Before These Memoirs - Part 34: The Blockade of Cuba, the Gravest Day in World History

Wednesday the 17th

This evening, our friend Ratib al-Husami relayed two conversations to us, both worth recording.

The first took place between him and the Muslim Brotherhood's own leader, Mr. Issam al-Attar. Here is a summary of it:

1. The army had threatened, on the day Khaled al-Azm's government was formed, that if the ministry were not formed that very day, the officers would form a military government themselves. To avert this danger, we, meaning the Muslim Brotherhood, agreed to take part in the government, to smooth the way for its formation and spare the country the evils and adventures of military rule, and likewise to keep the armed forces from falling entirely under the control of the Communists and politicized officers.

2. The Brotherhood is convinced that the current regime is, inevitably, under Communist and socialist influence, a state of affairs that demands serious thought.

3. Dr. al-Qudsi finds himself under military pressure, to which he has surrendered completely, while also finding himself under socialist and Communist pressure, so that he no longer knows how to act, telling this side yes, and that side, with the greatest of pleasure.

4. The Brotherhood is considering withdrawing from the government, but is waiting for a serious enough pretext to justify it before their own supporters and rank and file.

5. They condemned the shutting down of the newspapers Al-Wihda al-Arabiya and Al-Baath, though the press refused to publish this condemnation of theirs.

6. Issam al-Attar's own car was pelted with stones in the al-Akrad quarter two days ago, and he lodged a strong protest against the attackers with "the authorities." Here too, the newspapers were forbidden from publishing any news of this assault.

Al-Attar said he faces pressure from certain sheikhs "blinded by Saudi gold," as he put it, who came to him demanding he take a clear stand against Abdel Nasser, "who still holds Muslim Brotherhood members in detention." Al-Attar added, to Ratib, "that he himself faces both temptation and intimidation from the Saudis."

8. He returned to speaking of President al-Qudsi, calling him a trivial man.

9. Al-Attar said that raising an awkward unionist slogan now would set the army's own nerves on edge and push it toward violent action, something in no one's interest, and that he personally could not do such a thing at this time.

Al-Attar asked Ratib to come visit me, but I objected to this visit, given how unsuitable the timing was.

In the wake of the memorandum's own publication, the government moved swiftly to revoke the licenses of the two newspapers Al-Wihda al-Arabiya and Al-Baath, offering practical proof of just how devoted it remains to democratic principles. Prime Minister Bashir al-Azma felt genuine embarrassment at this move, telling those who reproached him for it: "We are nothing but instruments, made to be used." Had he spoken in colloquial language, he would have said: "We're nothing but puppets and marionettes."

In this same description of himself and his own ministry, he included His Excellency the President as well.

Dr. al-Azma has, for some months now, been touring the United States as an envoy with no real mission at all, if only, it seems, so that drawing his own per diem might sit right with his own conscience. He passed through New York and delivered a "momentous" speech at the United Nations, welcoming Algeria's independence and its own admission to the United Nations family.

Whenever anyone asks him why he accepts this strange arrangement within the ministry, he answers that he was brought into it without ever being consulted, and so they kept quiet, and so did he.

I visited our friend General Muhammad al-Jarrah at his own home today, on the occasion of his release, and he told me they had held him in a solitary cell for seventy-one days, without ever leveling a single charge against him.

The newspaper Al-Wihda al-Arabiya, in its final issue, the very one in which Mr. Nabih al-Azma's letter appeared, the same issue the government used as its pretext for shutting the paper down, also published a statement from Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, who said, word for word, the following:

The free Saudi princes have pledged themselves before God to continue along the path they have announced, and will accept no compromise of any kind.

He said a statement would soon be issued by the Arab Liberation Front exposing the intrigues and attempts to sow confusion between the free Saudi strugglers and the supporters of the progressive tide sweeping the Arabian Peninsula.

The Front, he said, would call for establishing a progressive republic in Saudi Arabia, and would work to expose the current rulers. There was no room, he said, for compromise, and the free princes would press on, working in the Saudi people's own interest.

Mr. Nazih al-Hakim commented on this statement, in his own editorial, saying:

"It is, then, a welcome sign that a Saudi prince such as Talal should call for establishing a republican system in his own country, rather than waiting for some revolution to topple his own brother's regime, a regime whose own riches he himself had, until recently, been enjoying just as much as anyone else."

