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1969

Ahmad Hamrush, 'An Egyptian in Vietnam, Korea, and China' (Excerpts)

The author of the Arabic-language book from which these excerpts are derived from is Ahmad Hamrush (1921-2011). Involved in the Free Officers’ coup of July 23, 1952, Hamrush left the army in 1955, but stayed a regime insider. He became a historian who wrote a multi-volume history of the coup, among other books; he edited several journals including the army’s al-Tahrir and the famous political magazine Rose al-Yusuf; he was Secretary General of the Egyptian Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity in the 1960s; and he was a travel writer, as this book shows. It recounts a journey in 1968 to the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and North Vietnam.

Although in the 1950s and deep into the 1960s, African decolonization struggles had attracted much attention in the Arab world and perhaps especially in Arab North Africa, Asia was a key concern, too—in the 1960s especially Vietnam. This was of course not exceptional. As books like Quinn Slobodian’s Foreign Front: Third World Politics in Sixties West Germany (2012) have shown, Vietnam as a cause—and some Vietnamese as actors—helped midwife the German student movement in the 1960s. (In Germany, the shah’s Iran and Iranian activists mattered greatly, too, however.) To take two more examples, Vietnam as a mode and model of reference mattered to anti-Soviet Lebanese leftists in the 1960s, as Laure Guirguis’ “La référence au Vietnam et l’émergence des gauches radicales au Liban, 1962-1975” (2018) has shown, and Iranians—leftists and others—followed developments in Vietnam closely, as Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet has noted in “The Anti-Aryan Moment: Decolonization, Diplomacy, and Race in Late Pahlavi Iran” (2021).

What distinguishes this text is its timing. Hamrush reflects on a journey he made soon after the Six-Day War of June 1967. That month Israel inflicted a humiliating defeat on Arab armies, including Egypt’s, the most powerful Arab state. This drastically amplified concerns some already had had about President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s (1918-1970) regime and triggered much self-critique in books like Al-naqd al-dhati ba‘da al-hazima (1968; in 2021 translated as Self-Criticism after the Defeat) by the Syrian Marxist political thinker Sadiq Jalal al-‘Azm (1934-2016).

June 28, 1991

National Intelligence Daily for Friday, 28 June 1991

The CIA’s National Intelligence Daily for Friday, 28 June 1991 describes the latest developments in Yugoslavia, USSR, Algeria, Egypt and Vietnam.

September 3, 1965

Record of Premier Zhou Enlai’s Fourth Conversation with Guinea’s Minister of Posts and Communications Minister Diop

Zhou Enlai and Alhassane Diop discuss prospects a second Asian-African Conference as well as Soviet policy toward the Vietnam War.

June 25, 1965

Summary of Premier Zhou’s Conversation with President Nasser

Nasser and Zhou discuss the different reactions across Asia and Africa to the proposed postponement of the Second Asian-African Conference. Nasser also queries Zhou about developments in Vietnam.

April 19, 1965

Minutes of Conversation between Premier Zhou Enlai and Premier Kim Il Sung

The United Arab Republic and Algeria do not support Vietnam, and Sukarno agrees to speak at the Asian-African Conference.

May 26, 1966

Report from the Hungarian Embassy in Cario on Kosygin's visit in the UAR

This report describes the visit of Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin to the United Arab Republic (UAR) during which he reinforced positive relations with President Nasser and the UAR and discussed the Vietnam War, Sino-Soviet tensions, the Arab World, Israel, and economic concerns.

November 11, 1965

Record of Second Conversation of Premier Zhou Enlai and Vice Premier Chen Yi with Foreign Minister Pak Seong-cheol

Chen Yi, Zhou Enlai, Pak Seong-cheol, and Ri Ju-yeon have a detailed conversation about the situations in Indonesia, Algeria, Uganda, Mali, Guinea, and members of the Third World.

July 11, 1968

Communique on Yugoslav-Egyptian talks following UAR President Gamal Abdel Nasser's visit to Yugoslavia in 1968

Communique on UAR President Gamal Abdel Nasser's talks with Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito in Yugoslavia. The communique summarizes the topics discussed and affirms the two countries' friendly relations and commitment to working together in the future.

May 30, 1967

Report on the talks of Josif Tito with UAR Ambassador Abuzeid in Vanga

Tito and Ambassador Abuzeid discuss events in Egypt and the Middle East.