WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.819 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.819 --> 00:00:05.759 not just looking at biography. We're looking 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:08.820 at a seismic shift. We're tackling a figure who 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.800 quite literally redrew the map of the Middle 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:15.439 East and redefined what it meant to be Arab in 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:18.140 the 20th century. Absolutely. Gamal Abdel Nasser. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.519 Gamal Abdel Nasser. And to really give you a 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:22.399 sense of the scale we're dealing with here, I 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:24.800 mean, the sheer magnitude of this man's presence, 00:00:24.980 --> 00:00:27.510 we have to start at the end. You have to. The 00:00:27.510 --> 00:00:30.750 funeral. The funeral, September 1970. We're looking 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:32.630 at the source material here, and the numbers 00:00:32.630 --> 00:00:36.549 are just, they're hard to even comprehend. Five 00:00:36.549 --> 00:00:39.009 to six million people in the streets of Cairo? 00:00:39.149 --> 00:00:41.070 It's staggering. Just try to visualize that. 00:00:41.229 --> 00:00:44.929 Five million people. That is a human tide. It's 00:00:44.929 --> 00:00:47.229 a whole country. It's bigger than many entire 00:00:47.229 --> 00:00:49.189 nations at the time. It wasn't just a ceremony. 00:00:49.189 --> 00:00:51.350 It was an event that, you know, effectively shut 00:00:51.350 --> 00:00:54.939 down the entire Arab world. The footage is unbelievable. 00:00:55.060 --> 00:00:58.579 You see heads of state, grown men just weeping 00:00:58.579 --> 00:01:00.880 openly in the streets. There's this moment of 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.460 collective grief that you so rarely see in history. 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:07.319 And that really brings us to the mission of today's 00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:11.120 deep dive. We have a huge stack of sources here, 00:01:11.180 --> 00:01:13.879 biographies, political analyses, historical records. 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:16.939 And our goal is to unpack the central paradox 00:01:16.939 --> 00:01:19.879 of this man. Yeah. Because on paper, it really 00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:22.120 doesn't make sense. It really doesn't. That is 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:24.439 the puzzle we have to solve today. How do you 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:28.760 reconcile the lion of the Arabs, this hero who 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:31.900 restored dignity to a region colonized for decades, 00:01:32.180 --> 00:01:35.319 with the autocrat who built a terrifying police 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:38.510 state? Right. And how do you balance the transformative 00:01:38.510 --> 00:01:40.790 social reforms he pushed through with the fact 00:01:40.790 --> 00:01:42.489 that he led his country into some of the most 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:44.909 crushing military defeats in modern history? 00:01:45.150 --> 00:01:47.530 It's the ultimate contradiction. He's the postman's 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:49.909 son who became a colossus. He's the dictator 00:01:49.909 --> 00:01:52.769 who is genuinely, truly loved by the masses. 00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:54.450 But we're going to get into all of it. The secret 00:01:54.450 --> 00:01:57.030 societies, the assassination attempts where he 00:01:57.030 --> 00:01:59.280 doesn't even flinch. The high stakes Cold War 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:02.439 poker and, of course, the tragedy of 1967. Yeah. 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:04.260 But let's rewind the tape. Let's go all the way 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:06.319 back to the beginning. Before the myth. Exactly. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:09.580 Who was Gamal Abdel Nasser before the posters 00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:12.000 and the statues? To understand Nasser the president, 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:14.280 you have to understand Nasser the boy. He was 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:18.319 born in January 1918 in Alexandria. And the most 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:22.080 critical piece of context here is his class background. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:24.930 His father was a postal worker? Right. Abdel 00:02:24.930 --> 00:02:27.349 Nasser Hussein, a postal worker. Which, you know, 00:02:27.370 --> 00:02:29.110 in the grand scheme of things, sounds like a 00:02:29.110 --> 00:02:32.090 solid, regular job. It was, but you have to see 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:34.590 it through the lens of Egypt in the early 20th 00:02:34.590 --> 00:02:37.770 century. This was a deeply, deeply stratified 00:02:37.770 --> 00:02:41.289 society. At the very top, you had the king and 00:02:41.289 --> 00:02:45.530 the pasha class, the wealthy land -owning aristocracy 00:02:45.530 --> 00:02:47.909 who were very cozy with the British occupiers. 00:02:47.949 --> 00:02:50.729 Okay. And at the very bottom, you had the fellheen, 00:02:50.810 --> 00:02:53.669 the peasantry, living in just crushing poverty. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:55.639 Nasser was in the middle. The effendi class. 00:02:55.819 --> 00:02:58.020 The effendi class. So he wasn't destitute, but 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:00.439 he was certainly not part of the elite. He was, 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:02.599 in every sense, a man of the people. And the 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:05.560 sources, they paint a picture of a pretty lonely, 00:03:05.699 --> 00:03:08.199 transient childhood. Extremely transient, yeah. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:10.860 Because of his father's job, the family was constantly 00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:13.360 on the move. They went from Alexandria to Osud, 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:15.900 then to Catawba, then to Cairo. Always the new 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:18.340 kid. Always the new kid. Always the outsider 00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:21.460 looking in, constantly having to adjust. But 00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:24.199 there is a specific tragedy in his early life 00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:29.020 that I think really shaped his psychology more 00:03:29.020 --> 00:03:30.699 than anything else. The death of his mother. 