Books read by Nasser in the Military Academy. Following his graduation, Nasser joined the infantry and was transported to Minkabad in Upper Egypt where he had the opportunity to become closer to the peasants and their misery. At that time the Egyptian army was a non-combatant one—a status which the British forces strove to maintain. However, a new group of officers with a new vision joined the army.
They considered their role in the army a step towards the bigger mission of freeing the nation. This made him think of reforming the army. Someone with these traits should be respected by everyone but our superiors love those who will sing their praises, and despise anyone who will not glorify them! They were brought up on humiliation under the occupation, and they want us to follow their footsteps— and woe to those who refuse to do so!
I am sorry to say that the new generation has been spoilt by the old one! I am also sorry to say, Hassan, that we are descending into an abyss surrounded by hypocrisy and double-dealing. By the end of while Rommel was progressing towards the western Egyptian territory, Nasser returned to Egypt where he was assigned to a British battalion close to the frontier near Alamein. I was mainly concerned with gathering a number of young, enthusiastic officers who aspired to free the nation.
With this intention we could all serve this cause. Lampson submitted an ultimatum to King Farouk to pressure the monarch—under threat of forced abdication—into assigning a pro-Britain government led by Moustafa El-Nahas. The king immediately submitted with no objections. Nasser recounts that nothing stayed the same since that day.
But what can we do when we have so weakly surrendered after that shameful event. Actually, I think the British were only trying to intimidate us, but if they had felt that some Egyptians were willing to fight and sacrifice, they would have withdrawn like a whore. As for the army, this event had a great impact on the officers who started talking about sacrifice and dignity instead of women and amusement.
They were filled with remorse because they had not taken action nor sacrificed their blood for the nation. Some tried to take action aiming to revenge, but it was too late! Anyhow, this blow managed to awaken the slumbering spirit within some bodies and taught them that there was a national dignity they had to fight for.
It was a lesson—but a hard one! On 9 September , Nasser was promoted to the rank of yuzbashi or Captain and on 7 February he was appointed as an instructor at the Military Academy. During that time he read books by great military writers such as Liddel-Hart, Clausewitz, and political writers such as Cromwell and Churchill.
Nasser was introduced to her family through his paternal uncle, Khalil Hussein. Tahiyya played an influential role in his life specially during preparations for the revolution and the formation of the Free Officers Movement. She took full responsibility of their small family—at the time composed of Hoda and Mona—when he was fighting in the Palestine War.
She also helped him hide weapons when he was training Egyptian commandos to fight against the British military base in the Suez Canal in and At that time we were a small group of faithful friends trying to execute our ideals to serve a common goal. Following the decision in September to divide Palestine, the Free Officers met and decided that it was time to defend the Arabs and support the opposition in Palestine.
The following day, Nasser met the Palestinian mufti who was a refugee living in Egypt, and proposed to train the opposition forces and to fight with them. The mufti declined the offer, saying he could not accept it without the approval of the Egyptian government; but they also refused. As a result, Nasser applied for leave so he could join the opposition.
However, before any decision was taken, the Egyptian government officially asked the army to participate in the war. Accordingly, Nasser left to Palestine on May 16, after being promoted to major. Not just that, but in the middle of the battle, the engineering weaponry was asked to build a chalet for King Farouk in Gaza! It seemed that the Higher Commandment was concerned with occupying the largest possible area irrespectible of its strategic value and whether it would influence our chances of winning the battle.
I was extremely annoyed with those officers who had no idea about fighting and battlefields but merely conducted the war from their offices. The Faluga was then besieged, an event I personally witnessed and saw how the Egyptian forces continued to resist the Israeli occupants even though they greatly exceeded them in number.
The battle ended on February 24, as a consequence to the truce imposed by the United Nations. Nasser was injured twice during the Palestine war and transported to the hospital. Upon his return to Egypt, Nasser realized that the real battle was there- for he found out that during the time he was fighting in Palestine, the politicians were busy heaping up profits of the corrupt weapons they cheaply bought then sold to the army.
This is the same panel that later became the Security Council in , On May 8, , Nasser was advanced to the rank of Major. Following the violent events that took place in the beginning of , the Free Officers started thinking of assassinating leaders from the old political system as a solution to the current situation. They stared with General Hussein Serri Amer, one of the officers involved in serving the royal palace. However, their efforts failed and he escaped death.
That was the first and last time for Nasser to become involved in such attempts and the Free Officers all decided to revert to other more positive approaches to attain radical changes.
With the recruitment for the revolution, the Free Officers started secretly circulating some brochures which called for re-organization of the army, supplying it with appropriate weapons and training instead of squandering on parades and parties. During that time the scandal of the corrupt weapons started spreading, along with other economic scandals in which the wafd parliament was involved.
On January 26, , protestors set fire to Cairo as a response to the massacre of police officers by British forces that took place in Ismailia in which 46 officers were killed and 72 wounded.
The fire evolved but the authorities did not take any action except in the evening after the fire had destroyed buildings- leaving 12 thousand people homeless, with total losses reaching 22 million pounds. The Free Officers decided to submit their nominations which were headed by General Mohammed Naguib who was elected as president by the majority despite the fact that the elections were cancelled by the king. However, after realizing that they were supported by the army, Nasser decided to advance the time of the revolution which was supposed to take place in Accordingly, the army started moving on the night of July 23, occupying the building of High Commandment in Kubri Alkuba, and arresting the leaders who were discussing how to deal with the Free Officers.
Following their success, Mohammed Naguib started heading the revolution after Nasser abandoned the position on August 25, All these left their impact on the army and led to our defeat in Palestine.
Following the war, with coalition of the sources of corruption, traitors were conspiring against the army and assigning corrupt or ignorant leaders hoping that Egypt would remain without a defensive army. In , Nasser was part of a group of soldiers at the head of a popular national uprising which overthrew the monarchy in a bloodless coup. When the leader of the revolution proved indecisive, the popular and charismatic year-old military officer was called on to take over.
He immediately proceeded with a revolutionary programme to overhaul his country. Nasser began to undertake real social and political transformation, bringing about revolutionary reforms to the feudal agrarian system and implementing hugely popular socialist policies. Freed from the limitations of a feudal society, Egypt underwent a period of rapid growth and development from which millions of Egyptian peasants benefited.
His far-sighted policies and revolutionary practices raised the poorest of the poor out of the mire of poverty. A true champion of anti-imperialism, Nasser rejected neo-colonialism. At the same time Nasser actively propagated the right of all people to freedom and supported liberation movements in the colonies.
Nasser falls into that category of rare breed of principled internationalist revolutionaries. His steely resolve to carve out an independent foreign policy and his far-sighted international initiatives were way ahead of their time and ultimately paved the way for the current movement to redefine the relationship of nations of the South with each other and with the North.
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