In Beirut, a Friend at Chase Manhattan (Intro)
1970: Regional headquarters for most American companies in the Middle East was booming Beirut.
Hello there, Noam here.
I spent around an hour last night staring at photos of US companies that were present in the Middle East in the late 1960s, with regional headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. The most interesting part was that I was looking at the Arabic versions of advertising signs of familiar American firms including Kodak, Mobil, Parker (the pen), Westinghouse, and many others, in addition to US banks such as Chase Manhattan (a photo of a billboard inspired the title of this post). The photos were in an article published by Aramco World magazine in 1970. At that time, the magazine was published by what was known as the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) and before the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) was officially established.
“Regional headquarters for most American companies in the area is booming Beirut,” wrote Aramco in 1970. I will share all the details, data, and photos next weekend. The full post will be available to paid subscribers. Thank you all for supporting THE CHOKEPOINT; either by being free or paid subscribers.
Have a good journey, and I will continue the conversation soon through THE CHOKEPOINT - which is in a different era most of the time, reviving some yellowed pages.