00:03:30.939 --> 00:03:34.039 Yes. Yeah. When he was still quite young, he 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:35.840 was sent away to school in Cairo to live with 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:38.680 an uncle. He was very close to his mother, Fahima. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.159 They wrote letters constantly. Constantly. And 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:43.099 then all of a sudden the letters just stopped. 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:45.300 That's a nightmare scenario for a kid. You're 00:03:45.300 --> 00:03:47.680 away from home and the one person you rely on 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:50.400 just goes silent. And the way he found out is 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:52.439 just heartbreaking. He didn't know the truth 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:54.919 until he went back home to Catawba for a school 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:58.340 break. So weeks later. Weeks later. He walks 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:00.680 into the house expecting to see her and finds 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.139 out she had died after giving birth to his third 00:04:03.139 --> 00:04:05.400 brother. The family had hidden the news from 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:08.159 him. Why? To protect his studies. That was the 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:10.840 reason they gave. Wow. That kind of betrayal, 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:13.659 even if it was well -intentioned, that has to 00:04:13.659 --> 00:04:16.439 leave a scar. A deep one. Nasser later wrote 00:04:16.439 --> 00:04:18.879 that losing her that way was a shock, that time 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:21.040 failed to remedy. It created a wound that just 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.180 never really healed. And his father remarried 00:04:23.180 --> 00:04:25.779 quickly, too. Before the year was out. So you 00:04:25.779 --> 00:04:27.600 can imagine, it probably built this hardened 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.339 shell of independence around him. He learned 00:04:30.339 --> 00:04:33.509 very early to keep his own counsel. To rely only 00:04:33.509 --> 00:04:35.709 on himself. But even in the middle of all that 00:04:35.709 --> 00:04:38.009 grief, there were signs of the political destiny 00:04:38.009 --> 00:04:42.029 in the family's DNA. I saw a note that his brother 00:04:42.029 --> 00:04:45.529 had a very specific name. Is al -Arab. Which 00:04:45.529 --> 00:04:48.790 translates to? Glory of the Arabs. So even in 00:04:48.790 --> 00:04:50.689 this postal worker's household, this nationalist 00:04:50.689 --> 00:04:53.470 sentiment, this idea that Arab identity was something 00:04:53.470 --> 00:04:57.589 to be proud of and fought for. It was already 00:04:57.589 --> 00:05:00.769 in the air. So you've got this grieving, independent, 00:05:01.269 --> 00:05:04.089 transient kid growing up in a country that's 00:05:04.089 --> 00:05:06.269 technically independent but is really being run 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:08.730 by the British. When does that revolutionary 00:05:08.730 --> 00:05:11.970 switch actually flip for him? When does he stop 00:05:11.970 --> 00:05:14.430 being just a student and start becoming an activist? 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.660 It happens remarkably early and it happens in 00:05:17.660 --> 00:05:19.939 the streets. There's this famous anecdote from 00:05:19.939 --> 00:05:22.220 the 1930s when he was a secondary student in 00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:24.500 Alexandria. He's walking through Manchuria Square 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:27.620 and he just stumbles upon a clash. Police with 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:30.860 batons swinging, protesters shouting, total chaos. 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:32.899 And most teenagers would probably run the other 00:05:32.899 --> 00:05:36.120 way. Exactly. But Nasser runs toward it. And 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:38.980 the fascinating thing is he didn't even know 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:41.459 what they were protesting about. Seriously. He 00:05:41.459 --> 00:05:43.980 just saw the conflict. the authority figures 00:05:43.980 --> 00:05:47.180 beating people, and he instinctively jumped in 00:05:47.180 --> 00:05:49.959 on the side of the protesters. He actually got 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:52.620 arrested and spent a night in detention. Shoot 00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:56.040 first, ask questions later. Precisely. It was 00:05:56.040 --> 00:05:58.199 only the next morning that he found out the protest 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:01.120 was organized by the Young Egypt Society, and 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:02.620 they were calling for the end of colonialism. 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:06.540 But that moment, it solidified his path. He was 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:08.829 a rebel looking for a cause. And he found it 00:06:08.829 --> 00:06:10.810 in nationalism. He wasn't just a street fighter, 00:06:10.889 --> 00:06:13.350 though. He was a reader. A massive reader. And 00:06:13.350 --> 00:06:15.029 you just have to look at his reading list. Napoleon, 00:06:15.350 --> 00:06:19.329 Otto von Bismarck, Garibaldi, Ataturk. All nation 00:06:19.329 --> 00:06:21.670 builders. He was studying men who built nations 00:06:21.670 --> 00:06:24.449 out of chaos. He was studying the playbook of 00:06:24.449 --> 00:06:28.670 the strongman. But there is one book, a novel, 00:06:28.709 --> 00:06:31.480 actually, that is... arguably more important 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:33.620 than all the history books combined. Return of 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:36.139 the Spirit by Tawfiq al -Hakim. That's the one. 00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:38.540 This book comes up so much in the research. It's 00:06:38.540 --> 00:06:40.399 almost like a script for his life, isn't it? 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:43.399 It is eerie. The novel describes the Egyptian 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:46.600 people as disjointed and chaotic, just waiting 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.100 for a savior to unite them. A man in whom all 00:06:49.100 --> 00:06:51.220 their feelings and desires will be represented. 