The Moscow-Cairo Rift:

...He has to comply with the resolutions of the 81 Communist parties...

...Several leading Communists and other foes of President Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime have been killed over the past few years in Egyptian and Syrian prisons and concentration camps...

...Of course, there has been tension in the past between the two countries without any open split...

...The Soviet leader believes that in Africa and Asia, no less than in Europe, time is on his side, and that the young generation of Afro-Asian nationalists (including the majority of students in West European and Soviet universities) already regard Nasser, Iraqi Premier Abdul Karim Kassim, Guinea's President Sekou Touré and others as passe...

...Socialism is the first letter of the alphabet of the organization of human society...

...The Soviet monthly, Asia and Africa Today, called for an intensified struggle against "shortsighted Arab leaders"—without mentioning any names...

...like al Turk, he was traveling on a false passport while engaged in a secret mission...

...Egypt continues to be dependent on Soviet military assistance and economic aid, as well as political support...

...Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Fawzi was elected president of the conference at the planning session, and the foreign ministers of Yugoslavia and Indonesia were chosen as deputies...

...At the June 3 meeting in Cairo of the conference's preparatory commission, 20 countries were represented: India, Burma, Ceylon, Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Mali, Somali, Guinea, Ghana, Ethiopia, Morocco, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Yemen, Cuba, Yugoslavia and, of course, the UAR...

...The Kremlin would therefore be charged with violating the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of foreign governments...

...Similar Cairo-Moscow clashes have taken place in other African front organizations...

...In any case, the Soviet leader is likely to try to prevent a headlong clash...

...Accordingly, Khrushchev probably does not want to precipitate a complete break with Nasser, or any other neutralist leader, at the present time...

...There is good reason for assuming that the reports of al Helou's death are accurate...

...Even if the conference should fail to achieve all its aims, it will not help the many Communist African front groups...

...The UAR accused the Russians of "aggressive" statements and actions, of spreading false rumors and of interfering in the internal affairs of another country—a violation of the principles of peaceful coexistence...

...Soon after, on June 4, the Government-owned Egyptian and Syrian press launched a concentrated antiSoviet propaganda campaign...

...Rut UAR authorities never admitted al Helou's arrest and were unable or unwilling to produce him after his death was headlined in a story published by a Communist newspaper in Beirut a little more than six weeks ago...

...The text of his welcoming speech, published in the Cairo daily Al Ahram but not in the Soviet press, reads, in part: "If our people live better than you under the Communist banner, then how can you declare yourself averse to Communism...

...Nasser was said not to qualify: No one doubted the intensity of his anti-Western feelings, but this alone was not considered enough...

...You are like someone who is studying the alphabet...

...Indeed, Chinese pressure—as well as a number of other motives—may force Khrushchev to take strong action against the Afro-Asian nationalists sooner than he would if he were a free agent...

...This is probably true, since the Communists have shown little sympathy for the conference of uncommitted countries, at which they will not be represented...

...At the same time, the Syrian Tobacco Workers Union sent a cable to the Soviet Trades Union Congress, denouncing Russian workers as agents of world Zionism and disciples of "that Jew, Karl Marx...

...The Communists, however, were not nearly as concerned with the disappearance of al Turk—a minor functionary, even in the Middle East —as they were about the alleged murder of Farjallah al Helou, head of the Lebanese Communist party...

...For Russia, a break with the UAR would mean destroying much of the Kremlin's prestige in the uncommitted world...

...Resolutions adopted at that time stipulated that full Communist support should only be given to nationalist regimes that fulfill three essential prerequisites: They must 1) follow a consistent anti-Western line in foreign affairs...

...The people will tell you to get out Nationalism emanates from your hearts but this does not mean that happiness lies in nationalism . . . You are still in the first stage of thinking if you want to build up Socialism...

...The letter "b" is the beginning of Communism...

...Khrushchev warns UAR leaders: "Nationalism doesn't mean happiness" The Moscow-Cairo Rift By Walter Z. Laqueur The current battle of words between Moscow and Cairo heralds a new era in the Soviet Union's relations with the neutralist nations...

