. The submarine lines load the oil into tankers. The initial output of the line was 300,000 barrels per day. It could be increased to half a Million Barrels. Through government royalties, education, and industrial activity, the arabs are benefiting enormously. At the same time, the organization and their investors to be rewarded for their courage and imagination. The ready supply of oil made available by the Pipeline System will hasten the regions structures of western europe and strengthen it for peace. Tonight at 6 00, we visit Fort Mchenry National monument and historic shrine in baltimore. The 200 anniversary of the British Naval bombardment of the fort during the war of 1812. The raising of the garrison flag on the morning after the barrage inspired Francis Scott key to write the words later became the u. S. National anthem. That is unamerican artifacts. That is on american artifacts. Next, Thomas Devine discusses Henry Wallaces 1948 campaign for president as the nominee of the progressive party. He served as Vice President under fdr before being replaced by harry truman. Argued that the Campaign Strategy of focusing on courting minorities in the jim crow south alienated much of the white electorate despite wallaces efforts, mr. Devine says that the majority of africanamericans decided to vote for president truman. Wallace came in fourth in the general election, finishing with fewer votes than the other thirdparty candidate, dixiecrat strom thurmond. This event, from the Kansas City Public Library in missouri, is about an hour. And i want to thank Lisa Sullivan who has been so helpful in the past few weeks. I definitely thank her as well. Two other people i wanted to thank, one i am lucky to have your tonight, my friend and colleague steve burke, who now teaches at the Army War College in fort leavenworth. Steve welcomed me to california