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This is a very solid and informative post. If you're interested about this period of history, I recommend reading "Thicker than Oil" by Rachel Bronson, a book which documents the U.S. - Saudi relationship during the 20th century. It covers all of these events and more.

Edit -- to clarify further, the OP was referring to the split in the Islamic world in the 60s-70s between traditional Saudi leadership (favoring strong religious fundamentalism) and a new, mostly secular movement termed Pan-Arabism or Arab Nationalism. Since the Pan-Arabists were usually more favorable to Soviet influence, we naturally supported the Saudis and actually fostered several initiatives to increase religious fervor & fundamentalism.



The sad story of modern Afghanistan (late 70's through 2001) might be also of interest to those who want to know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(1978–presen...

If it wasn't for the damn Cold War, probably today Afghanistan would probably be more developed than Iran... :(




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