Pan Arabism in Egypt

A Brief Experiment

In 1958, Egypt and Syria made the bold move of uniting to form a single state called the United Arab Republic, with Nasser as president. What at first appeared to be a landmark event in Arab unity turned out to be a short-lived and highly unpopular marriage, with the Syrians little disposed to taking orders from Egypt.

The inevitable divorce came in 1962. Another Arab commitment was failing to bring about the desired results. In 1962, hot on the heels of the failed Syrian experiment of Pan-Arabism, Gamal Abdel Nasser found what he believed would be a good opportunity to strike a blow at the reactionary forces of the Arab world, which he held to be responsible for preventing Arab progress. Accusing them of being stooges of the Western imperialist powers, Nasser made the decision to send Egyptian troops to Yemen to support a revolution that had broken out to topple the royal elite and establish a republic.

Despite hopes that there would be a speedy conclusion to the conflict, it dragged on for several years and proved extremely costly both in terms of lives and money. Nasser himself referred to it as his "Vietnam." Failed attempts to find a solution to the war through the Arab League only served to highlight deep divisions in the Arab world and did little to maintain Nasser's reputation as its hero.

As the 1960s progressed, Nasser also became increasingly sensitive to criticisms from the Arab world that he had gone soft on the Israelis and lacked the courage to stand up to them. It was no longer Egypt that was taking the lead in challenging Israel but Syria, which had begun to mount limited but sustained guerrilla warfare against the Israelis.

Nevertheless, the dream of Pan-Arabism lived on among the arabs.