Collapse

Barrett: The Collapse of Iraq and Syria
were able to conquer invaders whenever they joined and stood together in one
army – as in Saladin’s day.” The crowd responded by proclaiming Nasser, the
new Saladin. Stage-managed or not, the crowd clearly reflected the mood in the
much of the Arab world.
57. “Egypt, Syria: Shotgun Wedding,” Newsweek (February 10, 1958), 52.
58. Copeland, Game of Nations, 224. Copeland points out that Nasser believed U.S.
assertions about Soviet designs on Syria, but he found American protestations of
their innocence with regard to plotting against Damascus somewhat disingenuous.
The author also stated that, in the case of Syria, the circumstances drove
Nasser to “break one of his cardinal rules: take authority wherever you can get
it, but avoid responsibility like the plague.”
59. Itamar Rabinovich, Syria under the Ba’th 1963-66: Party Army Symbiosis (Jerusalem:
Israel University Press, 1972), 25.
60. Hopwood, Syria 1945-1986, 45-48.
61. Joshua Teitelbaum, “The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, 1945-1958: Founding,
Social Origins, Ideology,” The Middle East Journal (Volume 65, No. 2, Spring
2011), 232-233. The author argues there is a direct connection from the resurgence
of the Ikhwan to the Aleppo artillery school massacre in 1979 to Hama
in 1982. That line also extended to the rise of Sunni fundamentalism and the
current insurrection.
62. “Letter from Bunker to Bartlett with attached Memorandum of Conversation,
Bunker with Prime Minister Nehru, Delhi, 19 July 1958,” NACPM, GRDOS –
59, SA 1947-1959, Entry 1330 Miscellaneous Files, Lot file No. 62, D 43 (1 of 3),
Subject Files SA 1957-1959, 790.00/7-1958, cover letter, 1-6. In a conversation
between Indian Prime Minister Jaraharlal Nehru referred to Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri Sa’id as “a strange 19th century feudal character … [who] had little concept
of the changes, economic or social, which had come over the world in the last
generation.” Many leftist politicians in the region shared that view primarily
because al-Sa’id’s success in manipulating Iraqi politics was frustrating to them.
63. Charles Tripp, A History of Iraq (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002),
118-127.
64. Phebe Marr, The Modern History of Iraq (Boulder: Westview Press, 2004), 62-70.
65. Tripp, A History of Iraq, 131.
66. Marr. Modern History of Iraq, 73.
67. “Dispatch from Baghdad to WDC, March 18, 1958,” NACPM, GRDOS – 59, CDF
55-59, NEA, 787.00/3-1858 (Box 3797), 1.
68. “Telegram from British Embassy Baghdad (Wright) to FO (Lloyd), February 11,
1958,” PRO, FO371/134222.
69. “Minute by Rose, FO, on Wright’s telegram and analysis, 21 March 1958,” PRO,
FO371/134222. See also: “Minute (author unknown) on Wright’s telegram,
February 27, 1958,” PRO, FO371/134222, that gives a more detailed analysis of
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