Controlling man-made malaria: Corporate modernisation and the Arabian American Oil Company's malaria control program in Saudi Arabia, 1947–1956

Abstract

In 1947, the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) began a malaria control program in Saudi Arabia. Historians of development focus on state-led schemes, ignoring corporate policy. The story of ARAMCO's malaria control efforts indicates that corporate objectives significantly influenced American–Saudi relations in the immediate post-World War II era. Regardless of corporate research that interpreted malaria as a symptom of underdevelopment, the company persisted with the most common control measures at the time, assaults on the mosquito. In contrast, Saudi Arabia and the World Health Organization connected the disease to economic stagnation and its control to development.

Notes

Chad H. Parker is an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette

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  [2] Pampana, ‘Malaria as a Problem for the WHO,’ draft of paper for Fourth International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, 10–15 May 1948, microfilm, generation 1, 453-1-4, Archives of the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland [herein cited as WHO Archive with filing information].

  [3] See Yergin, The Prize; Vitalis, America's Kingdom; Anderson, ARAMCO, the United States, and Saudi Arabia.

  [4] Connelly, ‘Seeing Beyond the State,’ 197–233; Scott, Seeing Like a State.

  [5] Manela, ‘Pox on Your Narrative,’ 299–323.

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  [8] Ekbladh, The Great American Mission.

  [9] George Rentz, Memorandum, 3 February 1947, Box 2, Folder 13, William E. Mulligan Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (herein cited as Mulligan Papers with filing information); J.V. Knight, Minutes of Relations Department Meeting, September 18, 1948, Box 2, Folder 13, Mulligan Papers.

 [10] Vidal, The ARAMCO Reports on Al-Hasa and Oman, vii.

 [11] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 223.

 [12] Quoted in Packard, ‘Visions of Postwar Health and Development,’ 96.

 [13] Winslow, The Cost of Sickness.

 [14] See Inter-Regional Conference on Malaria for the Eastern Mediterranean and European Regions, Athens, 11–19 June 1956, and Advisory Meeting on Malaria Eradication in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria: [Report], 19 June 1956, 56–57, WHO Archive, < http://whqlibdoc.who.int/WHO_Mal_179.pdf>, accessed 14 December 2006.

 [15] Snowden, ‘‘Fields of Death,’’ 25–57.

 [16] ‘Malaria Round the World,’ American Journal of Public Health 41 (January 1951): 132.

 [17] ‘Control of Malaria,’ Chronicle of the World Health Organization 2 (July 1948): 146.

 [18] Packard, ‘Roll back Malaria, Roll in Development,’ 53–87; Packard, ‘‘Malaria Blocks Development’ Revisited,’ 591–612.

 [19] Packard, The Making of a Tropical Disease.

 [20] Watts, ‘British Development Policies and Malaria,’ 141–81; Klein, ‘Development and Death,’ 147–79.

 [21] Brown, ‘Socioeconomic and Demographic Effects of Malaria Eradication,’ 847–59.

 [22] Sufian, Healing the Land and the Nation; Packard, ‘Roll back Malaria, Roll in Development,’ 53–87; Farley, To Case Out Disease; Packard, ‘‘Malaria Blocks Development’ Revisited,’ 591–612; Packard, ‘‘No Other Logical Choice,’’ 217–29; Packard and Brown, ‘Rethinking Health, Development, and Malaria,’ 181–94; Brown, ‘Malaria, Miseria, and Underpopulation,’ 239–54; Packard, ‘Malaria Dreams,’ 279–96.

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 [24] Schuler, Malaria, 3; Humphreys, Malaria.

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 [26] Webb, Humanity's Burden, 136.

 [27] Packard and Gadehla, ‘A Land Filled with Mosquitoes,’ 215–38; Staples, ‘Constructing International Identity’; Evans, ‘European Malaria Policy in the 1920s and 1930s,’ 40–59.

 [28] ‘Principles and Methods of Antimalarial Measures in Europe, Second General Report of the Malaria Commission, League of Nations, July 1927, 27–28, 88, WHO Archive.

 [29] This integrated approach reduced infections despite a continued, and continuing focus on attacking the vector or parasite. See Packard, The Making of a Tropical Disease.

 [30] Humphreys, Malaria; See also Cleaver, ‘Malaria and the Political Economy of Public Health,’ 557–79.

 [31] See Packard and Gadehla, ‘A Land Filled with Mosquitoes,’ 215–38; Gallagher, Egypt's Other Wars; Mitchell, Rule of Experts, 19–53. See also Brown, ‘Malaria, Miseria, and Underpopulation,’ 239–54; Packard, ‘‘No Other Logical Choice,’’ 217–29; Carter, ‘‘God Bless General Peron,’’ 78–122.

