Friends & Enemies

The Imam of Yemen is a scraggly-bearded old man with a taste for women, at least five known diseases including syphilis, and an incredible durability. At 70, he has survived innumerable attempts on his life by his Yemeni tribal enemies, makes it a rule to behead any would-be assassin he can catch. When his own brother tried to overthrow him in 1955, the Imam did not let family feelings interfere with justice, ordered his execution.

Internationally, the Imam has proved nearly as dexterous, proclaiming a "great balance" program of "grateful acceptance of aid without strings from both East and West." He has watched delightedly while Russia, Red China and the U.S. fought to be the first to lead Yemen out of the Arabian night. Last week Russia's Merchant Marine Minister Viktor Bakaev ar rived in Yemen to put Moscow temporarily in the lead. His task: to hand over a $15 million Red Sea port built by Russia.

The port, which is already in operation, will end Yemen's dependence on its hated British-owned neighbor, Aden. It was dredged out of a sandspit near the fly-infested city of Hodeida by 300 Russian technicians, plus uncounted Yemeni laborers. Not to be outdone, the Chinese Communists are building a modern highway from Hodeida to the ancient walled city of Sana (altitude: 7,260 ft.), Yemen's oldest capital. Every day, some 2.000 Red Chinese toil shoulder to shoulder with 3,000 of their Yemeni brothers, all the while singing the great ballads of the Chinese proletariat, e.g., "We Will Not Allow United States Imperialists to Ride Roughshod over the People"--to the considerable amazement of the fierce little Moslems.

An American team is building a road from the ancient coffee port of Mocha to

Sana. And the Americans--like the Chinese and the Russians--are itching to do more. A squad of U.S. Army and Air Force dentists has been keeping watch over the Imam's dental plates (which are held in place by U.S.-made magnets), and a U.S. aid mission, unable to interest the Imam in a proposed $5,000,000 overall development program, is now offering to build a water supply system for Taiz.

Only slightly less active than the Imam's friends have been the Imam's ene mies. Three weeks ago, a trusted bodyguard shot the old man down as he was visiting cronies in the Hodeida Hospital. Eight Italian surgeons were rushed from Rome, and the Imam's probable heir, ambitious Crown Prince Seif el Islam el Badr, 35, summoned all governors and deputy governors to confer with him in Hodeida. Since such meetings usually precede the election of a new Imam, many Yemenis were convinced that the Defend er of the Faith was dying. The prudent people of Yemen will believe it when it is official.

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