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:54.199 Yes, a symbol. And Nasser didn't just read this, 00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:57.139 he internalized it. He later claimed this book 00:06:57.139 --> 00:07:00.779 inspired the 1952 revolution. He was, in effect, 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:03.079 reading the job description for the role he would 00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:05.620 eventually play. So he has the inspiration. Now 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:08.519 he needs the tools. And in Egypt in the 1930s, 00:07:08.519 --> 00:07:10.500 if you want to change things, you don't run for 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:13.000 office. No, you join the army. Right. The army 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.279 was the only real path for a young man from his 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:18.000 class to go into any kind of power. But the door 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.819 was initially slammed in his face. He applied 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:23.839 to the Royal Military Academy in 1937 and was 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:25.980 rejected. Remember that police record from the 00:07:25.980 --> 00:07:29.120 protest? It came back to haunt him. They didn't 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:32.160 want troublemakers. They wanted a loyalist to 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:35.019 the king. So how did he eventually get in? He 00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:37.620 needed WASTA influence. He enrolled in law school 00:07:37.620 --> 00:07:40.079 for a semester, hated it, and managed to get 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.639 a meeting with the undersecretary of war. He 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:45.459 charmed him and convinced him to sponsor a second 00:07:45.459 --> 00:07:48.199 application. And he got in. He got in. And this 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:50.759 is the pivot point of history, because the academy 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:53.519 is where he meets the cast of characters for 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:57.209 the next 30 years. He meets Anwar Sadat. He meets 00:07:57.209 --> 00:07:59.589 Abdelhakim Amer. And we are going to talk a lot 00:07:59.589 --> 00:08:01.750 more about Amer later. We are. That relationship 00:08:01.750 --> 00:08:04.649 is central to the whole tragedy. But at the academy, 00:08:04.889 --> 00:08:06.970 they're just young officers watching their country 00:08:06.970 --> 00:08:09.350 be humiliated. And the breaking point, the moment 00:08:09.350 --> 00:08:12.550 the anger becomes a plan, was in 1942. The Abdeen 00:08:12.550 --> 00:08:14.730 Palace incident. Set the scene for us. This is 00:08:14.730 --> 00:08:17.089 the middle of World War II. Right. The British 00:08:17.089 --> 00:08:19.449 are nervous about Rommel's forces in North Africa. 00:08:19.649 --> 00:08:22.269 They don't trust King Farouk. They think he's 00:08:22.269 --> 00:08:25.240 too cozy with the Axis powers. So. To ensure 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:27.980 a pro -British government, they decide to force 00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:31.480 the issue. They literally surround King Farouk's 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:34.179 palace with tanks. Wow. The British ambassador 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:37.879 marches in and gives the king an ultimatum. Appoint 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:40.379 the prime minister we want or abdicate. Gunboat 00:08:40.379 --> 00:08:42.419 diplomacy, but with tanks on the front lawn. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:45.340 Exactly. And the king, the supposed sovereign 00:08:45.340 --> 00:08:48.279 of Egypt, he folded. He did what he was told. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:51.179 And Nasser is watching this happen. He's an officer 00:08:51.179 --> 00:08:53.159 in the army at the time. Yeah. And he's watching. 00:08:53.639 --> 00:08:55.899 He wrote later that he felt ashamed that the 00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:58.539 army hadn't reacted. He wished for calamity to 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:00.860 overtake the British. So that solidifies it for 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:03.639 him. It solidifies a core belief. The monarchy 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:05.820 is weak. Sovereignty is a joke as long as the 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:07.919 British are pulling the strings. And the only 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:10.340 force capable of restoring dignity is the military. 00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:12.480 But before he could act on any of that, he had 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:15.779 to go to a real war. 1948, the Arab -Israeli 00:09:15.779 --> 00:09:17.590 War. This seems like the moment he goes from 00:09:17.590 --> 00:09:20.409 being a revolutionary in the canteen to a battle 00:09:20.409 --> 00:09:22.570 -hardened soldier. It was his baptism by fire. 00:09:22.669 --> 00:09:24.950 He was sent to Palestine, and he fought in what 00:09:24.950 --> 00:09:27.230 became known as the Fallujah Pocket. His unit 00:09:27.230 --> 00:09:29.570 was surrounded. Completely surrounded by Israeli 00:09:29.570 --> 00:09:32.669 forces, cut off from supply lines under heavy 00:09:32.669 --> 00:09:36.090 bombardment. But they refused to surrender. Nasser 00:09:36.090 --> 00:09:38.850 was actually wounded. A bullet grazed his chest. 00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:41.809 He became the hero of Fallujah for holding out. 00:09:42.409 --> 00:09:44.529 And there's a really interesting human moment 00:09:44.529 --> 00:09:47.529 in the sources. about a meeting during that siege. 00:09:47.769 --> 00:09:50.870 It involves a rabbi. This is one of those anecdotes 00:09:50.870 --> 00:09:53.429 that adds so much depth to the story. During 00:09:53.429 --> 00:09:55.470 a lull in the fighting, the Israelis requested 00:09:55.470 --> 00:09:58.470 a truce to identify bodies. Okay. And Nasser 00:09:58.470 --> 00:10:01.629 agreed to escort an Israeli rabbi, Shlomo Gorin, 00:10:01.730 --> 00:10:04.409 to the battlefield. And Nasser actually ordered 00:10:04.409 --> 00:10:06.789 his troops to stand at attention and salute the 00:10:06.789 --> 00:10:09.340 enemy dead. A moment of respect. A moment of 00:10:09.340 --> 00:10:12.080 soldier -to -soldier respect. He saw the prayerful 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:14.000 actuaries on the bodies, spoke with the rabbi, 00:10:14.059 --> 00:10:16.460 and expressed respect for their courage. It's 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:18.539 a moment of chivalry that stands in stark contrast 00:10:18.539 --> 00:10:20.500 to the bitterness that would define the relationship 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:23.600 later. But coming home from that war, he wasn't 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:26.039 greeted as a victor by the state, was he? No, 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:28.320 the public loved the soldiers. The famous singer 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:30.580 Om Kulthum even hosted a celebration for them. 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.700 But the government was suspicious, and the soldiers 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:36.370 were furious. Why furious? This is a crucial 00:10:36.370 --> 00:10:38.669 detail. Yeah. Nasser and his men felt betrayed. 