Gamal Abdel Nasser takes the initiative to…

Gamal Abdel Nasser takes the initiative to prevent a rightist reversal in Syria and reassert his leadership of the Arab cause.

The Egyptian president has been the fulcrum of Arab politics throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.

Nasser's success, however, is short-lived; his union with Syria had fallen apart in less than four years, the revolutionary government in Iraq has proven to be a competitor for power, and the presence of fifty thousand Egyptian troops in Yemen has failed to overcome the forces supporting the Yemeni imam, who is backed in turn by Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, his refusal to recognize Israel and Egypt's defeat by Israel in 1956 has forced him to divert vast sums into military channels that might have gone to implement his social revolution.

By the spring of 1967, Nasser's waning prestige, escalating Syrian-Israeli tensions, and the emergence of Eshkol as prime minister have set the stage for a third Arab-Israeli war.