*EGYPT / 2012 / 23 JULY
REVOLUTION - 60 YEARS / GAMAL ABDEL NASSER / A VERY RARE
PERFORATION ERROR / MNH / VF
***Gamal Abdel Nasser ( 15 January
1918 - 28 September 1970) was the second President of Egypt from
1954 until his death in 1970. He led the bloodless coup which
toppled the monarchy of King Farouk and heralded a new period of
modernization and socialist reform in Egypt together with a
profound advancement of pan-Arab nationalism.
Nasser is seen as one of the most important political figures in
both modern Arab history and Third World politics in the 20th
century. Although he was originally met with suspicion after
putting the country´s new president, Muhammad Naguib, under house
arrest in 1954, he soon gained immense popularity in Egypt and the
Arab world when he nationalized the Suez Canal from its British and
French stockholders two years later. The consequent British,
French, and Israeli invasion of and withdrawal from the canal zone
installed Nasser as the decisive victor in the eyes of his people.
Meanwhile, he had commenced work on the major projects of the Aswan
High Dam in Upper Egypt and the Helwan steelworks. Through his
actions and the charisma of his speeches, Nasser´s version of
pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, won a great following
in the Arab world. By 1958, he united his country with Syria,
forming the short-lived United Arab Republic (UAR). At the same
time, he inspired successful and unsuccessful revolutions in
several Arab countries.
This period of glory for Nasser had eroded roughly as soon it came
about and three years after the founding of the union, Syria split
from the UAR. Afterward, he concentrated on pursuing increased
socialist and modernizing measures in Egypt which included the
nationalization of more companies, reforming the al-Azhar Mosque,
providing housing and universal health care, as well as other
liberalization schemes. His commanding position among the Arab
leaders was also re-established in the wake of Nasserist-led coups
and revolutions in Algeria, Iraq, Syria, and North Yemen. The
latter dragged him into war in North Yemen as he sent thousands of
Egyptian troops to defend the new anti-royalist government.
Nasser´s status as "leader of the Arabs" was severely tarnished as
a result of the Israeli victory over the Arab armies in the Six Day
War of 1967, yet many in the general Arab populace still viewed him
as a symbol of their dignity and freedom; when he declared his
resignation soon after, tens of thousands of Egyptians immediately
protested, prompting him to retract his decision. After 1967,
Nasser commenced the War of Attrition with Israel and his strategy
of playing the world superpowers — the US and the USSR
— against each other ceased as he developed closer relations
with the latter.
On September 28, 1970, Nasser died of a heart attack following the
conclusion of an emergency Arab League summit he organized to end
the civil war between Palestinian paramilitaries and the Jordanian
Army. His funeral procession in Cairo drew in five million mourners
while numerous others mourned throughout the Arab world. His mixed
legacy is debated until the present day. TIME magazine wrote that,
despite the mistakes and setbacks of his career, the elevation of
dignity and pride Nasser instilled in Egyptians and Arabs
everywhere "may have been enough to balance his flaws and
failures."
