Gamal Abdel Nasser

Who is Gamal Abdel Nasser?

Gamal Abdel Nasser was an Egyptian army officer and statesman who served as the second President of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Born in Alexandria, he became a career military officer and a leader of the Free Officers Movement, which overthrew the monarchy of King Farouk in the 1952 revolution. As president he pursued a program of Arab nationalism, land reform, industrialization, and non-alignment during the Cold War. In 1956 he nationalized the Suez Canal, triggering the Suez Crisis in which Britain, France, and Israel invaded but withdrew under international pressure, greatly boosting his prestige across the Arab world. He oversaw the construction of the Aswan High Dam and briefly united Egypt and Syria in the United Arab Republic. His forces suffered a heavy defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War against Israel. A powerful orator, he remained a towering symbol of pan-Arabism; his sudden death from a heart attack drew immense crowds of mourners.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry 'Gamal Abdel Nasser' · Said K. Aburish, Nasser: The Last Arab (2004)