, the non- communist world's No. 1 oil producer, to the economic health of the West. Five years later, the Saudis are among the first to be consulted by Washington on Mideast matters; 30,000 Americans work in the arid kingdom on economic and military projects; 10,000 young Saudis study at universities in the United States. Even so, the Saudis remain a bit of a mystery, with their Islamic conservatism, their Bedouin ways, their quiet use of dollar di- plomacy in Africa and the Arab states. Here William...