In Michael T. Klare's Blood and Oil, current American foreign policy is examined in light of a 1945 meeting between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Saudi king Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud. The pair agreed that the U.S. would provide military protection to Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia would provide America with access to its oil reserves.
Hampshire College professor Klare and his Media Education Foundation co-writers and producers take a look at the long-term repercussions of that meeting, including U.S. military engagements like the wars in the Persian Gulf. They also reveal such little-discussed facts as America's consumption of one-third of its known oil reserves in World War II.
Klare will be on hand to address questions raised by his film at a screening this week at Amherst Cinema.
Oct. 26, $5, 2 p.m., Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St., Amherst, (413) 253-2547.