 [32] Quoted in Snowden, The Conquest of Malaria, 201; Gladwell, ‘The Mosquito Killer,’ 42–51.

 [33] Rice, ‘DDT,’ 31–56; Perkins, ‘Reshaping Technology in Wartime,’ 169–86; Russell, ‘The Strange Career of DDT,’ 770–95.

 [34] These new technologies, Packard and Brown argue, ‘encouraged a narrow biomedical view of health and disease.’ Packard and Brown, ‘Rethinking Health, Development, and Malaria,’ 185.

 [35] John R. Suman, ‘Middle Eastern Oil and Its Importance to the World,’ Speech, Dallas, Texas, 5 October 1948, Box, 2.207/L13D, Folder, Exxon Corporation: Subject Files: Corporate Public Affairs: Speeches, Addresses and Statements: Suman, John R., ExxonMobil Historical Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, TX.

 [36] Harry S. Truman, Second Inaugural Address, 20 January 1949, located at < http://www.trumanlibrary.org/calendar/viewpapers.php?pid = 1030>, accessed 20 February 2008; For discussion of living standards in American foreign affairs see de Grazia, Irresistible Empire.

 [37] Stanley Andrews, ‘Oil Development Aids Point 4 Activities.’

 [38] Cullather, ‘Development Doctrine and Modernization Theory.’

 [39] Headrick, Tools of Empire; Frey, ‘Tools of Empire,’ 543–68; Packard, ‘Postcolonial Medicine,’ 97–112.

 [40] Arnold, Colonizing the Body; Winther, Anglo-European Science and the Rhetoric of Empire; Mark Harrison, Public Health in British India.

 [41] Hewa, Colonialism, Tropical Disease and Imperial Medicine; Pati and Mark Harrison, ‘Introduction’; Jones, Health Policy in Britain's Model Colony; MacLeod, ‘Introduction.’

 [42] Bell, Frontiers of Medicine in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; see also Jones, Health Policy in Britain's Model Colony.

 [43] Arabian American Oil Company, ‘Donations, Contributions, and Assistance to Saudi Arabia: 1933–1970,’ January 1971, Box 5, Folder 10, Mulligan Papers.

 [44] Hicke, Gelpi Interview, 44–45, 48. US government officials had similar views. See Marett, ‘Some Medical Problems Met in Saudi Arabia,’ 33.

 [45] Hicke, Taylor Interview, 182–83.

 [46] Hicke, Oertley Interview, 370–71.

 [47] For instance, see Memorandum from Acheson to Eisenhower, ‘Urgent Request to You from King Ibn Saud for the Services of General Graham,’ August 9, 1951, Box 2, Folder: ‘Correspondence of Harry S. Truman regarding Palestine and Saudi Arabian Security,’ Papers of Parker T. Hart, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library (herein cited at Hart Papers with filing information). King ‘Abd al-Aziz expressed his gratitude following Graham's medical mission indicating a willingness to work on ‘mutual problems’ together. See Letter from ‘Abd al-Aziz to Harry Truman, March 3, 1952, Box 2, Folder: ‘Correspondence of Harry S. Truman regarding Palestine and Saudi Arabian Security,’ Hart Papers; see also Marett, ‘Some Medical Problems Met in Saudi Arabia,’ 33.

 [48] Hicke, Taylor Interview, 198.

 [49] David Skory, Report, April 17, 1955, Box 6, Folder ‘ca. 1955–1959: Arabian American Oil Company (2 of 4), Middle East Ventures of the Mobil Oil Company, 1951–1960, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Virginia (herein cited as Mobil Papers with filing information).

 [50] Quoted in Armerding, Doctors for the Kingdom, 79.

 [51] Van Peursem, ‘The Arabian Mission and Saudi-Arabia.’

 [52] Hicke, Taylor Interview, 232.

 [53] See, Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms.

 [54] Munif, Cities of Salt.

 [55] Daggy and Page, ‘ARAMCO's Preventive Medicine Program,’ 196.

 [56] Hicke, McComb Interview, 320.

 [57] Bell, Frontiers of Medicine, 108.

 [58] Arabian American Oil Company, ‘Donations, Contributions, and Assistance to Saudi Arabia: 1933–1970,’ January 1971, Box 5, Folder 10, Mulligan Papers.

 [59] Hicke, Daggy Interview, 3.

 [60] Vitalis, America's Kingdom.

