Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1954 until his death. He led the bloodless coup which toppled the monarchy of King Farouk and heralded a new period of modernization and socialist reform in Egypt together with a profound advancement of pan-Arab nationalism. Nasser is seen as one of the most important political figures in both modern Arab history and Third World politics in the 20th century. Although he was originally met with suspicion after putting the country's new president, Muhammad Naguib, under house arrest in 1954, he soon gained immense popularity in Egypt and the Arab world when he nationalized the Suez Canal from its British and French stockholders two years later. The consequent British, French, and Israeli invasion of and withdrawal of the Sinai peninsula. Meanwhile, he had commenced work on the major projects of the Aswan High Dam in Upper Egypt and the Helwan steelworks. Through his actions and the charisma of his speeches, Nasser's version of pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, won a great following in the Arab world. By 1958, he united his country with Syria, forming the short-lived United Arab Republic (UAR). At the same time, he inspired successful and unsuccessful revolutions in several Arab countries. This period of glory for Nasser quickly dissipated, and three years after the founding of the union, Syria split from the UAR. Afterward, he concentrated on pursuing increased socialist and modernizing measures in Egypt, which included the nationalization of more companies, reforming the al-Azhar Mosque, providing housing and universal health care, and other liberalization schemes. His commanding position among the Arab leaders was also re-established in the wake of Nasserist-led coups and revolutions in Algeria, Iraq, Syria, and North Yemen. The latter dragged him into war in North Yemen as he sent thousands of Egyptian troops to defend the new anti-royalist government. Nasser's status as "leader of the Arabs" was severely tarnished as a result of the Israeli victory over the Arab armies in the Six Day War of 1967, yet many in the general Arab populace still viewed him as a symbol of their dignity and freedom; when he declared his resignation soon after, tens of thousands of Egyptians immediately protested, prompting him to retract his decision. After 1967, Nasser commenced the War of Attrition with Israel and his strategy of playing the world superpowers—the US and the USSR—against each other ceased as he developed closer relations with the latter. On September 28, 1970, Nasser died of a heart attack following the conclusion of an emergency Arab League summit he had organized to end the civil war between Palestinian paramilitaries and the Jordanian Army. His funeral procession in Cairo drew five million mourners as many others mourned throughout the Arab world. His mixed legacy has been debated until the present day. Time magazine wrote that despite the mistakes and setbacks of his career, the elevation of dignity and pride Nasser instilled in Egyptians and Arabs everywhere "may have been enough to balance his flaws and failures."