Iranian Crisis Replacement?

[Nightingale]

If the Iranian Crisis was butterflied away, what similar foreign debacle could possibly hurt the United States in the late 1970s?

 

[cladglas]

kim il sung decides pak chung hee's assassination indicates the time is right for unification.

 

[NixonTheUsedCarSalesman]

An Islamic Republic declared in Saudi Arabia, with the pro-American King being replaced by a fundamentalist regime.

 

[Nightingale]

An Islamic Republic declared in Saudi Arabia, with the pro-American King being replaced by a fundamentalist regime.

That's worse than Iran indeed.

 

[Onkel Willie]

An Islamic Republic declared in Saudi Arabia, with the pro-American King being replaced by a fundamentalist regime.

Saudi Arabia is already fundamentalist (as well as pro-American). They make Iran look like a liberal democracy. A better fit would be a Nasserist military coup in the late 1960s that turns Saudi Arabia into a Soviet ally.