 [61] Hicke, Gelpi Interview, 72.

 [62] Hicke, Daggy Interview, 5.

 [63] Bell, Frontiers of Medicine; Norman Etherington, ‘Introduction.’

 [64] ‘Closing in on Malaria,’ ARAMCO World, March 1961, 4.

 [65] Letter from Richard H. Daggy to E.J. Pampana, December 8, 1948, File, Saudi Arabia JKTI ss4/4 1944–1957, WHO Archive; WHO reported high rates as well. See H.R. Rafatjah, Report on Visit to Saudi Arabia, 9 November–6 December 1956, Annex I, File, Saudi Arabia JKTI ss4/4 1944–1957, Folder, SAA 1958 SJ1, WHO Archive, 3; quotes from Hicke, Daggy Interview, 2–3, 7.

 [66] Saad E.D. Afifi, ‘Malaria Eradication ILOT Projects with Special Reference to Saudi Arabia,’ Second Regional Conference on Malaria Eradication, Addis Ababa, November 16–21, 1959, in unpublished reports of the World Health Organization, EM/ME-Tech.2/11, WHO Archive.

 [67] Hicke, Daggy Interview, 6–7.

 [68] Schumaker, ‘Malaria,’ 704–5; Gallagher, Egypt's Other Wars, 4–7.

 [69] Hicke, Perrine Interview, 524–5.

 [70] Doumato, ‘An ‘Extra Legible Illustration,’’ 378–90.

 [71] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 223, 243; Hicke, Daggy Interview, 8.

 [72] See Carter, ‘‘Man-Made’ Malaria’; Justin Andrews, ‘What's Happening to Malaria in the U.S.A.?’ 933; Justin Andrews, Quinby, and Langmuir, ‘Malaria Eradication in the United States,’ 1405.

 [73] Reprint of Transitions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume XXXVIII, No. 3, December 1944, P.A. Buxton, ‘Rough Notes: Anopheles Mosquitoes and Malaria in Arabia,’ File, Saudi Arabia JKT1 ss4/4 1944–1957, 209–10, WHO Archive.

 [74] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 236.

 [75] Daggy, ‘Oasis Malaria,’ 43.

 [76] ‘Closing in on Malaria,’ ARAMCO World, March 1961, 4.

 [77] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 225, 243; The Oasis of al-Hasa, 18; Daggy, ‘Oasis Malaria,’ 43–45; Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 243. For more recent statistics on population densities, see the UN Demographic Yearbook, 2006, < http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dybsets/2006%20DYB.pdf>, accessed 17 June 2009.

 [78] J.G. Hamilton, ‘The Start of an Agricultural Program in the Eastern Province,’ 12 April 1955 Report, Arabian American Oil Company, Box 6, Folder ‘ca. 1955–1959: Arabian American Oil Company (2 of 4), Mobil Papers; see Karl S. Twitchell, U.S. Agricultural Mission, Field Notes, 13 November 1942, Box 7, Folder 5, Karl S. Twitchell Papers, 1911–1967, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton, New Jersey.

 [79] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 230, 243, 229; Hicke, ‘Health and Disease in Saudi Arabia,’ Daggy Interview, 8; Daggy, ‘Oasis Malaria,’ 43.

 [80] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 285; J.G. Hamilton, ‘The Start of an Agricultural Program in the Eastern Province,’ Mobil Papers.

 [81] Vidal, 135–36.

 [82] Reprint of Transitions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume XXXVIII, No. 3, December 1944, P.A. Buxton, ‘Rough Notes: Anopheles Mosquitoes and Malaria in Arabia,’ File, Saudi Arabia JKT1 ss4/4 1944–1957, WHO Archive, 209.

 [83] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 231–35.

 [84] Letter from Richard H. Daggy to E.J. Pampana, 8 December 1948, File, Saudi Arabia JKTI ss4/4 1944–1957, WHO Archive.

 [85] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Arabia,’ 266.

 [86] There were beneficial ‘byproducts’ for U.S. government campaigns. Improved health followed visits, and equipment was appropriately labeled, clarifying U.S. involvement. See Statement on Malaria Eradication, Eugene P. Campbell, Mutual Security Act of 1959, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, part 2, 1959, 748.

 [87] Hicke, Daggy Interview, 266.

 [88] Vidal, The ARAMCO Reports, vi–vii.

