[Marxism] On This Day in Iraq, 1958

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

[A BBC summary of the coup that brought a nationalist, pro-socialist
regime to power in Iraq. It was later overthrown in 1963 by the CIA in
alliance with the Baathist party, later dominated by close U.S. ally
Saddam Hussein.]

FROM THE LAST PARAGRAPH IN THE LEAD ARTICLE
Officials in Washington fear the Iraqi coup will mean the end of the
Baghdad Pact whose members include Turkey, Persia and Pakistan. It was
intended to stem the influence of the Soviet Union in the region.

FROM THE SIDEBAR
The following day 1,700 Marines of the US Sixth Fleet arrived in
Lebanon and two days later 2,000 British paratroopers were flown into
Amman after reports that Syrian troops were massing on the border with
Jordan.

Tensions rose further when the Soviet Union, which backed Colonel
Nasser, announced major manoeuvres close to the Persian and Turkish
borders.

On 19 July, barely a week after the coup, President Nasser signed a
defence pact between the UAR and the new Iraqi regime.

The UAR collapsed in 1961 when Syria withdrew from it after a military
coup, but Egypt kept the name until 1971.

The Baghdad Pact was renamed CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation) in
1959 after Iraq pulled out and Ankara in Turkey became its
headquarters.

Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan withdrew in 1979 because they felt the US
and UK were more interested in the pact as an anti-Soviet alliance than
as a way of improving the economy of the region.

Iraq's coup leader and prime minister, Abdul Karim el Qasim, was ousted
and killed in 1963 in a coup led by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.


IN FULL AT
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P4DB56FC8


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