Best yemen history books according to redditors

> We had people, including those in actual positions of power, going out of their way to protest the dominant foreign policy which was destructive towards non-Americans and over time, curtailing or ending these policies.

It's likely that the end of US and UK (who I believe killed more people in armed conflict during the Cold War than the US did: Mau Mau Rebellion, the Malayan Emergency, the Dhofar Rebellion) extreme international involvement came about more because of the collapse of communism as a threat than because of internal humanitarian work.

Of course there are issues in China that don't exist in western liberal democracies. Of course on the whole China can be said to be a worse country. It just pisses me off when people immediately act like the second a foreign power engages in a proxy war it's a humanitarian crisis but when we do it it's liberation... even when we directly overthrow democratic regimes in place of fascist ones. For a good example of this consider Yemen and the United States: A Study of a Small Power and Super-State Relationship 1962-1994. In 1994 there was a war between the Middle East's only functioning Muslim democracy (where even women could vote) and an Islamic Dictatorship. The USA backed the Islamic Dictatorship.

Now never mind people opposing this international move or not - most people don't even know about it. Most people don't know the half of the wars the US and UK have got themselves involved in. And we certainly don't know how many soldiers died fighting for democracy because a dictatorship was preferable for the west.

Would I rather live in China or the west? Of course I'd rather live in the west, but I'm not going to act as if China's encroachment's on the sovereignty of other states are substantially different from that of the UK and US.

If you want to learn more about Yemen, I recommend checking out this book. Great read that explains how big a shit show Yemen is and how things are only going to get worse before they get worse.

https://www.amazon.com/Yemen-Brink-Christopher-Boucek/dp/0870032534

towards the posts below, Yemen has been spiraling downwards for the better part of a decade. I remember around the time I read this book (2011) another article referred to it as the Alabama of the Middle East, run by religous conservatives hellbent on power at the expense of its poorest minorities... That it has been the focus of SA aggression is not surprising being that is what those groups intended. Has manifested a "failed state". The only thing is it is SA vs. weak, "rebel" fundamentalist actors who the US doesn't feel worthy to back. We propped up Afghanistan for years as long as they were against the Soviets, no such luck here.

Still works for me, but here's an Amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Tribes-Politics-Yemen-History-Conflict/dp/0190673591/

Some interesting things about Yemen:

• Most of Mohammed's followers were Yemeni.
  
• Yemeni speak a form of Arabic closest to the Koran of all Arab dialects.
  
• The Yemeni see themselves as the true Arabs, and their word for all other Arabs is something like "became Arab."
  
• Yemen (well, South Yemen, formerly British) had the only Marxist government in the entire Arab world.
  
• There are three main groups of Yemenis. Shia, who moved from Iran a real long time ago, and who live in the highlands (north of Sanaa). Coastal and Southern Sunnis. And the Haudramaut in the east. They live in a long, east-west valley. They have a very old reputation as international traders and businesspeople.
  
• The bin-Ladens are a Yemeni Hadramaut family.
  
• Yemenis are #1, in terms of their numbers, in the overall network of anti-American fighters (i.e terrorists). However, they are usually foot soldiers, while Egyptians are more of the "sergeants."
  
• About 110 or 120 years ago, Yemen became the first, "modern" Arab state (i.e. had a bureaucracy).
  
  I also read that the Yemeni secret service is about as pro-al Qaeda as anyone. Turkmenistan also doesn't get enough credit for supporting the Taliban/Islamic radicals.
  
  For more on Yemen, I recommend "Dancing on the Heads of Snakes", written by a woman who both studies Yemen and who lived in British Aden. I read an academic work on the subject at the same time and they seemed to match up very well, with the Clark book being much more readable.