This article evaluates Saudi Arabia's anti-Communist stance between 1958 and 1967, in the midst of the Cold War. It presents an alternative interpretation of how anti-Communism was framed as a struggle against Arab Nationalism and Zionism in the Middle East. Furthermore, it highlights the different perspectives on anti-Communist agitation provided in primary sources and Saudi historiography and offers fresh insight into the Saudis’ anti-Communist stance. The analysis shows that Saudi attitudes in the Cold War were dominated by a fear of the Soviet Communists that subsequently extended to all other secular ideologies. The article concludes that the Saudi strategy of anti-Communism was a crucial building block to curb the spread of Communism in the twentieth century.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.