MIDDLE EAST DANGER : PROFESSOR AT WORK TOURING THE MIDDLE EAST UNDER 
THE AUSPICES OF THE U.S . STATE DEPARTMENT, DUKE ELLINGTON AND 
HIS BAND FOUND THEMSELVES CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A COUP 
IN IRAQ LAST WEEK . FASCINATED BY THE GOINGS-ON, THE DUKE 
PROMISED TO COMPOSE A NEW PIECE, " THE BAGHDAD ROCK AND 
I DO MEAN ROCKING WITH ROCKETS, BOMBS AND ALL . " 
THE DUKE MIGHT JUST AS WELL WRITE ANOTHER PIECE CALLED THE 
DAMASCUS REEL, FOR SYRIA, TOO, UNDERWENT A SHAKE-UP, QUIETER BUT NO 
LESS SIGNIFICANT . BEHIND THE SUDDEN SHUFFLE OF MIDDLE EASTERN LEADERS 
WAS A POWER STRUGGLE INSIDE A STRANGE NEW POLITICAL FORCE, THE 
BAATH (RENAISSANCE) PARTY, WHICH IN LITTLE LESS THAN A YEAR HAS 
TURNED FROM A SHADOWY, CLANDESTINE MOVEMENT WITHOUT POPULAR SUPPORT INTO A 
DYNAMIC POWER CHALLENGING GAMAL ABDEL NASSER FOR LEADERSHIP OF THE ARAB 
WORLD . THE AVOWED AIM OF BAATH IS TO UNITE IRAQ 
AND SYRIA, WHICH IT ALREADY CONTROLS, AND TO ADD ALL OTHER 
ARAB COUNTRIES TO THIS UNION, THROUGH PERSUASION OR SUBVERSION . LAST 
WEEK'S TUSSLES WERE CAUSED PARTLY BY THE CLASH OF AMBITIONS WITHIN 
THE PARTY, PARTLY BY DIFFERENCES OVER HOW QUICKLY AND RADICALLY THE 
BAATH AIMS SHOULD BE PURSUED . OUT OF THE SHADOWS . 
IN SYRIA, PREMIER SALAH BITAR, 52, A CO-FOUNDER OF THE BAATH 
PARTY, RESIGNED AFTER BEING ACCUSED IN PARTY COUNCILS OF " SELF-ISOLATION 
FROM THE MASSES . " TRANSLATION : HE MUST MAKE WAY 
FOR AN AMBITIOUS, YOUNGER RIVAL . THE RIVAL : AMIN HAFEZ, 
42, SYRIAN COMMANDER IN CHIEF AND A TOP PARTY LEADER, WHO 
TOOK OVER AS PREMIER . AS A PRELUDE TO HIS SWEARINGIN, 
JETS WHOOSHED OVERHEAD IN SALUTE AND TO DISCOURAGE ANY POSSIBLE TROUBLE 
. IN IRAQ, THE STRUGGLE WAS BETWEEN BURLY VICE PREMIER ALI 
SALEH SAADI, A RADICAL, AND A FACTION OF MODERATES HEADED BY 
FOREIGN MINISTER TALIB SHABIB AND INTERIOR MINISTER HAZIM JAWAD . SAADI 
AND HIS FRIENDS WANT MORE OR LESS INSTANT SOCIALIZATION OF THE 
IRAQI ECONOMY, CRACKDOWN ON THE MIDDLE CLASS, REVOLUTION THROUGHOUT THE ARAB 
WORLD, AND AN ANTI-WESTERN POLICY . SHABIB, JAWAD & CO . 
