As the State Department’s top energy expert, James Akins sent home a warning after attending a 1972 meeting of Arab oil producers. The oil-exporting nations, he said, were aware that they could send the price of petroleum soaring if they refused to sell it to the U.S., realizing that “oil in the ground was as good as oil in the bank.” A year later, with Akins finishing up his first month as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the first Arab oil embargo ushered in rationing and a deep U.S. recession.
Akins had a lifelong fascination with the Arab world, said The New York Times. Born in Akron, he got his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Akron in 1947, after taking two years off to serve in the Navy. He joined the Foreign Service in 1954 and served in Italy, France, and a string of Arab nations, before being appointed to the energy desk at State. He ruffled feathers in Washington with frequent warnings that U.S. support of Israel was alienating the Arab world. But Akins maintained that he was advancing U.S. interests, which weren’t always aligned with Israel’s. And he claimed credit for moving Saudi King Faisal “from eschewing the very idea of a Jewish state to accepting the legitimacy of Israel.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Humza Yousaf clears the decks to battle no-confidence voteSpeed Read First minister is 'done', according to insider, but a single vote could change the balance
-
Immunotherapy and hay feverThe Explainer Research shows that the treatment could provide significant relief from symptoms for many hay fever sufferers
-
The week's best photosIn Pictures A flooded island, a ballistic missile, and more
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soulWhy Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25Speed Read
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96Speed Read
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84Speed Read
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everagefeature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s lookfeature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