The wind from the south that blew from Sanaa may not succeed in spreading the contagion of progressive, liberationist revolution to the rest of the Arab world's monarchies, emirates, and sheikhdoms. Even so, these very monarchies, emirates, and sheikhdoms will find themselves forced to adjust their own policies, lest they be branded reactionary, hostile to socialism, complicit with capital, and appeasing the Western colonial camp.

As for the second conversation, it took place between Mr. Ratib and Dr. Nazim al-Qudsi. Ratib (himself a member of the chamber of deputies) met with him over "the pension of the union-era deputies."

Khalil al-Kallas, Minister of Economy, had wanted to abolish it entirely.

He had also wanted to reduce the pension of union-era ministers, so that it would not exceed a thousand pounds, meaning myself and Nihad al-Qasim specifically.

At the start of the meeting, the President of the Republic asked him about me, and how I spent my own time, before asking him about the general state of the country.

Ratib told him the story of the 150,000 pounds the Saudis had offered him, through an agent of theirs, which he had refused. The President found this story strange, and Ratib asked him: would you approve if I accepted it, and handed the money over to you? But he refused to have any part in this "filth."

A Visit from Some Cassation Judges

This evening, Justice Rasim al-Akhras and Justice Nawras al-Jundi, both counselors on the Court of Cassation, whom Nihad al-Qasim had removed from the bench during his own "reform movement," visited me at home. A lawyer from the Khatib family of Tadmur was with them.

They expressed their own attachment to the principle of union, considering the secession an unforgivable crime, before God and before the homeland alike, for it had stabbed the Arab nation's own aspirations in the back, weakened its resistance against Israel, and destroyed every hope of liberating the Holy Land.

They expressed their own conviction that Syria's internal situation was deteriorating, moving rapidly toward an irreversible collapse.

I feel real gratitude toward these "brave men," who dared to visit me, and I feel real strength in our own path, hearing such comforting words about union from good men like these, branding the secession a disgrace upon the nation. If that is so, then who exactly does the secession still belong to?

Today, Dr. John H. Davis, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, issued a statement saying that the number of registered Arab refugees under the Agency's care, as of 10 June 1962, had reached 174,760 people, receiving monthly rations of flour, oil, and lentils, living in wretched camps, suffering winter's own cold and summer's own blaze, while billions of oil dollars are squandered on conspiracies and indulgence.

Saturday the 20th: Mohamed Hassanein Heikal's Weekly Article

Every Friday, this brilliant journalist writes a political article, one that typically expresses President Abdel Nasser's own views.

This week's article is devoted to explaining the circumstances of the Egyptian army's intervention in Yemen, in support of Abdel Allah al-Sallal's movement.

It answers questions that have arisen, both among us and across the Arab countries, over the reasons for this adventure, coming as it does before Egypt's own wounds from the secession's stab and its own hateful reversal, which severed the very bonds of Egyptian-Syrian brotherhood, had even begun to heal.

This article, broadcast several times on Cairo radio and Voice of the Arabs, said the following:

1. That the United Arab Republic had sent to Yemen a naval fleet, an air fleet, and a striking land army, to rescue its own revolution from the clutches of its enemies, King Saud and King Hussein of Jordan foremost among them.

2. That Abdel Nasser had known nothing at all of the Yemeni revolution before it broke out, and upon learning of it, moved at once to support it, since his own principle was clear and well known, supporting every national revolution whose goal is liberation from reaction and colonialism.

Heikal said that Abdel Karim Qasim and Abdel Salam Aref had told Abdel Nasser they intended to carry out a military action to overthrow the monarchy and shatter the Baghdad Pact, and that he had asked them both to observe absolute secrecy, revealing not a single one of their own secrets to anyone, even to him personally.

The Saudi army was defeated before the Yemeni and Egyptian forces at the Battle of Saada, and Saud learned the lesson he needed to learn.

4. Imam al-Badr was not killed, but escaped by helicopter, landing at an airport controlled by Yemeni infiltrators, before Egyptian-Yemeni forces drove them from it.

5. The United Arab Republic (Egypt) no longer believes in anything but unity of purpose, not the false, deceptive unity of ranks.

From now on, the goal of union must be:

Freedom first, then socialism second, and political union last of all.