00:10:39.090 --> 00:10:41.230 They believed they had been sent into battle 00:10:41.230 --> 00:10:43.850 with defective weapons. What does that mean? 00:10:44.190 --> 00:10:47.230 Ammunition that misfired, grenades that didn't 00:10:47.230 --> 00:10:50.440 go off. They blamed the king's corruption. claiming 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:52.700 the palace had bought cheap, faulty weapons to 00:10:52.700 --> 00:10:55.139 pocket the difference. That is the ultimate betrayal, 00:10:55.460 --> 00:10:57.919 sending your own soldiers to die so you can make 00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:00.440 a profit. And whether the defective weapons scandal 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:03.320 was entirely true or, you know, maybe exaggerated, 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:06.480 it became the truth for the officers. And Nasser 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:09.080 realized the real enemy wasn't across the border. 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:11.860 The real enemy was in Cairo. So the timeline 00:11:11.860 --> 00:11:14.179 accelerates. He gets back to Cairo and starts 00:11:14.179 --> 00:11:17.309 organizing what becomes the Free Officers. And 00:11:17.309 --> 00:11:19.370 this is a pretty diverse group. It's a big Ken 00:11:19.370 --> 00:11:21.730 conspiracy. I mean, you had communists, members 00:11:21.730 --> 00:11:24.730 of the Muslim Brotherhood, aristocrats, paupers. 00:11:24.809 --> 00:11:27.230 A real mix. The only thing uniting them was their 00:11:27.230 --> 00:11:29.830 hatred of the British occupation and their hatred 00:11:29.830 --> 00:11:33.110 of the monarchy. Nasser was the mastermind, the 00:11:33.110 --> 00:11:37.090 organizer. He was. But he was smart. He knew 00:11:37.090 --> 00:11:39.490 a lieutenant colonel was too low -ranking to 00:11:39.490 --> 00:11:41.850 command public respect as a head of state. He 00:11:41.850 --> 00:11:44.590 needed a frontman. Enter General Mohammed Nagoub. 00:11:44.730 --> 00:11:47.980 Right. Naguib was an older, highly respected 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:50.759 general, a war hero with the scars to prove it. 00:11:51.240 --> 00:11:53.960 The Free Officers recruited him to be the face 00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:57.220 of the coup. They essentially hired a boss. That's 00:11:57.220 --> 00:12:00.799 a good way to put it. And on July 23, 1952, they 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:03.639 made their move. The revolution. Or the coup, 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:05.659 depending on who you ask. It was surprisingly 00:12:05.659 --> 00:12:08.120 smooth. They seized the army headquarters, the 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:10.700 radio stations, the telegraph offices. Within 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:14.289 hours, they controlled Cairo. It was almost bloodless. 00:12:14.450 --> 00:12:16.750 They called it the White Revolution. They did. 00:12:16.950 --> 00:12:19.370 And what about the king, King Farouk? This is 00:12:19.370 --> 00:12:21.250 the guy they've hated for years. This was the 00:12:21.250 --> 00:12:23.870 first big test of the new leadership. Some of 00:12:23.870 --> 00:12:25.889 the officers wanted to execute him, you know, 00:12:25.909 --> 00:12:28.450 French Revolution style. But Nasser stepped in. 00:12:28.529 --> 00:12:31.129 Nasser was the voice of reason here. He argued 00:12:31.129 --> 00:12:33.409 that killing the king would just create a martyr 00:12:33.409 --> 00:12:36.149 and invite foreign intervention. He pushed to 00:12:36.149 --> 00:12:38.730 exile him instead. So King Farouk boards the 00:12:38.730 --> 00:12:42.059 royal yacht. The Maroussa. Ironically, the same 00:12:42.059 --> 00:12:44.379 yacht his grandfather had used to open the Suez 00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:47.340 Canal. And he just sailed away into the Mediterranean. 00:12:47.659 --> 00:12:52.320 That is poetic. So 1953, the monarchy is officially 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.799 abolished. Egypt is a republic. But now you have 00:12:55.799 --> 00:12:58.799 a classic problem. You have the guy on the posters, 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:01.139 General Naguib, and you have the guy pulling 00:13:01.139 --> 00:13:04.480 the strings, Nasser. That power dynamic is a 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.320 ticking time bomb. And it exploded almost immediately. 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:10.179 Naguib was a true believer in democracy. He wanted 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.779 the army to stabilize things and then go back 00:13:12.779 --> 00:13:15.320 to the barracks. He wanted elections, a free 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.299 press. A return to civilian rule. Yeah. And Nasser 00:13:18.299 --> 00:13:19.879 in his inner circle looked at that and said, 00:13:19.980 --> 00:13:23.259 absolutely not. Why? Were they just hungry for 00:13:23.259 --> 00:13:26.779 power? Partly, perhaps. But they also genuinely 00:13:26.779 --> 00:13:28.860 believed that if they opened up the system too 00:13:28.860 --> 00:13:32.000 soon, the old order, the corrupt feudal lords, 00:13:32.059 --> 00:13:34.440 the politicians who served the British, would 00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:36.740 just buy their way back into power. So they needed 00:13:36.740 --> 00:13:39.299 a transitional dictatorship to cleanse the system? 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:41.200 That was Nasser's view, yes. So how did Nasser 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:43.679 win this? Naguib was the popular one. This is 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:45.679 where Nasser proves he's a Machiavellian genius. 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:50.779 In 1954, Naguib tried to force the issue by resigning. 00:13:51.149 --> 00:13:52.830 He thought the people would beg him to stay. 00:13:52.990 --> 00:13:55.370 And Nasser called his bluff. He accepted the 00:13:55.370 --> 00:13:58.549 resignation. Then Nasser used his control of 00:13:58.549 --> 00:14:00.330 the trade unions and the impulse of the street. 00:14:00.529 --> 00:14:03.370 He organized strikes and chaotic protests that 00:14:03.370 --> 00:14:05.870 effectively said, without the military, there 00:14:05.870 --> 00:14:08.509 will be anarchy. He manufactured chaos to present 00:14:08.509 --> 00:14:11.570 himself as the only solution. Exactly. He outmaneuvered 00:14:11.570 --> 00:14:14.090 Naguib, he isolated him, and eventually he placed 00:14:14.090 --> 00:14:17.570 him under house arrest. By late 1954, Nasser 00:14:17.570 --> 00:14:19.950 was the undisputed leader. But just as he grabs 00:14:19.950 --> 00:14:22.450 the ring, just as he consolidates power, he almost 00:14:22.450 --> 00:14:26.070 loses his life. The Manchee Incident. October 00:14:26.070 --> 00:14:28.950 1954. This feels like a scene straight out of 00:14:28.950 --> 00:14:30.909 a movie script. It's the moment that transforms 00:14:30.909 --> 00:14:33.750 him. From a military dictator into a messiah 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:36.629 almost. Nasser is delivering a speech in Alexandria 00:14:36.629 --> 00:14:39.509 to celebrate the British Withdrawal Treaty. It's 00:14:39.509 --> 00:14:41.889 night. The lights are on him. Thousands are watching. 