FAVOR A SLOWER, MORE CONCILIATORY COURSE . AT FIRST IT LOOKED 
LIKE A CLEAR VICTORY FOR THE MODERATES . BACKED BY GUN-TOTING 
AIDES, SHABIB AND JAWAD SEIZED SAADI AND THREE OTHER CABINET MINISTERS, 
BUNDLED THEM INTO A MILITARY PLANE WITHOUT LUGGAGE AND FLEW THEM 
TO EXILE IN MADRID WHERE SAADI KEPT HINTING THAT HE WOULD 
YET RETURN TO IRAQ IN TRIUMPH . NEXT MORNING SAADI'S SUPPORTERS 
IN THE LABOR UNIONS AND THE NATIONAL GUARD POURED INTO THE 
STREETS OF BAGHDAD, LED BY AIR FORCE COLONEL MUNZER WANDARI, A 
FIERCELY MUSTACHIOED FANATIC WHO PERSONALLY TOOK UP A JET FIGHTER AND 
STRAFED THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE WITH ROCKETS . WHEN THE MODERATES CALLED 
ON THE ARMY FOR HELP, TROOPS CLEARED THE STREETS AND JAILED 
WANDARI . BUT HE HAD APPARENTLY MADE HIS POINT . AN 
EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE BAATH HIGH COMMAND DECIDED UPON A PLAGUE-ON-BOTH-YOUR-HOUSES 
GESTURE : SHABIB, JAWAD AND FIVE AIDES WERE HUSTLED INTO ANOTHER 
PLANE AND SENT INTO EXILE TOO IN BEIRUT . STRANGELY SILENT 
IN THE UPROAR WAS THE ONE NON-BAATHIST IN A POSITION OF 
POWER, IRAQ'S PRESIDENT ABDUL SALAM AREF, WHO WAS REPORTEDLY UNDER PALACE 
ARREST . UNTIL PARTY ELECTIONS ARE HELD SOME TIME NEXT YEAR, 
IRAQ WILL APPARENTLY BE RUN BY THE BAATH CENTRAL COMMITTEE (WHICH 
INCLUDES A JORDANIAN, A LEBANESE AND A KUWAITI AS WELL AS 
IRAQI AND SYRIAN GENERALS) AND BY MICHEL AFLAK, THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND 
REAL POWER IN THE PARTY . IT WAS THE FIRST TIME 
THAT AFLAK, A WITHDRAWN, SEEMINGLY GENTLE INTELLECTUAL WHO HAS SANCTIONED THE 
EXECUTIONS OF HUNDREDS OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS, EMERGED FROM HIS SHADOWY POSITION 
BEHIND THE SCENES . NATIONAL FAMILIES . WHAT PRECISELY IS BAATH 
? NASSER SEEMS TO CONSIDER IT AN EVEN GREATER THREAT THAN 
HIS OLD ENEMIES, THE ARAB MONARCHIES OF JORDAN AND SAUDI ARABIA, 
AND COMPLAINS : " I HAVE READ EVERY BOOK BY OR 
ABOUT BAATH AND I COULD UNDERSTAND NOTHING . " A WESTERN 
DIPLOMAT DESCRIBES IT AS AN " ARAB COSA NOSTRA . / 
ON THE CONTRARY, ONE KNOWLEDGEABLE OBSERVER THINKS BAATH " IS PROBABLY 
AHEAD OF ITS TIME REFORMIST, PROGRESSIVE AND SECULAR IN A WORLD 
OF ARABS BOUND BY TRADITION, RELIGION AND NARROW, PERSONAL INTEREST . 
