T
he September 1, 1969 coup in Libya that brought Libya’s young military officers to power put an end to the Sanusi kingdom?at the time universally considered as anachronistic. But while the general expectation in the West and much of the Middle East had been that a number of senior military leaders would take over in the North African country, the coup leaders turned out to be overwhelmingly young officers and captains with no links to the monarchy or to senior military figures. Although the first few days brought the unavoidable confusion over who constituted its leadership, from the first official communiques onward, it was clear that Libya’s new rulers were inspired by Arab nationalism and by a resentment of the West’s role in regional politics. They also seemed determined to chart a new political course for Libya within the Arab world and within the world at large.