00:14:41.909 --> 00:14:44.370 A gunman appears. A gunman from the Muslim Brotherhood 00:14:44.370 --> 00:14:46.509 stands up in the crowd and fires eight shots 00:14:46.509 --> 00:14:49.929 at him from close range. Eight shots. And he's 00:14:49.929 --> 00:14:52.929 a stationary target at a podium. Glass shatters. 00:14:53.090 --> 00:14:55.610 Yeah. Panic erupts. People are screaming, trampling 00:14:55.610 --> 00:14:59.649 each other. But Nasser, he doesn't duck. He doesn't 00:14:59.649 --> 00:15:01.870 run. He stands there, gripping the microphone. 00:15:02.210 --> 00:15:05.090 And then he speaks. As the shots stop, he screams 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:08.049 into the mic -improvised raw emotion. I have 00:15:08.049 --> 00:15:10.629 the quote right here. It's chilling, he shouts. 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:25.820 And then the clincher. The crowd just erupts. 00:15:26.019 --> 00:15:28.500 From panic to hysteria, they start chanting his 00:15:28.500 --> 00:15:31.120 name. In that split second, surviving that attempt, 00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:33.389 he became untouchable. He showed he was willing 00:15:33.389 --> 00:15:35.669 to die for them. And he did not let a good crisis 00:15:35.669 --> 00:15:38.669 go to waste, did he? Not at all. He used the 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:41.409 assassination attempt as justification for a 00:15:41.409 --> 00:15:44.610 massive, ruthless crackdown. On the Muslim Brotherhood. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:47.559 Exactly. He accused them of the plot, which was 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:50.620 true, and arrested thousands. He set up the people's 00:15:50.620 --> 00:15:53.840 tribunals. He executed leaders. He imprisoned 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:57.100 their chief ideologue, Sayyid Qatbi. It was the 00:15:57.100 --> 00:15:59.620 consolidation of the Mukhabarat state. The intelligence 00:15:59.620 --> 00:16:02.360 state. Yeah. But it wasn't just force. He was 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:05.549 smart. He knew how to use soft power. The arts, 00:16:05.549 --> 00:16:07.889 you mentioned Kulthum earlier. Yes, the arts 00:16:07.889 --> 00:16:10.370 were a huge part of this. He had the biggest 00:16:10.370 --> 00:16:13.269 singers in the Arab world, Umm Kulthum, Abdel 00:16:13.269 --> 00:16:16.769 Halim Hafez, singing these epic songs that praised 00:16:16.769 --> 00:16:19.509 nationalism and the revolution. He controlled 00:16:19.509 --> 00:16:22.669 the press. He curated his image perfectly. So 00:16:22.669 --> 00:16:24.750 he secures the home front with an iron fist. 00:16:24.970 --> 00:16:27.909 Now he looks outward. And this leads us to 1956, 00:16:28.509 --> 00:16:31.730 the Suez Canal. This is the defining moment of 00:16:31.730 --> 00:16:33.629 his career. This is the high stakes poker game. 00:16:34.059 --> 00:16:36.379 The context, of course, is the Cold War. Nasser 00:16:36.379 --> 00:16:38.919 wants to modernize Egypt. His dream project is 00:16:38.919 --> 00:16:41.159 the Aswan High Dam. To control the Nile, generate 00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:44.080 electricity. Yes. And he needs it badly. The 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.620 U .S. and U .K. initially offer to fund it. But 00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:48.840 Nasser's playing both sides. He buys weapons 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:51.299 from the Soviet bloc because the West won't sell 00:16:51.299 --> 00:16:53.139 to him. And the U .S. doesn't like that. The 00:16:53.139 --> 00:16:55.360 U .S. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, 00:16:55.460 --> 00:16:59.360 decides to punish him. He abruptly withdraws 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:02.110 the funding offer for the dam. And it's a public 00:17:02.110 --> 00:17:05.670 humiliation. So Nasser is furious. He's on a 00:17:05.670 --> 00:17:07.589 plane returning from Yugoslavia when he finds 00:17:07.589 --> 00:17:10.009 out. And he decides to hit back where it hurts. 00:17:10.109 --> 00:17:13.569 He decides to nationalize the Suez Canal Company. 00:17:13.789 --> 00:17:16.170 Which was owned by British and French shareholders. 00:17:16.630 --> 00:17:18.650 And he's going to use the tolls to pay for the 00:17:18.650 --> 00:17:20.849 dam himself. And the way he launched this is 00:17:20.849 --> 00:17:25.269 so spy novel, the code word. De Liceps. Ferdinand 00:17:25.269 --> 00:17:27.150 de Liceps was the French builder of the canal. 00:17:27.970 --> 00:17:30.809 Nasser gave this big speech in Alexandria, and 00:17:30.809 --> 00:17:32.930 he told his military commanders that when he 00:17:32.930 --> 00:17:36.170 said the name de Lesseps, they were to seize 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:38.890 the canal offices. So he says the word. In the 00:17:38.890 --> 00:17:41.150 middle of this long speech, he starts talking 00:17:41.150 --> 00:17:43.349 about the history of the canal. He says de Lesseps, 00:17:43.470 --> 00:17:45.789 and boom, the troops move in. The West must have 00:17:45.789 --> 00:17:48.650 absolutely lost their minds. It was panic. For 00:17:48.650 --> 00:17:50.890 Britain and France, this was just theft of their 00:17:50.890 --> 00:17:53.170 property. For Israel, it was a threat because 00:17:53.170 --> 00:17:54.950 Nasser blocked their shipping. So the three of 00:17:54.950 --> 00:17:56.890 them get together. They hatch a secret plot. 00:17:57.369 --> 00:17:59.589 The Protocol of Sevres. It was a conspiracy. 00:17:59.930 --> 00:18:02.710 What was the plan? Israel would invade the Sinai. 00:18:02.970 --> 00:18:05.950 Britain and France would then issue an ultimatum 00:18:05.950 --> 00:18:08.569 to separate the combatants and land their own 00:18:08.569 --> 00:18:11.269 troops to protect the canal. Taking it back, 00:18:11.390 --> 00:18:13.990 basically, the tripartite aggression. Correct. 00:18:14.329 --> 00:18:17.650 And militarily. It worked. The Israelis swept 00:18:17.650 --> 00:18:20.130 through Sinai. The British and French paratroopers 00:18:20.130 --> 00:18:23.150 landed in Port Saïd and bombed the Egyptian air 00:18:23.150 --> 00:18:26.079 force. It was a military defeat for Egypt. But 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:28.859 we remember it as a massive victory for Nasser. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:32.700 Why? Because Nasser won the political war. President 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:35.640 Eisenhower in the U .S. was furious. He wasn't 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:38.299 in on the plan. He hadn't been told. And he did 00:18:38.299 --> 00:18:40.440 not want a colonial war distracting from the 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:42.319 Soviet crackdown in Hungary, which was happening 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:44.460 at the same time. So he steps in. He threatened 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:46.319 to crash the British bound if they didn't withdraw. 