In the hot and restless Middle East, death alone is the one swift, sure way to bring change. Disaster struck there this week in classic fashion: an army coup, mobs in the streets, hired assassins, overthrow of the legitimate government. Death and revolution struck on a Monday morning in Iraq. Down went the pro-Western government of Nuri asSaid, and of his young British-educated monarch, King Feisal. The military junta that seized control of Baghdad proclaimed Iraq now a republic, and got off an exultant message of comradeship to Egypt's Dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Such coups d'état have gone on for centuries, but have taken on an ominous new meaning since Nasser came to power, proclaiming an Arab nationalism that overleaps borders and spreads by inflammatory radio appeals. If the rebels succeeded in consolidating their revolt, Nasser would become the undisputed ruler of the entire Arab world. For the West, if it did not meet Nasser's challenge, the result would be catastrophic.
The first word crackled from the radios of Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad. The word: an army junta had overthrown the government and set up a three-man "sovereignty council" led by a little-known army general, Abdel Karim Kassem. From the Baghdad Radio, rechristened "Free Iraq Radio," and Nasser's announcers in Egypt and Syria, came sketchy details, whose authenticity had to be measured against the plotters' desire to stir further panic. Broadcasts said that the junta had seized the capital city before dawn, that wispy Crown Prince Abdul Illah, uncle of the young King, had been assassinated. The fate of 23-year-old King Feisal, ruler of the five-month-old Arab Union of Iraq and Jordan, and of 70-year-old Strongman Nuri asSaid was unknown. First broadcast said that Nuri, great friend of the West, had been beaten to death by a mob: "The enemy of God and his master have been killed and are lying in the street." But later broadcasts did not mention the Premier or his fate.
Nasser's Middle East News Agency gleefully described the assassination of Crown Prince Abdul Illah: "The people dragged Abdul Illah's body into the street like that of a dog and tore it limb from limb." Then the mobs burned the body. It was Abdul Illah who ruled Iraq as regent until Feisal became King at 18.
As crowds in the streets of Baghdad shouted "Nasser, we are your soldiers," and the insurgents denounced Feisal as a "traitor," rebels announced formation of a fourteen-man cabinet headed by Brigadier General Kassem as Premier and including four other generals. That the plot had been carefully arranged was obvious: within hours of the first move, the rebels announced the civilian officials in a new government, declared martial law, purged loyal army commanders and renamed military units which bore royal titles.