The Saudi Role in the American-Syrian Crisis of 1957
Author(s)
Lesch, David W.
Abstract
King Saud of Saudi Arabia rose to prominence as a US-molded Arab leader to rival Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser during the 1950s. Dwight D. Eisenhower administration had hoped that Saud could act as an effective US ally in the volatile Middle East region. However, Saud wanted to attain the same degree of political influence as Nasser. On the other hand, the US was misled into thinking that Saud carried substantial political clout in the Arab world. Consequently, the clash between Saud’s personal ambitions and the misconceived American foreign policy resulted in the failure to reach an amicable solution to the 1957 American-Syrian Crisis.
