Word: iraq
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Iraq last week counted the consequences of a coed's tears: a fallen cabinet, 15 to 20 dead, hundreds wounded, $200,000 worth of damage, troops in the streets...
...this was hardly more than high-spirited collegiate hijinks, and it might have remained so but for two other factors: Iraq's fumbling caretaker government, which didn't know what to do, and the Communists, who did. Iraq's 5,000 Reds turned the drive for the dean's resignation into a drive against "Foreign Imperialism" and for the "Partisans of Peace." The caretaker cabinet (supposed to maintain order through the coming general election) could not even agree on arming the police, dithered itself into disagreement and resigned, leaving Iraq without a government (TIME...
...tore on, paused before the English-language Iraq Times, and rolled paraffin under the steel doors (the Reds came well prepared), setting it afire. An automatic weapon chattered at the rioters from atop the police station. The mob, roaring like a wounded beast, rolled massively to the police station, set it in flames, tore apart three policemen as they scuttled out, and beheaded one of the bodies. A comparative handful of Reds, commanding an army of malcontents, had all but taken over ancient Baghdad, a city...
...next day, which might have brought revolution, did not. By that time Regent Abdul Illah had summoned up his nerve and named a new Premier: Iraq's aggressive, muscular Lieut. General Nurid-din Mahmoud, 53, the army chief of staff. In a few hours armored cars and cavalry began pouring into the city; the Communists slithered away, and Baghdad quieted...
What had touched off the rioting? Partly it began because in illiterate Iraq, elections rigged by the government in power are all too common. Last July, a few months after negotiating a new, generous 50-50 split of oil revenues with the I.P.C., Nuri El Said had to resign the premiership. A "caretaker government" was supposed to ensure the fairness of elections, but the four parties aligned against Nuri are far from satisfied that his caretakers are any better than he himself...