Gamal Abdel Nasser (15 January 1918-28 September 1970) was President of Egypt from 1956 to 1970, succeeding Muhammad Naguib and preceding Anwar Sadat. A socialist dictator, Nasser led Egypt into an era of prosperity and was known for his belief in pan-Arabism; he was briefly successful in creating a United Arab Republic with Syria and he was hailed as a hero for standing up to France and the United Kingdom in the 1956 Suez Crisis.
Biography[]
Gamal Abdel Nasser was born on 15 January 1918 in Alexandria, Egypt. He joined the ultranationalist Young Egypt Society while in school and in 1935 he began student demonstrations against the United Kingdom's rule of Anglo-Egypt Sudan. He served in the Egyptian Army during World War II and was stationed in Khartoum, Sudan during the conflict. In 1948 he served in the Egyptian 6th Infantry Battalion during the Israeli War of Independence, gaining his first combat experience. While defending the Faluja Pocket under bombardment from Israel during the war, he was considered a war hero for bravery. In the aftermath of the war he became an instructor at a military academy and took part in the 1952 revolution that overthrew King Farouk I of Egypt and Lieutenant-Colonel Nasser became the new dictator of Egypt.
Nasser meeting Anthony Eden in 1956
Nasser was a believer in pan-Arabism and Socialism, so he aligned with the Soviet Union and was firm in his beliefs that Egypt could become the world leader of Islam. In 1956 he made moves to nationalize the Suez Canal in order to drive imperialist France and the United Kingdom out of Egypt forever, but Britain, France, and Israel collaborated to invade the Suez so that France and the British could regain their investments and Israel could regain their port of Eilat. Nasser's military lost the war, but in the end, international pressure forced the Europeans to withdraw, never to return. Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and forced the Suez Canal open again, but Nasser was able to claim a heroic status for his resistance to "Roman" invaders.
Nasser united Egypt and Syria in 1958 in the United Arab Republic, forming "Arabia", but this broke down in 1960 due to Nasser's domination over the alliance. Nasser built up Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula in the 1960s while Syria and Israel fiercely clashed along their borders, and in 1967 he forced UN peacekeepers to leave the Sinai with the claim that Israel would invade. Israel struck first to destroy the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian forces massed on its borders, and they destroyed the Arab air forces on the first day. Nasser's invasion attempts failed and Israel gained more lands in the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Despite the failure of Nasser to win the war, Egypt was still a strong country.
He died of a heart attack in 1970, and Anwar Sadat succeeded him as President as his hand-picked successor - there would not be a democratically-elected president until 2013.