ABSTRACT
The rapid urbanisation of the unskilled rural population, resulting from accelerated modernisation, presented Faysal's government with serious problems of unemployment, inadequate housing and welfare services and rising costs of living in the cities of the Hijaz, the Eastern Province and Riyadh. Anti-American demonstrations took place in the Hijaz and in Riyadh on 7 June. The Central Planning Organisation, a most important tool for the kingdom's modernisation, was formed by Faysal in 1968. The Saudi air force was grounded for several weeks, and when flying resumed, it was without munitions for some time. Some of the officers arrested during the first wave of detentions in June and July 1969 were tortured by the secret police and a few died in prison. Faysal had been confronted with Nasser's pan-Arabism which established a foothold in Yemen and a rising tide of militant nationalism in the kingdom when he again became acting Prime Minister in 1962.
