Word: nasser
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...greatest debacle was awaiting him in June 1967, when Nasser rashly took Syria's word that Israel was preparing an attack and ordered U.N. peacekeeping forces out of the Gaza Strip. He later admitted that he had not expected Secretary-General U Thant to comply. To his surprise, Thant rushed the U.N. troops out, leaving an obvious danger zone unguarded. In the face of Egyptian mobilization, the Israelis launched a devastating pre-emptive attack on Egypt. Drubbed in the Six-Day War, Nasser resigned, knowing that the Arab masses would plead for him to return. He did, a scant...
...tool. A few weeks ago, Nasser told a visiting British Member of Parliament, Laborite Christopher Mayhew: "Western papers say that I am going to become another Czechoslovakia. How do they think these Russian technicians are going to seize power? I have my army, my police and no Communist Party [it is outlawed in Egypt]. What are they going to do ?march on Cairo...
...Russia's growing role in Egypt did not trouble Nasser, the growing drain of the conflict with Israel apparently did. In August, he accepted a U.S. initiative calling for a cease-fire at Suez and peace talks. Then the Jordanian civil war erupted, with Arab fighting Arab, and Nasser was again cast in the peacemaker's role. He summoned Arab heads of government to Cairo for a summit to settle the fighting...
Throughout his career, Nasser maintained a ferocious 18-hour workday, taking time out only occasionally for a day in the sun at Alexandria's Agame beach. His relaxations were not enough to relieve a chronic case of nerves: visitors to his office noticed that he constantly wiggled his leg, and during much of his adult life he smoked 100 U.S. and British cigarettes a day. He was a devoted husband and an attentive father to his five children, but lavished few luxuries on his family. He never gave up the suburban villa that he had occupied as an army lieutenant...
...days he labored to stop the fighting in Jordan and head off any abrasive settlement that might hurt Arab unity. Fiery nationalists like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Algeria's Houari Boumedienne, for instance, wanted to send troops to join the guerrillas against Hussein until Nasser dissuaded them. After the summit worked out ground rules for a cease-fire in Jordan, Nasser managed to get both Hussein and Guerrilla Leader Yasser Arafat to Cairo for a conciliatory hand shake in his presence...