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:49.339 He forced them out. So Nasser emerges from the 00:18:49.339 --> 00:18:52.359 rubble, having stood up to two empires and Israel, 00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:54.619 and he's still standing. He became the victor 00:18:54.619 --> 00:18:57.440 against imperialism. His popularity went supernova. 00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:00.319 We were talking about the high tide of pan -Arabism. 00:19:00.460 --> 00:19:02.500 He wasn't just the president of Egypt anymore. 00:19:02.740 --> 00:19:05.819 No, he was the leader of the Arab nation. And 00:19:05.819 --> 00:19:08.599 he had a new weapon, the transistor radio. Voice 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:12.069 of the Arabs. Exactly. He built a powerful radio 00:19:12.069 --> 00:19:14.750 transmitter and beamed his speeches into every 00:19:14.750 --> 00:19:17.829 village, coffee shop, and living room from the 00:19:17.829 --> 00:19:20.309 Atlantic to the Persian Gulf. He could destabilize 00:19:20.309 --> 00:19:23.410 governments with just a speech. He could. The 00:19:23.410 --> 00:19:25.769 masses listened to him, not their own kings. 00:19:26.170 --> 00:19:29.069 And this euphoria leads to a really fascinating 00:19:29.069 --> 00:19:32.549 experiment in 1958, the United Arab Republic. 00:19:32.789 --> 00:19:35.789 Yeah. Two countries, Egypt and Syria, actually 00:19:35.789 --> 00:19:38.910 merging into one state. It sounds crazy today. 00:19:39.339 --> 00:19:42.500 But the momentum was unstoppable. Syrian leaders, 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:45.200 fearing a communist takeover in their own country, 00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:48.380 rushed to Nasser and basically begged for a union. 00:19:48.579 --> 00:19:50.880 Was he for it? He was hesitant. He knew it would 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:53.619 be messy, but he agreed. He became the president 00:19:53.619 --> 00:19:56.960 of the UAR. When he visited Damascus, the crowds 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:59.339 were so dense his car couldn't even move. But 00:19:59.339 --> 00:20:01.279 there were enemies everywhere. There's a story 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:03.500 about King Saud of Saudi Arabia trying to take 00:20:03.500 --> 00:20:06.240 him out during this time. Yes. King Saud was 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:09.299 deeply threatened by Nasser's popularity. There 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:11.819 was a plot to shoot down Nasser's plane as he 00:20:11.819 --> 00:20:14.400 flew back to Cairo from Syria. But it was foiled. 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.559 By the Syrian security chief, Abdel Hamid Sarraj, 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:20.539 who was a diehard Nasser supporter. Nasser actually 00:20:20.539 --> 00:20:23.420 waived the bribe money given to the conspirators 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:26.440 in front of a crowd in Damascus. That is a flex. 00:20:26.759 --> 00:20:29.640 A moment of absolute triumph. The union with 00:20:29.640 --> 00:20:33.140 Syria, it didn't last. It was a bad marriage. 00:20:33.299 --> 00:20:36.789 It collapsed in 1961. The Syrians felt like they 00:20:36.789 --> 00:20:39.569 were being colonized by Egypt. How so? Nasser 00:20:39.569 --> 00:20:42.170 centralized everything in Cairo. He sent his 00:20:42.170 --> 00:20:45.230 trusty hatchet man, Abdel Hakim Amr, to govern 00:20:45.230 --> 00:20:48.269 Syria. They imposed Egyptian -style land reform, 00:20:48.390 --> 00:20:50.750 which angered the elites. They imposed the police 00:20:50.750 --> 00:20:53.069 state, which angered the liberals. And a coup 00:20:53.069 --> 00:20:55.630 ended it. A coup in Damascus ended the union. 00:20:55.829 --> 00:20:57.710 That must have been a bitter pill for Nasser. 00:20:57.890 --> 00:20:59.990 It broke him. He took it personally. He felt 00:20:59.990 --> 00:21:02.329 he had lost half his nation. This is when his 00:21:02.329 --> 00:21:04.730 health really starts to decline diabetes, heavy 00:21:04.730 --> 00:21:07.589 chain smoking. The stress was eating him alive. 00:21:07.769 --> 00:21:10.609 He became more paranoid, more insular. Let's 00:21:10.609 --> 00:21:12.730 pause the geopolitics for a second and look at 00:21:12.730 --> 00:21:14.930 what life was like for the average Egyptian under 00:21:14.930 --> 00:21:17.230 Nasser. Because we've talked about the police 00:21:17.230 --> 00:21:19.730 state, but there was another side to the coin. 00:21:19.990 --> 00:21:23.369 There was. And we have to be fair here. For the 00:21:23.369 --> 00:21:26.750 fellahin, the peasantry Nasser was a hero for 00:21:26.750 --> 00:21:30.210 very tangible reasons. He broke. The feudal system. 00:21:30.509 --> 00:21:33.309 He broke the back of it. Before Nasser, a tiny 00:21:33.309 --> 00:21:35.650 percentage of families owned almost all the arable 00:21:35.650 --> 00:21:39.130 land. Nasser passed laws limiting land ownership 00:21:39.130 --> 00:21:41.809 and redistributing the rest to the farmers. He 00:21:41.809 --> 00:21:44.329 gave them dignity. He gave them land, which meant 00:21:44.329 --> 00:21:47.630 dignity. He also made education free, from primary 00:21:47.630 --> 00:21:50.369 school all the way to university. He guaranteed 00:21:50.369 --> 00:21:53.069 government jobs for graduates. He built hospitals. 00:21:53.349 --> 00:21:56.309 The Aswan Dam, the Helwan Steelwork. The social 00:21:56.309 --> 00:21:58.700 contract was clear. You give up your political 00:21:58.700 --> 00:22:00.720 freedom and in exchange, the state will give 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:03.099 you bread, education and pride. But the price 00:22:03.099 --> 00:22:05.720 of that political freedom was steep. Very steep. 00:22:05.940 --> 00:22:08.799 The press was nationalized. Dissent was crushed. 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:11.160 The prisons were full of political prisoners. 00:22:11.299 --> 00:22:14.220 And we we have to address the uglier aspects 00:22:14.220 --> 00:22:16.220 found in the sources regarding anti -Semitism. 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:19.279 Right. The sources mentioned a 1964 interview. 