DWBI No Iranian Revolution

I think that without a Socialist Iranian Republic in 1966 the Soviet Union would not have had such a strong presence in the Persian Gulf.
 
Well, you got to figure what this would mean. The Iranian Socialist Republic provided critical support to the emerging Afghan Socialist Republic (which was a matter of degrees and increasing influence, not a all-or nothing affair.)

Of course, this means that the USA's good friend in the Region, Saddam Hussein, is probably more on his own. Saddam's annexation of Kuwait in 1990 would not have been "an acceptable arrangement" for NATO without his long-standing alliance with the Western Powers. Figure that Saddam probably needs to play a very different game without the USA's massive support.

The effects of this are hard to overstate--Iran is a Shia country, which has a historical grievence against the Sunni branch of Islam. Without the Soviets essentially choosing sides, the Sunni faction would probably be less tolerant of the USA. No troops in Saudi Arabia, for example.

Of course, we remember that the Iranian Socialist Republic was one more piece of the Soviet Union that essentially broke away from the Soviet Union shortly after the annexation of Kuwait. Still chummy with the Russians and their Afghan friends.

I'll say this much though--that Osama Bin Laden guy who caused all manner of terrorism in Iran and Afghanistan against the socialist governments OTL, he'd be looking at us right now if Iran didn't raise the red flag.
 
Of course, this means that the USA's good friend in the Region, Saddam Hussein, is probably more on his own. Saddam's annexation of Kuwait in 1990 would not have been "an acceptable arrangement" for NATO without his long-standing alliance with the Western Powers. Figure that Saddam probably needs to play a very different game without the USA's massive support.

Well, if the Shah and/or his eventual successor(s) retained power post-1966, maybe there would not have been any real need for the the US to cozy up to Saddam (or any other Iraqi ruler). Iran, as a monarchy, could have played a similar role to Saudi-Arabia, trying to keep the lid on islamic fundamentalism with US support. With the US entrenched in Iran, Iraq would have looked more likely to seek Soviet support, especially if the Baathists would have still gained power as per OTL. They were ostensibly "Socialist", anyway.

The way I see this, if there was no socialist revolution in Iran, the country could have quite plausibly been the most staunch and reliable US friend in the region for decades to come. We have to remember, that in many ways, the countries are natural allies. With US support, the country could have developed its economy and possibly been transformed into a prosperous state come the 1980s.
 
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