american history every weekend on c-span3. c-spanus on twitter at history to keep up with the latest history news. , reel americao rings you archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. >> oil is scarce in many areas today. the cause of that scarcity is not a lack of reserves or production but a lack of economical distribution. supplies of the western hemisphere, the logical source of oil is the middle east. readily accessible reserves than in all of north and south america together. the reason is rapidly being .eveloped in eastern saudi arabia, aramco discovered five major fields

during the decade after the first commercially producing well was completed in 1938. by was overtput 1947 400,000 barrels. and steadily climbing. this posed a problem of transportation. how to get the oil insufficient quantities and at reasonable costs to the areas of western europe where it was most needed. ,o reach the mediterranean sea ships loading in the persian gulf had to make a slow and costly voyage of more than 3000 ,iles through the gulf of oman the arabian sea, the red sea, and finally the gulf of suez and the privately owned suez canal. a toll of $.18 per barrel was imposed. amounting to $40,000 for the oil in each modern tanker. to increase the volume of oil

delivered to europe, more tankers would be needed, plus expanded ports and loading facilities. the companies decided it was a -- a practical alternative was a pipeline system from the oilfields of the persian gulf plotting a direct course across the arabian desert to the mediterranean. an overland distance of a little more than 1000 miles against 3500 miles by c. this would effect substantial savings in time and expense. to construct and operate this pipeline, the trans-arabian pipeline company was formed. stationse to be six for the entire pipeline system, all within saudi arabia. each was to be an installation costing millions of dollars. at each, there were to be

pumping units with a capacity exceeding 300,000 barrels of oil per day. accommodations at each site for americans and arabs. arabs now outnumbered americans by as many as 14 to one. at the peak of activity, more than 14,000 arabs were at work on the mining project. through on-the-job training, they were playing increasingly important roles. most were employed through contacts who have been set up in business by aramco. the men had never seen modern machinery were operating equipment of all sorts. the majority of these men, including many veterans had been reared in an atmosphere that had changed little in a thousand years. when they came to work with americans on the pipeline project, every american had to become a teacher.

surprisinglyved adaptive. not only did they learn to do unaccustomed tasks but also bridged the wide cultural and linguistic gap. with all the technological training, their basic thinking remained in violet and they continued to abide faithfully by of their fathers. >> by this time in the war, one of the soldiers have been away from their homes for about three to four years. they were getting letters home saying the farm is falling to pieces. we have patrollers taking supplies from us. when are you going to come home question mark there is a large problem with desertions at this time. it was not desertions from the standpoint of soldiers not wanting to go into battle. it is just their heartstrings were being pulled by their

families needing them back home. what lee imposed was a strict set of orders that deserters would sometimes be punishments, several occurrences of this happening. orale was so low, about this time, les miserables came out in time.form at that and there's several onfederate troops in the richmond shop and saw it on the helf and said -- >> every weekend marking the civil nniversary of the war talking about the war that shaped our country. >> each week american artifacts