A Report on a Previously Read Book Entitled:
Nasser; The Last Arab
Written by Said K. Aburish
I chose a book titled "Nasser; The Last Arab" written by Said K. Aburish. This
book is a bibliography written about a former Egyptian president named Gamal Abdel
Nasser. Many refer to Nasser as the most powerful and brilliant political leader who
achieved unprecedented popularity in both Egypt and the Arab world. He was said to be
the most influential leader of the Arab world. Nasser was born in Alexandria on January
15th, 1918 as the son of a postman. After his secondary schooling in Cairo, Egypt, he
joined the Royal Military Academy. Later he would graduate the academy in 1938.
Throughout his time in the Royal Military Academy Nasser started a secret revolutionary
society called "The Free Officers." At this point in time Egypt was ruled by a small
landowning class that owned 30% of the land and totally consumed the parliament. At
that time the British presence was omnipresent and the King Faruk I was described as an
irresponsible philanderer. As the leader of the Free Officers, Nasser focused on getting
rid of British rule, as well as the King of Egypt. Soon after on July 23, 1952 the Free
Officers staged a maneuver to overthrow King Faruk. Nasser at this point remained in the
background, and was not very forthcoming with his involvement with the Free Officers.
Said K. Aburish does a wonderful job of describing many important points in Nasser's
life, that in turn made him the leader he is thought of today.
Aburish considered Nasser as the "towering Arab leader of the twentieth century."
He describes him as a pro-West Egyptian colonel since 1952, whom had a vast
knowledge of the CIA and who would later would be involved in the clash between the
West and theArabs. He believes that what separated other leaders and Nasser, was the
fact that other leaders were dependent upon Western support, and in turn disregarded
their very own people.
One of the most memorable happenings in Nasser's time was the building
of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River in Egypt. Nasser managed to build this important
feature in spite of his extreme opposition to Israel, and outspoken aspersion to the
Western civilization, which would have earned him the U.S. and European support for
the dam. Because of his actions towards the West, Nasser was forced to turn to the
Prados, John. Safe for Democracy The Secret Wars of the CIA. Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee, Publisher, 2006.
At the beginning of the Suez Canal crisis many individuals felt hostility towards each other and the main concern was the ownership of the Suez Canal and to who exactly would gain the authority to run it on their own accord. In 1954 Gamal Abdul Nasser came to power in Egypt, he was once formally known as an Egyptian army officer, before becoming a politician. After the attack of the Israelis in Gaza, Egypt to protect Israel from hostility the Egyptians had been putting forward against them; many Egyptians felt hatred for the Egyptian king, this led to a democratic system being built and that was how Nasser came to power in a democratic society in which he was able to play on the hearts of Arab Nationalism. When the cold war began to surface Britain asked Egypt to join an anti-soviet alliance with them in times of need, for Egyptian Suez Canal was in the authority of Britain making Egypt an ally of the United Kingdom. Nasser refused saying t...
“President Bush has stated that about a hundred detainees were held under the Central Intelligence Agency secret detention program, about a third of whom were questioned using “enhanced interrogation techniques. The CIA has a way of very publicly blowing their cover seeming to pop up wherever turmoil, and political problems arise. The CIA exists to prevent threats, its operations involve covert actions or spying through various means to gather critical intelligence data. The CIA dates back to 1947. The qualifications and skills are above average. The job of the CIA is to anticipate and quickly assess rapidly evolving international developments and their impact, both positive and negative, on US policy concerns. When researching the career of
While Egypt was able to orientate itself towards full alignment with America, a series of miscalculations and blunders, including ending relations with the Soviet Union and Arab world, and underestimating America’s commitment to Israel, resulted in Egypt never realizing the gains from Camp David that Sadat had hoped for. His assassination later on was the product of public discontent with what were increasingly viewed as poor terms on which peace was reached, and military discontent with how Sadat co-opted the October War for political purposes. So the Camp David treaties failed in achieving the goals that Egypt had publicly set out, and failed at achieving the goals that Sadat personally held.