Every people of the Arab nation must therefore set about achieving the first two conditions itself: internal liberation from corrupt regimes, and external liberation from colonial influence, along with establishing a clearly defined socialist system. Achieving these two conditions unites both conscience and man. Once achieved, only then does it become right to discuss establishing political union.

Meanwhile, world radio stations affirm today that the Yemeni revolution has succeeded completely, and stands firmly on its own two feet. Syria has recognized the new Yemeni government.

But this is a tainted recognition, for the regime's own sympathies lie with Saudi Arabia and Jordan. This regime fears Abdel Nasser's own attention returning to it, once he is free from his own victory in Yemen. Which is why what appears in the newspapers reflects, quite precisely, the ruling circles' own anxiety. Britain's own warning to Yemen, that its aircraft would strike it should Yemeni planes violate "the sanctity of the sheikhdoms' own airspace" in the Gulf, has been interpreted as a form of deliberate provocation, meant "to reassure the cheerful trio," Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the deposed al-Badr.

Anthony Nutting notes[1] that the number of Egyptian soldiers sent to Yemen reached 70,000, remaining there for six years, until an agreement was finally reached between Abdel Nasser and Faisal.

Even the newspaper Al-Alam, published by Mr. Izzat Hasriyeh, known for his own moderation and integrity, attacks Abdel Nasser fiercely, quite unlike his own usual manner, further proof of just how intense the security apparatus's own pressure on the press has become. Among its headlines: "An Entire Egyptian Division Annihilated"... "Egyptian Units Surrender," followed, in evident alarm, by reports of "revolutionary forces closing in on Marib."

Monday the 22nd

I was surprised today by a visit from two "old friends," Abdel Aziz Hallaj and Ahmad Qanbar. We touched on no political matters at all.

For politics, with these two, would be a pointless exercise, since they are both staunch secessionists, and I hold the opposite direction. This visit was nothing more than a gesture "to clear the air." It happened to coincide with an "eloquent" statement from Information Minister, our "friend" Mr. Abdel Halim Qaddour, published by Al-Sada al-Aam in bold type:

"No more leniency toward the Nasserists, starting today."

One wonders, when exactly was there ever any leniency from you toward the "Nasserists," that you should now threaten them with its end? You have already made us taste "horrors and endless nights." We remain patient before God's own judgment, watching your own decay and dissolution unfold, and we will remain patient through whatever harm you do us, until you yourselves lie in the death rattle.

Tuesday the 23rd: The Gravest Day in World History: The Blockade of Cuba

While the world followed news of the limited fighting between India and China, fighting growing fiercer by the day, we were stunned, and the whole world was stunned alongside us, by the grave announcement broadcast by the young, fervent American President John Kennedy, that he had decided to blockade the island of Cuba, led by Fidel Castro and home to a Communist system, and to inspect every ship bound for it, to learn what cargo it carried.

The American President's own statement said he had become fully convinced that Cuba had become a base for Soviet (Russian) missiles, and that, given its own proximity to the American coast, it had become a source of threat and danger to the safety of the United States itself, since the famous American base at Cape Canaveral lies no more than eighty kilometers from the Cuban shore.

And indeed, the American fleet spread out around Cuba, and announced it would begin inspecting ships starting at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday, our own local time. This, then, was a full blockade.

Panic spread across the whole world, for should a clash actually occur, it would be between the Soviet Union and America, both states armed with nuclear weapons to such a degree that either one alone could destroy the entire world.

Wednesday the 24th

"The World on the Brink of War"... "The World Threatened with Destruction."

These are two headlines from some of today's newspapers.

The Soviet Union has announced its refusal to allow any of its ships to be inspected, and that should America dare sink a Russian ship that refuses to obey its own fleet's orders, the Soviet Union will declare war.

Both camps have mobilized their own forces and those of their allies.

Global tension has reached its very peak. Terror has gripped every human being, at the sheer gravity of the world situation.

One newspaper wrote: "Nothing but a miracle can save humanity from war."

The "neutral" states moved quickly, pressing U Thant, the UN Secretary-General (a Buddhist from Thailand), to issue an urgent appeal to both camps, calling for restraint, to prevent humanity's own annihilation.

God grant His own mercy upon His creation, and spare it the madness of these great madmen!

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Endnotes:

[1] In his book Nasser, cited above, p. 369.