...But whatever the truth about al Turk and al Helou, it is doubtful that they alone are responsible for the present conflict...

...The Soviet Premier may try to soften the blow, but eventually he will be unable to avoid a conflict with Nasser and other neutralist leaders...

...This is not a happy prospect for the Kremlin, which has already experienced the first sobering consequences of polycentric Communism in its competition with China...

...Late in May, at the Casablanca meeting which gave birth to the All-African Trade Union Federation [see "African Labor Disunity," page 10], Nasser's representatives at first worked with the Communists and Pan-Africanists against the Democratic Socialist unions affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions...

...Al Helou-was imprisoned in Damascus in June 1959...

...But this is cold comfort to the Communists, for they find the very idea of being excluded from any neutralist initiative disagreeable...

...Two important newspapers, Al Gumhouria and Al Akhbar, have declared that the "black hatred of the Communists who have opposed Arab unity from the start" has been intensified by Egyptian - Yugoslav plans for a meeting of neutralist states...

...The battle began in May when Communist newspapers around the world announced that Ryad al Turk, a Lebanese Communist sent to Syria on a secret mission in October 1960, had been tortured to death in the Al Mazzah prison in Damascus...

...But Khrushchev himself does not have unrestricted freedom of maneuver...

...In recent months, the Soviet press has increased its attacks on the UAR: An article in the Literary Gazette complained about the large number of Hollywood films shown in Cairo and their pernicious effect on Egyptian youth...

...Detailed lists of their identities have been published by a "defense committee" which has its official headquarters in Paris...

...2) carry out "progressive" internal reforms...

...Once this is achieved and the Egyptians confront the Russians alone, conflict is inevitable...

...Instead, he probably will attempt to isolate the anti-Communist regimes within the neutralist bloc, or at least to cause a split between them...

...and 3) give local communists complete freedom of action...

...And the longer Khrushchev puts off attempting to establish greater direct control in Asia and Africa, the more firmly rooted become the various national Communist and radical nationalist regimes...

...Nasser's political aims are identical with Communist targets only in respect to the elimination of Western influence in the Middle East and Africa...

...But both sides quickly came to terms...

...Khrushchev himself was more outspoken when he met a top-level Egyptian delegation in Moscow two months ago...

...Cuba and Saudi Arabia, for example, have little in common, and it is difficult to imagine such arch-enemies as Ethiopia and Somali agreeing about anything...

...He is also under continuing pressure from the Chinese to adopt a harder line toward the neutralist bloc...

...In the winter of 1959-60, for example, Khrushchev called Nasser a rash and inexperienced young man, and the Egyptian press bitterly complained about the lack of Soviet sympathy for Arab national aspirations and Pan-Islamic unity...

...A radical anti-UAR stand on the part of the Soviets would undoubtedly be interpreted as an attack on Nasser for his persecution of Egyptian Communists...

...But the moment victory was achieved, a tug of war began between the former partners for control of the new organization...

...A similar reconciliation is quite possible in the near future, since Nasser and Khrushchev still realize they need each other too much to risk a complete break...

...THE NEUTRALIST conference is not the only recent example of Cairo's determination to play an independent role in Africa and the Middle East...

...According to a report by Hermann Matern, a member of the East German Politburo, Fidel Castro was cited at the November meeting as an example of a national democratic leader who meets all three conditions...

...The soviet line toward the UAR and other neutralist nations has been toughening ever since the meeting of the 81 Communist parties in Moscow last November...

...The United Arab Republic (UAR) responded by inviting journalists to visit the prison, where al Turk was produced and dutifully declared that he was receiving excellent treatment from his captors...

...The Cairo press has suggested an additional reason for the sudden deterioration of Soviet-UAR relations...

...Whatever the outcome of such action, the current Moscow-Cairo rift points up many of the problems faced by Moscow as it toughens its line vis-à-vis the neutralist nations...

...but Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who has long opposed the idea of forming a "neutral bloc," was won over in the end...

...Brazil, which had been expected to participate, only sent observers...

...It is unlikely that a real "bloc" will emerge from the conference, scheduled to be held in Yugoslavia later this summer...

...You place yourselves in a critical position and fall into the imperialist trap...