" FOUNDER AFLAK, 53, WHOSE SCHOLARLY MANNER HAS WON HIM THE 
NICKNAME " THE PROFESSOR, " DEFINES BAATH THROUGH HIS CAREER AS 
MUCH AS THROUGH HIS WORDS BORN IN DAMASCUS TO THE GREEK 
ORTHODOX FAITH IN AN OVERWHELMINGLY MOSLEM ENVIRONMENT (AFLAK'S FATHER WAS A 
MODERATELY SUCCESSFUL GRAIN MERCHANT, AND HIS MOTHER, NOW 75, IS STILL 
ILLITERATE), AFLAK GOT HONORS IN HISTORY AT THE SORBONNE . IN 
PARIS HE ARGUED POLITICS WITH OTHER AFRO-ASIAN STUDENTS, READ MARX, NIETZSCHE 
AND JEFFERSON . HE SAYS, " I QUICKLY FOUND MARXISM INADEQUATE, 
BASED ON MATERIALISM WITHOUT HUMAN AND SPIRITUAL VALUES, WITHOUT NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 
. NATIONS ARE ONLY LARGE FAMILIES, AND THE ARAB FAMILY NEEDS 
MORE THAN MARX . THUS WE EVOLVED THE BAATHIST DOCTRINE OF 
SOCIALISM MINGLED WITH NATIONALISM AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT . " RETURNING 
TO DAMASCUS AS A TEACHER, AFLAK WAS SOON INDOCTRINATING STUDENTS IN 
HIS REVOLUTIONARY IDEALS, DRAWING SUPPORT FROM THOSE WHO WERE OVEREDUCATED, UNEMPLOYED 
SONS OF THE POOR . IN 1942, AFTER LEADING A STRIKE 
AGAINST FENCH HISTORY TEXTS BEING USED IN SYRIAN SCHOOLS, HE QUIT 
TEACHING AND BECAME A FULLTIME AGITATOR, DRAWING SUPPORT FROM THOSE WHO, 
LIKE HIMSELF, WERE OVEREDUCATED, UNDEREMPLOYED SONS OF PEASANTS AND WORKERS . 
THE LUMINOUS CLASSICAL ARABIC OF HIS POLITICAL TRACTS FILLS BAATHISTS WITH 
ECSTASY, BUT IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION, HIS IDEAS SEEM RATHER MURKY : 
" NATIONALISM IS LOVE BEFORE EVERYTHING ELSE " ; " REVOLUTION 
IS THE OPPOSITION OF TRUTH TO THE EXISTING SITUATION . " 
AFLAK WROTE BAATH'S DEMOCRATIC-SOUNDING CONSTITUTION IN FIVE DAYS, AND IT HAS 
NEVER SINCE BEEN CHANGED OR, FOR THAT MATTER, IMPLEMENTED . BY 
1947, AFTER THE FRENCH LEFT SYRIA, BAATH HAD 1,000 CAREFULLY SELECTED 
MEMBERS, AND AFLAK CALLED THE FIRST NATIONAL CONGRESS IN A DAMASCUS 
CAFE . TWO YEARS LATER HE WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO HELP 
TOPPLE A SYRIAN GOVERNMENT AND SERVED IN THE CABINET FOR THREE 
MONTHS BEFORE RESIGNING ON THE GROUND THAT HE WAS OF MORE 
VALUE TO BAATH OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT THAN IN IT . COLLIDING 
AMBITIONS . AFLAK WAS PROFOUNDLY SHAKEN BY THE 1948 ARAB DEFEAT 
IN PALESTINE . DURING THE FIGHTING HE PROWLED THE FRONT, LIVING 
WITH ARAB TROOPS . " THE ARAB SOCIAL STRUCTURE WAS RESPONSIBLE 
FOR THE DISASTER, / HE SAYS . " A SOCIETY BASED 
ON DISUNITY AND INEQUALITY PREVENTED THE ARABS FROM REACHING THEIR FULL 
POTENTIAL . " TODAY HE IS AS VOCAL AS ANY ARAB 
LEADER ABOUT DRIVING THE ISRAELIS INTO THE SEA . AT FIRST, 
BAATH WORKED WILLINGLY WITH NASSER . AT THE THIRD PARTY CONGRESS 
IN 1956, BAATH DECIDED ON THE UNION OF SYRIA WITH EGYPT 
THAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED TWO YEARS LATER . BUT THE RIVAL AMBITIONS 
OF NASSER AND BAATH COLLIDED . SYRIA BROKE AWAY FROM EGYPT 
IN 1961 AND BECAME A BAATH-DOMINATED STATE AFTER A MILITARY COUP 
LAST MARCH . BAATH HAD ALREADY WON BLOODY CONTROL OF IRAQ 
A MONTH EARLIER AND TELEVISED THE GORY SCENE OF THE EXECUTION 
OF DICTATOR KASSEM . SINCE THEN, BAATH HAS SUCCESSFULLY AND BLOODILY 
PUT DOWN TWO NASSERITE INSURRECTIONS IN IRAQ AND FIVE IN SYRIA, 
AND ITS LEADERS ARE UNDERSTANDABLY BITTER ABOUT NASSER . SAYS ONE 
: " WE LOVED HIM AND CHERISHED HIM, THE BASTARD . 
