by David Russell
GoldSeek
The grey, damp dawn of July 1974 mirrored the mood aboard the 8am flight departing Andrews Air Force Base. William Simon, America’s new Treasury Secretary, and his deputy, Gerry Parsky, carried the weight of a nation in crisis.
The official story spoke of economic diplomacy, a standard tour through Europe and the Middle East – handshakes and banquets masking the grim reality. But beneath the diplomatic veneer pulsed a secret, urgent mission, known only to President Nixon’s innermost circle. The oil weapon, wielded by Arab nations in retaliation for the Yom Kippur War, had crippled the US. Prices quadrupled, inflation raged, markets tumbled, and the economy spiralled. Simon’s carefully orchestrated European stops were merely a prelude.
The real objective lay hidden within a four-day pause in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah. There, far from public view, Simon faced a task veiled in uncertainty: to somehow defang the oil threat and convince a kingdom, flush with petrodollars yet wary of America, to fund its staggering deficit. The stakes were immense, the outcome anything but certain.