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:21.259 Yes. In an interview with a German newspaper, 00:22:21.640 --> 00:22:24.640 Nasser publicly cast doubt on the number of Jews 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:27.059 killed in the Holocaust. He also allowed the 00:22:27.059 --> 00:22:29.880 distribution of anti -Semitic tracts like the 00:22:29.880 --> 00:22:32.119 Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But he claimed 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:35.039 his fight was with Zionism, not Judaism. He did, 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.660 and he did have Jewish advisors. But these actions 00:22:37.660 --> 00:22:39.700 and statements are a matter of historical record 00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:42.660 and remain a stain on his legacy. So we have 00:22:42.660 --> 00:22:45.559 a very complex picture here. A man building schools 00:22:45.559 --> 00:22:48.789 while denying history. Restoring dignity while 00:22:48.789 --> 00:22:51.230 taking away liberty. But everything, the reforms, 00:22:51.450 --> 00:22:54.109 the rhetoric, the charisma, it all crashes into 00:22:54.109 --> 00:22:57.730 a wall in 1967. The Six -Day War. The NOXA. The 00:22:57.730 --> 00:23:01.529 setback. This is the tragedy. By May 1967, tensions 00:23:01.529 --> 00:23:04.319 were boiling. The Soviets gave Nasser a tip off 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.579 that Israel was massing troops to attack Syria. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:09.099 Was that true? No. It turned out to be baseless 00:23:09.099 --> 00:23:11.859 intelligence. But Nasser felt he had to act to 00:23:11.859 --> 00:23:13.900 maintain his credibility as a protector of the 00:23:13.900 --> 00:23:16.819 Arabs. So he moves troops into the Sinai. He 00:23:16.819 --> 00:23:20.599 does. Then he makes the fatal escalation. He 00:23:20.599 --> 00:23:22.859 expels the U .N. peacekeepers who had been there 00:23:22.859 --> 00:23:26.200 since 56. And he closes the Straits of Tehran 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:28.819 to Israeli shipping. Which Israel had explicitly 00:23:28.819 --> 00:23:32.150 said would be an act of war. Yes. Nasser crossed 00:23:32.150 --> 00:23:35.670 a red line. Now, many historians believe he was 00:23:35.670 --> 00:23:37.910 bluffing. He didn't really want a war. He thought 00:23:37.910 --> 00:23:40.470 the U .S. would restrain Israel or that he could 00:23:40.470 --> 00:23:42.789 negotiate from a position of strength. He was 00:23:42.789 --> 00:23:45.430 playing brinkmanship. But his army. Let's go 00:23:45.430 --> 00:23:47.690 back to Emmer, the friend from the academy. This 00:23:47.690 --> 00:23:50.329 is where loyalty over competence destroys nations. 00:23:51.269 --> 00:23:53.750 Field Marshal Emmer had turned the military into 00:23:53.750 --> 00:23:56.250 his own personal fiefdom. He promoted friends, 00:23:56.509 --> 00:23:59.130 he ignored training, and he grew wealthy. The 00:23:59.130 --> 00:24:01.470 army looked good on paper. It looked impressive 00:24:01.470 --> 00:24:05.009 on parade, but it was hollow. Nasser knew Emmer 00:24:05.009 --> 00:24:07.170 was a problem. He called him a state within a 00:24:07.170 --> 00:24:09.609 state. But he couldn't fire him without risking 00:24:09.609 --> 00:24:11.970 a coup. So you have a President Luffing and a 00:24:11.970 --> 00:24:14.569 field marshal who is incompetent facing an Israeli 00:24:14.569 --> 00:24:17.289 military that is prepared and mobilized. And 00:24:17.289 --> 00:24:19.910 Israel did not wait to be attacked. On the morning 00:24:19.910 --> 00:24:23.430 of June 5, 1967, they launched Operation Focus. 00:24:23.690 --> 00:24:26.190 The airstrike. An all -out airstrike on Egyptian 00:24:26.190 --> 00:24:28.970 airfields. The Egyptian pilots were literally 00:24:28.970 --> 00:24:32.079 at breakfast. In a matter of hours, the entire 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:34.180 Egyptian air force was destroyed on the ground. 00:24:34.339 --> 00:24:36.500 The war was lost before noon on the first day. 00:24:36.819 --> 00:24:39.059 Effectively, yes. But the tragedy is that the 00:24:39.059 --> 00:24:41.259 Egyptian leadership didn't tell anyone. They 00:24:41.259 --> 00:24:43.700 broadcast victory marches on the radio. While 00:24:43.700 --> 00:24:47.200 their army was being routed. Meanwhile, Amr panicked. 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:50.779 He completely lost his nerve. He issued a withdrawal 00:24:50.779 --> 00:24:53.279 order that was so chaotic it turned into a rout. 00:24:54.140 --> 00:24:56.640 Soldiers were retreating without cover, strafed 00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:59.619 by Israeli planes, dying of thirst in the desert. 00:25:00.009 --> 00:25:02.809 And in six days, it's all over. Egypt lost the 00:25:02.809 --> 00:25:05.630 Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Jordan lost 00:25:05.630 --> 00:25:07.990 the West Bank. Syria lost the Golan Heights. 00:25:08.170 --> 00:25:10.730 It was a total, absolute humiliation. It shattered 00:25:10.730 --> 00:25:12.869 the myth. The Lion of the Arabs had been defeated 00:25:12.869 --> 00:25:15.849 in 130 hours. And Nasser's reaction. He goes 00:25:15.849 --> 00:25:18.369 on TV on June 9th. This is a surreal moment. 00:25:18.569 --> 00:25:20.690 He appears on television looking broken, aged 00:25:20.690 --> 00:25:23.450 10 years and a week. And he tells the truth, 00:25:23.589 --> 00:25:26.809 mostly. He admits the grave setback, and then 00:25:26.809 --> 00:25:29.180 he resigns. He takes full responsibility. He 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:31.839 says he's handing power to Zakaria Mohedin and 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:33.920 returning to the ranks of the ordinary citizens. 00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:36.740 He takes it all on himself. And then the twist 00:25:36.740 --> 00:25:39.220 that no one expected. Logic dictates that the 00:25:39.220 --> 00:25:41.059 people should be furious. They just lost their 00:25:41.059 --> 00:25:43.700 land, their sons, their army. But instead of 00:25:43.700 --> 00:25:46.339 riding against him, they ride it for him. Hundreds 00:25:46.339 --> 00:25:48.680 of thousands in the streets. Porting into the 00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:52.039 streets of Cairo in the dark, chanting, no, no, 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:55.180 we are your soldiers, Gamal. They refuse to let 00:25:55.180 --> 00:25:58.599 him go. Why? Is it Stockholm Syndrome? Or just 00:25:58.599 --> 00:26:00.440 pure desperation? I think it's the fear of the 00:26:00.440 --> 00:26:03.680 void. He was the father figure. They felt that 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:06.000 without him, the country would collapse completely 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:08.680 or the colonial powers would return. They clung 00:26:08.680 --> 00:26:11.380 to him. So Nasser agreed to stay. But the sources 00:26:11.380 --> 00:26:13.920 are clear. The man who stayed wasn't the same 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:16.859 man. He was a ghost. And what happened to Amir? 00:26:17.299 --> 00:26:20.640 It ended in Greek tragedy. Nasser accused Amir 00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:23.019 of plotting a coup to take over after the defeat. 00:26:23.539 --> 00:26:26.869 Amir was arrested. Shortly after, it was announced 00:26:26.869 --> 00:26:28.890 he had committed suicide by swallowing poison. 