NASSER IS A LOST PROPHET . HE TRIES TO ANNIHILATE US, 
THE DEVIL . WE ARE IDEALISTS AND DON'T WANT TO KILL, 
BUT HE MAKES US KILL . WE HAVE TO USE HIS 
TACTICS, DAMN HIM . " THE EGYPTIAN PRESS AND RADIO IN 
TURN PICTURE AFLAK AS A COMBINATION OF ROBESPIERRE, STALIN, BEN-GURION AND 
THE POPE . WHENEVER CAIRO RADIO MENTIONS HIM, IT IS FOLLOWED 
BY THE INTERJECTION " YANI, YANI " (I MEAN, I MEAN), 
GIBING AT THE FUZZINESS OF HIS POLITICAL CONCEPTS . TOTAL HOSTILITY 
. BAATH DEPENDS ON 50,000 PARTY MEMBERS SCATTERED IN EIGHTMAN CELLS 
THROUGHOUT THE ARAB WORLD . " WE COULD TAKE IN THOUSANDS 
MORE, " AFLAK BOASTS, " BUT WE MUST SCREEN OUT OPPORTUNISTS, 
IDLERS AND ENEMY AGENTS . " NOT ONLY NASSER, BUT ALSO 
ARAB MONARCHS, BUSINESSMEN AND THE TRADITIONAL, MIDDLE-CLASS POLITICIANS DETEST BAATH . 
ARAB CHRISTIANS FEAR BEING SUBMERGED IN A UNITED ARAB STATE . 
THE KURDISH TRIBESMEN, WHO ARE MOSLEMS BUT NOT ARABS, HAVE WAGED 
A LONG, BITTER WAR FOR AUTONOMY IN NORTHERN IRAQ . ORIGINALLY, 
THE COMMUNISTS WERE NUMBERED AMONG THE MANY FOES OF BAATH, AND 
IN IRAQ WERE HUNTED DOWN AND EXECUTED, WHILE MOSCOW RAILED AGAINST 
/ BAATHIST GENOCIDE . " BUT RECENTLY, PERHAPS IN A SEARCH 
FOR ALLIES, A BAATH OFFICIAL IN IRAQ ANNOUNCED THAT " THE 
RED HUNT IS OVER, " AND HUNDREDS OF COMMUNISTS WERE RELEASED 
FROM JAIL . COMMUNIST LEADERS ARE JOINING BAATH IN CALLING FOR 
" THE LIQUIDATION OF FEUDALISM, " AND THE BAATH PARTY NEWSPAPER 
PROCLAIMS " TOTAL HOSTILITY GAINST CAPITALISM . " STILL BETTING THAT 
IRAQ AND SYRIA, WHILE ANTI-WESTERN, WILL REMAIN ANTI-COMMUNIST, THE U.S . 
