MIDDLE EAST WHO'S WOOING WHO ? IN CAIRO, PRESIDENT GAMAL ABDEL NASSER 
ACTED LIKE AN EX-CHAMPION SEEKING A SUCCESSFUL COMEBACK . HE LOST 
MUCH OF HIS CLAIM FOR THE TITLE OF ARAB LEADERSHIP IN 
1961, WHEN AN ARMY COUP WRENCHED SYRIA FROM ITS SHORT-LIVED MERGER 
WITH EGYPT IN THE UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC . THAT LEFT NASSER 
WITHOUT A SINGLE ARAB ALLY, AND SURROUNDED BY SUCH VIRULENT ENEMIES 
AS IRAQ'S DICTATOR KASSEM AND THE KINGS OF JORDAN AND SAUDI 
ARABIA . THEN CAME LAST MONTH'S IRAQI REVOLUTION AND THE OVERTHROW 
OF KASSEM . NO ONE COULD BLAME EGYPT'S LEADER FOR HARKING 
BACK TO OLD DREAMS OF ARAB GRANDEUR, FOR THIS NEW MAN 
IN BAGHDAD PRESIDENT ABDUL SALAM AREF WAS A FORMER NASSER PROTEGE 
DEDICATED TO PANARAB UNITY . TRIBUTE TO MOTHER . WITH THIS 
IN MIND, NASSER MOUNTED A PLATFORM IN CAIRO'S VAST REPUBLIC SQUARE 
LAST WEEK TO CELEBRATE THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEFUNCT UNITED 
ARAB REPUBLIC . STRINGS OF RAMADAN LIGHTS OUTLINED THE MOSQUES AND 
MINARETS, AND A CROWD OF 20,000 JAMMED THE SQUARE PROTECTED FROM 
THE COLD NIGHT AIR BY A SIWAN, A " HALL " 
ROOFED AND WALLED BY BRIGHTLY COLORED CANVAS . " UNION ! 
UNION ! UNION ! NASSER ! NASSER ! NASSER ! " 
ROARED THE MOB . WHAT IT GOT WAS A LITTLE LESS 
THAN NASSER HAD HOPED FOR . THE LEADERS OF THE IRAQI 
DELEGATION TO THE CELEBRATION, DEPUTY PREMIER ALI SALEH SAADI AND FOREIGN 
MINISTER TALIB HUSSEIN SHABIB, WERE CORDIAL ENOUGH, BUT THEY WERE FAR 
FROM SPECIFIC . SAADI DUTIFULLY PAID TRIBUTE TO EGYPT AS THE 
" MOTHER REPUBLIC " OF THE ARAB WORLD, BUT INSTEAD OF 
CALLING FOR UNION, HE URGED ONLY A /FRANK RAPPROCHEMENT " BETWEEN 
CAIRO AND BAGHDAD . WAS THIS ENOUGH SURE, CRIED NASSER IN 
HIS OWN SPEECH . TODAY, HE DECLARED / THERE IS A 
UNITY OF OBJECTIVES BETWEEN THE REVOLUTION IN BAGHDAD AND THE REVOLUTION 
IN CAIRO, " AND " WE DO NOT NEED TREATIES OR 
CONSTITUTIONAL FORMS TO PROVE THIS UNITY . " JAIL FOR THE 
DOG . IN BAGHDAD, NEW PRESIDENT AREF AND HIS COLLEAGUES WERE 
TOO BUSY LEARNING HOW TO RUN A COUNTRY TO PAY MUCH 
ATTENTION . THE SLAIN KASSEM, NOW DUBBED " THE MAD TYRANT, 
" HAD QUARRELED WITH ALL HIS NEIGHBORS . AREF WAS RESTORING 
TRADE RELATIONS WITH EGYPT, IMPORTS FROM LEBANON AND EXPORTS TO LITTLE 
KUWAIT, THE OIL-RICH PRINCIPALITY KASSEM ONCE TRIED TO TAKE OVER . 
TIDYING UP ANOTHER NATIONAL PROBLEM, AREF SENT A HELICOPTER NORTH TO 
PICK UP TWO DELEGATES OF THE KURDISH REBELS IN THE HOPE 
THAT HE MIGHT NEGOTIATE AN END TO THE BLOODY CIVIL WAR 
THAT HAS TIED UP HALF THE 75,000-MAN IRAQI ARMY ; HE 
EVEN MADE FRIENDLY OVERTURES TO THE U.S.-BRITISH CONTROLLED IRAQ PETROLEUM CO., 
WHICH KASSEM HAD ALIENATED . AS FOR THE COMMUNISTS OF BAGHDAD, 
THEY WERE STILL GOING INTO JAILS . THE RESULT WAS ONE 
OF THE BIGGEST SINGLE RED PROPAGANDA BARRAGES SINCE THE REDS CHARGED 
THE U.S . WITH USING GERM WARFARE IN KOREA . PRAVDA'S 
CORRESPONDENT CLAIMED, " I SAW TANKS CRUSH WOMEN AND CHILDREN, " 
AND REPORTED THE " PHYSICAL ANNIHILATION OF HUNDREDS, PERHAPS THOUSANDS, OF 
IRAQI DEMOCRATS AND PATRIOTS . " THE PRAVDA MAN WENT LOOKING 
FOR AZIZ SHARIF, A 1962 LENIN PEACE PRIZEWINNER AT THE OFFICE 
OF THE PEACE PARTISANS LEAGUE (A EUPHEMISM FOR RED MILITIA) . 
A SOLDIER ON GUARD AT THE OFFICE TOLD HIM, " THAT 
DOG HAS LONG SINCE BEEN JAILED . " THE SOVIET RED 
CROSS EVEN APPEALED TO THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS TO HELP PROTECT 
COMMUNISTS, WHOM IT PREFERRED TO CALL " THE DEMOCRATIC PATRIOTS VICTIMIZED 
BY BLOODY PERSECUTION IN IRAQ . " WHEN THE FIRST HECTIC 
DAYS WERE OVER, THE NOVICES WOULD GET AROUND TO ANSWERING GAMAL 
ABDEL NASSER'S CRY FOR UNION . AT WEEK'S END IRAQ'S THINKING 
WAS SUMMED UP BY FOREIGN MINISTER SHAHIB, WHO PROPOSED A JOINT 
MEETING OF THE FOUR " LIBERATED " ARAB STATES (IRAQ, EGYPT, 
YEMEN, ALGERIA) TO " COORDINATE WORK AMONG THEM IN VARIOUS FIELDS 
WITH A UNIONIST REVOLUTIONARY AND SOCIALIST TENDENCY . 