Word: hassan
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Fresh from a state visit to King Hassan II in Rabat, Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie flew to Algeria aboard the imperial Boeing 720 jet. Wearing a British field marshal's uniform, the Lion of Judah was warmly greeted by Socialist Strongman Ahmed ben Bella, who happened to be wearing his own favorite costume, Castro-type fatigues. Other envoys and messages descended on Morocco from the Arab League, the President of the Sudan, the Redeemer of Ghana, the President of Tunisia, and the feuding rulers of Egypt and Iraq...
Political enmity heated up the feud over territory. Hassan, a reform-minded but high-living monarch, preserved his ties to the West, kept on thousands of French teachers and technicians to help independent Morocco get started. This policy of moderation was abhorrent to austere, leftist Strongman Ben Bella and his vindictive brand of socialism. The Algerian regime launched a virulent propaganda war against Morocco...
Meal Ticket. Finally, after a border skirmish earlier this month in which Algerian troops killed ten Moroccan soldiers, Hassan mobilized his crack, 35,000-man royal army. The immediate military targets were two tiny, desolate outposts: Hassi Beida, little more than a water hole and a few palm trees perched on a stony hill, and Tin-joub, a mud-walled fort seven miles to the east. One day last week a battalion of 1,000 Moroccan infantry armed with bazookas, recoilless cannon and heavy machine guns stormed both outposts, seized them after a four-hour battle in which at least...
Meanwhile, war fever gripped Algeria. At his demagogic best, Ben Bella proclaimed total mobilization to fight the imaginary "collusion" between the Kabylia rebels and the "feudal monarchy" of Morocco. "Hassan to the gallows," yelled the crowd of 100,000. Thousands of jobless, hungry Algerians happily joined the army, partly to get a free meal ticket. Ben Bella showed up in the National Assembly in a brand-new battle jacket, urged the Deputies to "give up your neckties and cuff links" and sign up too. Most did, and the Assembly was dissolved until further notice...
...went through the motions of truce talks, but the Moroccans refused Algerian demands to withdraw from the outposts, and after six meetings in Marrakech the negotiations collapsed in anger. As the Algerians stormed home, a new battle reportedly erupted at Ich, 300 miles northeast of the original fighting, and Hassan charged that Ben Bella sought to convert the border struggle into a general war. Back in Algiers, Information Minister M'hammed Yazid blandly declared that a "dialogue is still possible." With that, he boarded a plane for New York, where he will be Ben Bella's stand...