THIS YEAR IS SUPPLYING CREDITS AND LOANS OF MORE THAN $60 
MILLION . IN TAKING OVER, BAATH FOUND BOTH COUNTRIES NEARLY BANKRUPT 
AND HAS TRIED TO REVIVE THE ECONOMY WITH SOCIALIST CURE-ALLS RANGING 
FROM NATIONALIZATION OF INDUSTRY (INCLUDING, IN SYRIA, THE ADVERTISING BUSINESS) TO 
CONVERTING STATE LAND INTO FARM COLLECTIVES . FOR STRATEGIC REASONS, A 
PAVED HIGHWAY FROM BAGHDAD TO DAMASCUS IS BEING PUSHED TO COMPLETION 
. THIS YEAR'S RICH COTTON HARVEST PROMISES A $100 MILLION WINDFALL 
FOR SYRIA, AND IRAQ'S COFFERS ARE BEING REFILLED BY OIL REVENUES 
. BRAINWASHING . AS SET UP BY AFLAK, THE ORGANIZATION OF 
BAATH RESEMBLES THAT OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY . EACH CELL ELECTS 
A LEADER, CELL LEADERS ELECT DISTRICT CHIEFS AND SO ON, UP 
TO THE VARIOUS REGIONAL CONGRESSES . OVER THEM STANDS THE POWERFUL 
CENTRAL COMMITTEE, WHICH REALLY RUNS THE WHOLE SHOW . IN DEALING 
WITH POLITICAL OPPONENTS, BAATH TENDS TO RELY ON THE FIRING SQUAD, 
BUT BAATH MEETINGS ARE CONDUCTED STRICTLY BY ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER 
. MEMBERSHIP IS GAINED ONLY AFTER A MINIMUM OF TWO YEARS 
AS A CANDIDATE " ON TRIAL FOR SINCERITY AND INTENSITY . 
" BAATHISM IS BEING EXTENDED TO THE SYRIAN AND IRAQI ARMIES 
IN ADDITION TO MILITARY DUTY EACH SOLDIER MUST SPEND TWO HOURS 
A DAY BEING POLITICALLY INDOCTRINATED . BAATHIST POLICE OFFICIALS ARE NOW 
TRYING THEIR HAND AT BRAINWASHING POLITICAL PRISONERS, AND BOAST THAT THEY 
HAVE EVEN CONVERTED COMMUNISTS . AS LAST WEEK PROVED, BAATH CAN 
BE AS HARD ON ITS OWN LEADERS AS ON ITS ENEMIES 
. MICHEL AFLAK, AS SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE BAATH CENTRAL COMMITTEE, HAS 
SURVIVED AS THE ONLY STABLE ELEMENT IN BAATH . HE HAS 
NEVER MADE A RADIO OR TV SPEECH, SELDOM APPEARS IN PUBLIC, 
BUT HE IS A VIRTUOSO IN MAN-TO-MAN DISCUSSIONS, AND PREMIERS, CABINET 
MEMBERS AND GENERALS DUTIFULLY REPORT TO HIM FOR " ADVICE . 
" IN FACT, MANY OF THE DECISIONS IN LAST WEEK'S WHOLESALE 
FIRINGS OF BAATH LEADERS WERE HAMMERED OUT IN AFLAK'S MODEST, FOUR-ROOM 
DAMASCUS APARTMENT, WITH WASH FLAPPING ON THE BALCONY AND HIS TWO 
SMALL CHILDREN PLAYING UNDERFOOT UNTIL THE CRISIS FORCED HIM TO FLY 
TO BAGHDAD AND TAKE CHARGE PERSONALLY . HE WAS PLAINLY RELUCTANT 
TO DO SO . " I STAY AWAY FROM POWER, " 
HE SAYS . " I AM INCAPABLE OF GOVERNING . " 
AFLAK IS CONFIDENT OF ACCOMPLISHING ALL HIS VISIONARY GOALS IN HIS 
OWN LIFETIME . SAYS HE : " WE HAVE MANY INTELLECTUALS 
IN THE PARTY, BUT NOT ENOUGH EXECUTIVE AND TECHNICAL TALENT . 
WE NEED MORE TRAINED CADRES . WE NEED MORE FUNDS . 
WE NEED MORE TIME . WE NEED MORE OF EVERYTHING . 
" THE MAJOR PROBLEM IS WHETHER BAATH'S OLD ARAB ENEMIES AND 
NEW COMMUNIST ALLIES AS WELL AS ITS OWN IMPATIENT RADICALS WILL 
ALLOW THE PARTY THE TIME IT NEEDS . MEANWHILE, DOES AFLAK 
EVER HAVE NIGHTMARES ABOUT BAATH'S VICTIMS ? HE SAYS : " 
WE ONLY DREAM ABOUT OUR DESTINY . / 