Moment of Victory

"Oh, compatriots, this is the moment of a lifetime," cried Gamal Abdel Nasser. After more than 2,000 years, Egypt was free of foreign occupiers for the first time since the Persians marched in in 525 B.C. Emotionally, Soldier Nasser kissed the green Egyptian flag, raised it with his own hands atop Port Said's Navy House, last headquarters of the once-mighty British naval base in Suez. The British, naturally reluctant to officiate at their own funeral, had quietly withdrawn their last troops before the evacuation deadline, but Gamal Abdel Nasser was undeterred in his triumph. Cried he: "This generation of Egyptian people has an appointment with destiny, privileged to see with its own eyes the remnants of the foreign invaders sneak out, back to where they came from." A 21-gun salute boomed from one of the two heavy destroyers just acquired from Soviet Russia.

For three days of national holiday, Egypt celebrated. Special coins had been struck showing a girl, in the garb of ancient Egypt, breaking her chains. Huge banners proclaimed "Evacuation is the Beginning of Reconstruction." Streets were bright with arches, flowers, strings of light and a huge plywood figure of a fedayeen commando loomed high over the sidewalks. Loudspeakers blared patriotic music to the" milling crowds in the Cairo streets, and at night fireworks arched high over the dark Nile.

Oh, Brethren. Every where Nasser went, crowds swarmed upon his car, struggled past policemen's clubs to embrace and kiss him; once he almost disappeared under clutching arms. Before a huge crowd in Cairo's Republic Square, Nasser stretched arms skyward in the glare of powerful spotlights as the cheers beat up at him from the throng, and declaimed: "Victory has come from God. Egypt today is no longer for the occupiers, the usurpers, or the oppressors. Today, oh brethren, Egypt exists for its children."

In its four years in power, the military junta of 38-year-old Lieut. Colonel Nasser could boast of considerable progress. It had overthrown a corrupt monarch, broken a sordid feudal aristocracy's long-held power over Egypt's politics, disowned the murderous fanaticism of the Moslem Brotherhood and driven British troops from Egyptian soil after 74 years of occupation. It had imposed some stability. It had done less well in grappling with the ancient miseries of one of the world's poorest countries. By making his deal for Communist arms, Nasser had ended Egypt's dependence on the West and established himself as a hero in the Arab world. But it was a triumph that had a price: it put his dealings with the U.S. on a basis that. was sometimes not far from blackmail, and as a result removed some of his idealist sheen in U.S. eyes.

Speaking for two hours to the crowds last week, standing erect and soldierly, Nasser boasted of Egypt's opportunistic neutrality. "Our policy is frank. We shall cooperate with anybody or any country ready to cooperate with us to build our country economically and in all fields. We shall not tolerate being a zone of influence for anyone." He flexed his new muscles: "We must become strong so that all Arabism's lands from Morocco to Baghdad will be for the Arabs and not for the occupiers or the exploiters, so that we can retrieve for the people of Palestine their right to freedom."

He announced that he was ending martial law, lifting press censorship, freeing 2,000 political prisoners. He spoke movingly of his own candidacy for President: "You will be asked your opinion of Gamal Abdel Nasser. I want to tell you something. Gamal Abdel Nasser will never deceive or mislead you. I shall work more for the interest of the weak than for the strong."

Changed Appearance. Next day in Cairo's Republic Square, Nasser's new military might thundered and rumbled past the admiring eyes of dignitaries from other Arab countries. It was a far cry, at least in appearance, from the ill-equipped army the Israelis had routed only eight years before. There were 100 Russian armored troop carriers, 32 Czech antitank guns, 48 Czech antiaircraft guns, 14 Czech heavy caliber guns, 73 Russian medium tanks, French light tanks and howitzers, British 25-pounders and Centurion tanks. Bringing up the rear were 28 monstrous Stalin tanks with huge guns poking out of long, beetle-like turrets. Overhead, Russian MIGs screamed past flights of overage British Vampires and Meteors. Every Arab state but Iraq had sent contingents to swell the show, and Cairo's Al Ahram proudly called it a display of "the glory of Arabism represented by the strength of the united Arab nation, whose united army will protect the Arab nation against imperialism and Zionism."

At week's end Egypt's new voters made Nasser's week complete by electing him Egypt's President--a not unforeseen development, since he was the only candidate. They also approved a new constitution, which provides for a National Assembly with full powers to legislate. But President Nasser had not let fall any important reins of power. No candidate can run for the Assembly except those picked and personally approved by Nasser's own National Union Party.

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