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any nation in the world. Written history of Egypt dates back to about 5,000 years, the commencement of civilization. While there is divergence in relation to Early Egyptian times, it is said that Egypt came to be around 3200 B.C., during the reign of a king by the name of Menes and unified the northern and southern cities of Egypt into one government. In 1675 B.C., Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, people from the east, bringing along the very first of chariots and horses ever to come across Egyptian soil. Approximately 175 years later in 1500 B.C., the Egyptians had gotten rid of the Hyksos and driven them out. In 1375 B.C., Amenhotep IV had become the king of Egypt. During his reign he eliminated the worship of Egyptian gods and initiated the idea of only worshipping one god. But after his death, his ideas were retired and old ways were reestablished. Egyptian supremacy then started to decline around 1000 B.C. Between 1000 B.C. and 332 B.C., Egypt was ruled by many such as the Libyans, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and Persians. In 640, Muslims conquered Egypt and founded the city of Cairo in 969 and deemed it as the capital of Egypt. For many centuries Egypt was ruled by Muslim caliphs. A prominent ruler of this period was Saladin, who battled the Christian Crusaders at the conclusion of the twelfth century. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt but was then forced to withdraw in 1801 Turkish and British armed forces. In 1805 Mohamed Ali began ruling Egypt till 1848 and great changed the country in terms of modernization and its military. During Mohamed’s conquest, he borrowed a lot of money from the French and British, which later resulted in Egypt’s coloniza...
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Print.
The Egyptian civilization relied on the Nile in many ways. The Nile had annual floods which made the land better for growing food; the Egyptians predicted these floods and used it to create bigger harvest and a surplus of food.
A few years later in 1979 the Islamic revolution began, causing the Shah to flee (introduction pages one and two).
Nedzi (D-Mich.), Luclen N. “Oversight or Overlook: Congress and the US Intelligence Agency.” A Congressman talk to the CIA senior seminar, November 14, 1979, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol18no2/pdf/v18i2a02p.pdf (accessed January 7, 2014).
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
The Egyptian society consisted of three kingdoms (Old, Middle, and New) and about thirty-four different dynasties. The Egyptians were ruled by kings or pharaohs. The earlier rulers were called “Horus-kings”. I think that they called themselves “Horus-kings” because they thought the pharaoh was associated with Horus. That’s probably true in the Egyptians mind because they did believe that the pharaoh was basically a god. There were many rulers over the time due to disease, illness, etc. The Egyptians had only the pharaoh to tell them what to do and to deal with the people’s problems, although it more the vizier who dealt with the people. Unlike the Egyptians the Ottomans didn’t have as many kings or dynasties. Ottoman had about thirty-six kings over the course of the empire. They had quite fewer because they had better times to live in there possibly was less disease and better living. The sultans ruled for about twenty years. Few sultans ruled twice. The reason some rules twice was because they step down and let their successor rule and went back into power again after their successor. Between both civilizations the rulers ruled until their death, some of them did step down for another ruler to take rule. I think that some of them did actually ruled to their death but not much information was given for the Egyptians because of the amount of kings or rulers that the Egyptians had.
Lewis, Bernard. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. New York: Scribner,
Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo. The year Jackie was born was 1919 to a family of farmers. His Mother name is Mallie Robinson. She raised Jackie and four other of her children. They were the only black family around and people gave them a hard time about living around them since they were the only black family on the block. Jackie was the very first black baseball player ever to join the white man’s league.
The American Revolution saw the rise of the American spy, and the father of these spies was George Washington, commander in Chief of the Continental Army. The siege of New York demonstrated the importance and dire need for intelligence to General Washington. Unfortunately, the difficulty, at least initially, lies with finding people willing and able to serve in this manner. Upon recognizing the necessity for a network of subterfuge, Washington created the Culper spy ring. Housed in New York City under the command of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, its purpose was more than merely gaining intelligence.
The structure of Egyptian politics and state administration was also redefined during Ali’s rule. As the go...