00:26:29.109 --> 00:26:31.890 Or was suicided. Many believe he was given the 00:26:31.890 --> 00:26:36.490 choice, suicide or execution. Either way, Nasser 00:26:36.490 --> 00:26:39.430 lost his best friend and his territory in one 00:26:39.430 --> 00:26:43.349 terrible stroke. The final years, 1967 to 1970, 00:26:43.710 --> 00:26:46.930 sound agonizing. The War of Attrition. It was 00:26:46.930 --> 00:26:50.410 a grinding, low -level artillery war along the 00:26:50.410 --> 00:26:53.069 Suez Canal. Nasser was trying to rebuild the 00:26:53.069 --> 00:26:55.700 army from scratch with Soviet help. But physically, 00:26:55.940 --> 00:26:58.380 he was dying. Living on painkillers and cigarettes. 00:26:58.660 --> 00:27:01.339 Working 18 -hour days trying to fix the unfixable. 00:27:01.700 --> 00:27:04.640 He eventually accepted the Rogers Plan, a U .S. 00:27:04.660 --> 00:27:06.960 initiative for a ceasefire, just to buy time 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:08.559 for the missile defense systems to be built. 00:27:08.700 --> 00:27:11.160 And the end comes during Black September in 1970. 00:27:11.539 --> 00:27:14.099 Yes. Civil war erupted in Jordan between King 00:27:14.099 --> 00:27:16.700 Hussein and the PLO, Arabs killing Arabs. So 00:27:16.700 --> 00:27:19.079 Nasser throws himself into mediating it. He called 00:27:19.079 --> 00:27:21.319 an emergency summit in Cairo. He was shouting 00:27:21.319 --> 00:27:23.500 at leaders, negotiating truces, just exhausting 00:27:23.500 --> 00:27:25.500 himself. He managed to get a ceasefire signed 00:27:25.500 --> 00:27:28.240 on September 27th. His final act. The very next 00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:30.720 day, September 28th, he was at the airport saying 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:33.160 goodbye to the Emir of Kuwait. He felt dizzy. 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:35.960 He went home, lay down, and had a massive heart 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:37.740 attack. He died a few hours later. He was only 00:27:37.740 --> 00:27:41.500 52. 52. Incredibly young for a head of state. 00:27:41.700 --> 00:27:43.619 And that brings us right back to where we started. 00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:47.700 The funeral. The shock was total. The headline 00:27:47.700 --> 00:27:49.920 of a Lebanese newspaper summed it up perfectly. 00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:54.599 100 million human beings. The Arabs are orphans. 00:27:54.660 --> 00:27:57.680 And the funeral was just mass hysteria. The coffin 00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:00.259 was on a gun carriage, but the crowds broke the 00:28:00.259 --> 00:28:02.599 cordon. They were swarming the coffin, weeping, 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:06.000 chanting, there is no God but Allah and Nasser 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.559 is God's beloved. It's incredible. Even his enemies 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:11.240 wept. Even his enemies. Because he represented 00:28:11.240 --> 00:28:14.160 a time when the Arab world felt big. when it 00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:16.460 felt like it mattered on the world stage. So 00:28:16.460 --> 00:28:18.440 let's try to land this plane. We've gone from 00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:21.240 the postal worker's son to the broken idol. When 00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:23.700 we assess the legacy, how do we balance the books? 00:28:23.980 --> 00:28:25.660 Well, it really depends on what you value. If 00:28:25.660 --> 00:28:28.019 you value national dignity, independence, and 00:28:28.019 --> 00:28:30.839 social welfare, Nasser is a hero. He ended the 00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:33.259 British occupation. He built the dam. He educated 00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:35.960 the poor. He gave Egypt a voice. He made the 00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:38.039 fellahin feel like citizens for the first time. 00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:40.559 But if you value democracy and human rights... 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:44.269 Then the verdict is harsh. He institutionalized 00:28:44.269 --> 00:28:46.430 the military dictatorship that has plagued the 00:28:46.430 --> 00:28:49.089 region ever since. He destroyed political life. 00:28:49.250 --> 00:28:51.390 He created a culture of fear with the secret 00:28:51.390 --> 00:28:53.769 police. And his foreign policy led to the loss 00:28:53.769 --> 00:28:56.630 of Sinai. A defeat that haunts the region to 00:28:56.630 --> 00:28:59.710 this day. And the economic stagnation of the 00:28:59.710 --> 00:29:02.890 late 60s erased many of the early games. Yet 00:29:02.890 --> 00:29:05.930 despite all of that, during the Arab Spring in 00:29:05.930 --> 00:29:09.130 2011, almost 40 years after he died, people were 00:29:09.130 --> 00:29:11.690 holding up pictures of Nasser in Tahrir Square. 00:29:12.220 --> 00:29:14.740 That's the nostalgia. They aren't missing the 00:29:14.740 --> 00:29:17.180 secret police. They're missing the sense of purpose. 00:29:17.380 --> 00:29:19.539 They're missing the idea that Egypt could lead 00:29:19.539 --> 00:29:21.940 the world. And he wasn't personally corrupt. 00:29:22.180 --> 00:29:24.920 Not in terms of money, no. He lived simply. He 00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:27.500 died without a fortune. In a region plagued by 00:29:27.500 --> 00:29:30.799 kleptocracy, that purity of intent, even if the 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.220 results were disastrous, it still resonates. 00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:36.440 It really is the paradox of the charismatic leader. 00:29:36.660 --> 00:29:39.160 He loved his country, but he loved it so much 00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:41.019 he felt he was the only one who could save it. 00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:42.880 And that brings us to the provocative thought 00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:44.619 we should leave the listeners with today. Was 00:29:44.619 --> 00:29:47.960 Nasser's charisma his greatest asset or was it 00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:51.359 his fatal flaw? Did his sheer magnetic power 00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:54.740 blind him and the Egyptian people to the rot 00:29:54.740 --> 00:29:57.039 within the system? Did they trust the hero so 00:29:57.039 --> 00:29:59.460 much that they stopped checking the math? Until 00:29:59.460 --> 00:30:01.640 the Israeli Air Force was over Cairo and it was 00:30:01.640 --> 00:30:04.799 too late. That is a heavy question. History rarely 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:07.740 gives us clean heroes, does it? Never. It gives 00:30:07.740 --> 00:30:10.599 us men like Nassar Colossal, complicated and 00:30:10.599 --> 00:30:12.579 tragic. Thank you for guiding us through this 00:30:12.579 --> 00:30:15.359 massive chapter of history. It's a lot to process. 00:30:15.700 --> 00:30:17.700 It is. Thanks for having me. And thank you all 00:30:17.700 --> 00:30:19.539 for listening to The Deep Dive. We'll see you 00:30:19.539 --> 00:30:19.900 next time.