Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian officer and politician who led the Free Officers organization and the Egyptian revolution of 23 July 1952 against the monarchy, and ruled Egypt until 1970: as head of the Revolutionary Command Council, then prime minister, then president, formally elected in 1956. He nationalized the Suez Canal, united Egypt with Syria, led his country through two wars with Israel, and remains a central symbol of Arab nationalism. ^{1 2}

Nasser was born on 15 January 1918 in the Bacos district of Alexandria, to a postal worker from the village of Beni Morr in Upper Egypt. He was raised in a simple Egyptian peasant environment, took his primary education in Assiut and his secondary certificate in the Ain Shams district of Cairo. After secondary school he spent less than six months at the law faculty of King Fouad I University, then left it for the Egyptian Royal Military Academy. ¹

Nasser served as an army officer and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. With fellow officers he founded the clandestine Free Officers organization inside the army and led the July 1952 coup that unseated the monarchy, forced King Farouk to abdicate and leave Egypt, and put the Revolutionary Command Council in power under Nasser's leadership. He replaced Major General Muhammad Naguib as head of the Council and appointed himself prime minister on 25 February 1954. ¹

On 23 June 1956 Nasser was elected president of Egypt in a plebiscite, alongside approval of a new constitution. ¹

On 26 July 1956 Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company. Britain and France, acting with Israel under the secret Protocol of Sèvres, resolved on war: Israel invaded Sinai, Britain and France issued an ultimatum, bombed Egyptian airfields and landed forces at Port Said. Nasser nonetheless counted the outcome a political victory for Egypt: the United States and the Soviet Union forced a ceasefire, the British and French forces were evacuated, and Israel withdrew from Sinai by March 1957. ¹

In 1958 Nasser united Egypt and Syria in the United Arab Republic; the union lasted until Syria seceded in 1961 after a military coup in Damascus. In the early 1960s he applied "socialist measures", nationalizing banks, corporations and large factories and distributing agricultural land, and introduced fertilizers and irrigation to multiply the yield of the soil. In 1962 he sent Egyptian troops to support the republicans in the North Yemen civil war. ¹

In May 1967 Nasser demanded the withdrawal of the UN Emergency Force from Sinai, reoccupied Sharm el-Sheikh and closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. On 5 June Israel launched a devastating air offensive, destroyed most of Egypt's air force, and occupied Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights in six days. Nasser blamed an alleged American conspiracy, accepted full responsibility and resigned on 9 June; enormous demonstrations in Cairo demanded his return, and on 10 June he announced he would stay, referring the senior military commanders to military tribunals. ¹

He continued the War of Attrition to force an Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, and appointed himself prime minister and commander-in-chief on 19 June 1968. ¹

This museum does not adopt historians' verdicts on Nasser; it attributes positions to their holders. His contemporaries and supporters praised his achievements in building the Aswan High Dam and developing Egypt's industry and agriculture. His opponents accused him of entrenching authoritarian rule that began with him: the article records that he established a police and surveillance state, repressed opposition and dissent, and committed harsh repressions against Egyptians who opposed his rule. ¹

In late September 1970 Nasser hosted an Arab League summit to settle the clashes between the PLO and King Hussein of Jordan; he suffered a heart attack at 6:15 p.m. and died shortly afterwards, on 28 September 1970. His funeral drew an estimated five to six million mourners, and he was buried at the Nasr Mosque in Cairo, later renamed the Abdel Nasser Mosque. ¹

Nasser remains a central figure in conceptions of pan-Arab nationalism. He cemented the image of the "hero president", and his charismatic leadership and national independence achievements influenced succeeding Arab regimes even as they dropped considerable parts of his project. ¹

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