 [89] Hicke, ‘Gelpi Interview, 72; as part of the malaria survey, company personnel also gave smallpox vaccinations. See Arabian American Oil Company, ‘Donations, Contributions, and Assistance to Saudi Arabia: 1933–1970,’ Mulligan Papers. ARAMCO sponsored other programs as well, like one to combat the prevalent eye disease Trachoma, after first attempting to get the Rockefeller Foundation to fund it. See Duce to Fosdick, 5 June 1946, Box 352, Folder 2382, Series 817, Sub-series 1946, RG 2, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York.

 [90] Hicke, Daggy Interview, 5.

 [91] Daggy, ‘Oasis Malaria,’ 50–52; Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Saudi Arabia,’ 266–76.

 [92] Daggy and Page, ‘ARAMCO's Preventive Medicine Program,’ 200–1.

 [93] Daggy, ‘Oasis Malaria,’ 5; Hicke, Daggy Interview, 12; Daggy, ‘Malariometric Evidence,’ 317–24; Resistance to dieldren also emerged. See R. L. Peffly, ‘Dieldrin-Resistant Anopheles Fluviatilis in Eastern Saudi Arabia,’ report for the World Health Organization, 15 August 1959, WHO Archive, < http://whqqlibdoc.who.int/malaria/WHO_Mal_239.pdf>, accessed 14 December 2006.

 [94] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Saudi Arabia,’ 276–77.

 [95] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Saudi Arabia,’, 283; Hicke, Daggy Interview, 12–13; Gordon Harrison, Mosquitoes, Malaria and Man, 88; Hicke, McComb Interview, 320.

 [96] ‘Kill the Mosquito before it kills you’ poster, Box 1, McConnell Papers.

 [97] Hicke, Handschin Interview, 132–3.

 [98] Daggy, ‘Malaria in Oases of Eastern Saudi Arabia,’ 284.

 [99] Saad E.D. Afifi, ‘Malaria Eradication ILOT Projects with Special Reference to Saudi Arabia,’ Second Regional Conference on Malaria Eradication, Addis Ababa, 16–21 November 1959, in unpublished reports of the World Health Organization, EM/ME-Tech.2/11, WHO Archive; WHO reports indicate low rates of infection in the Eastern Province following ARAMCO's Malaria Control Program in 1956. See H. Mashaal, ‘Malaria Control and Demonstration Project, Saudi Arabia, 18 August 1956–19 February 1958,’ January 1959, unpublished reports of the World Health Organization, EM/MAL/37, Saudi Arabia 4, WHO Archive.

[100] H. Debbagh, ‘Preliminary Planning of Eradication of Malaria in Saudi Arabia,’ 20 November 1957, in unpublished reports of the World Health Organization, WHO Archive.

[101] Afifi, ‘Malaria Eradication ILOT Projects with Special Reference to Saudi Arabia.’

[102] Joint Government/WHO Malaria Review .

[103] G.J. de Almeida, ‘Assignment Report: Malaria Pre-Eradication Programme in Saudi Arabia, July 1963–December 1968,’ unpublished report of the World Health Organization, March 1969, EM/MAL/67, Saudi Arabia 0004/R, WHO Archive.

[104] H.R. Rafatjah, Report on Visit to Saudi Arabia, 9 November–6 December 1956, Annex I, File, Saudi Arabia JKTI ss4/4 1944–1957, Folder, SAA 1958 SJ1, WHO Archive; quote from G.J. de Almeida, ‘Assignment Report: Malaria Pre-Eradication Programme in Saudi Arabia, July 1963–December 1968,’ March 1969 in unpublished reports of the World Health Organization, WHO Archive.

[105] H.R. Rafatjah, Report on Visit to Saudi Arabia, 9 November-6 December 1956, Annex I, File, Saudi Arabia JKTI ss4/4 1944–1957, Folder, SAA 1958 SJ1, WHO Archive.

[106] J.H. Pull, ‘Report on Visit to the Malaria Pre-Eradication Programme, Saudi Arabia, 12–19 May 1967,’ Geographic File, JKTI ss4/4 1944–1957, Folder, SAA 1966–1967 SJ2, WHO Archives.

[107] R. Bahar, ‘Report on a Visit to Saudi Arabia,’ 5–23 February 1976, unpublished report of the World Health Organization, May 1976, EM/MAL/142, WHO Archive; ‘Report on Malaria Control Programme of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,’ November 1979, Geographic File, JKTI ss4/4 1944–1957, Folder SAA 1976–79 SJ1, WHO Archive; Ja., ‘Epidemiology of Travel Related Malaria in a non-Malarious area in Saudi Arabia,’ 86–9; Bashawri, Mandil, Bahnassy, Alshamsi, and Bukhari, ‘Epidemiological Profile of Malaria in University Hospital in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia,’ 133–8.