Word: tripoli
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...handsome man with a lean, hollow-cheeked look, Gaddafi is known for his brashness and impetuosity. One of his first acts since he overthrew King Idris and became head of state in September 1969 was to take down the foreign-language street signs in his dreary seaside capital of Tripoli. Since then he has banished nightclubs, alcohol and the teaching of English, ousted 6,000 American servicemen from Wheelus airbase and forced the British to retire from their airbase at Tobruk...
...boldness of these nationalistic acts has made Gaddafi a demigod to his xenophobic supporters at home. Photos of him abound in the streets, and his portrait has even been hung over the crucifix in Tripoli's Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus-which has been converted into the Gamal Abdel Nasser Mosque...
...Arab unity, Colonel Gaddafi evokes both shudders and admiration outside Libya. His unorthodox manner and outspoken views have prompted some Arabs to call him a madman. "He's the most childish ruler the Arabs have ever had," says a prominent Jordanian banker. A Western diplomat in Tripoli observes: "Arabs are used to Byzantine language from their leaders. What they get from Gaddafi is exactly what he thinks...
...demonstrated his approval by leaving a check for $10 million. Like a political jack-in-the-box, Gaddafi has flown, unannounced, to Egypt for spur-of-the-moment meetings with Nasser and to Algeria for discussions with President Houari Boumedienne. When a group of Sudanese officials arrived recently in Tripoli, he kept them waiting for two days before he showed up, in shirt sleeves and sandals, to lecture them on the evils of Communism...
Libya is already subsidizing Egypt out of oil incomes at a rate of $55 million annually, and Cairo is hungry for more. Libyans have been heard to murmur, moreover, that the Egyptian technicians sent to Tripoli last year are "just foreignersas bad as the Italians, the British or the Americans." In view of such feelings, the will-o'-the-wisp of Arab unity may prove as elusive as ever...