During the crisis, the United States had focused on trying to bolster its position with Arab oil producers. Eisenhower himself put great emphasis on “building up King Saud as a major figure in the Middle Eastern area” as an alternative to Nasser and on making clear to Arab oil producers that the United States intended to work to “restore Middle East oil markets in Western Europe.” Beyond that consideration, there was also the thrust to support stable pro-Western governments in the Middle East as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism. Britain and France certainly shared both those strategic
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