ROOTS OF REVOLUTION

...The formal system of government in Iraq since that time has ranged from the British occupation and then the mandate to partial independence under the shadow of the 1930 treaty with Britain and the Bagdad Pact, and now to the republic established by the July 14 revolution...

...In the meantime, external pressure mounted on the governments of the Middle East to fall in line and join the various alliances and military pacts...

...This revolt was so serious that the minister of the interior, Said Qazzaz, declared in parliament ". . . we were actually fighting against international communism [sic] in 12 out of 14 provinces . . ." However, Nuri, thanks to the alertness of his police and their brutal methods, was able in the words of the New York Times, "to ride the storm safely...

...I share this joy, but as a resident of the United States for 10 years, I am disturbed by the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the true situation in Iraq that led to the revolution...

...to call for new "elections...

...On a single day 465 parties, clubs, and societies were ordered disbanded...

...When I visited Iraq two years ago I found that half of my high school teachers had been imprisoned or exiled...

...At the same time it moved the Soviet Union to campaign actively within the area in an effort to nullify and shatter the pact which was operating on her doorstep...

...Instead of feeling alarm, the people, the press, and the government of the United States should be happy that another nation has joined the "free world," after 40 years of unhappiness and fear and poverty...

...Only two professional organizations were allowed to function: the bar association and the medical association...

...As a result of the activities of the board the rich became richer and the poor became poorer...

...The decree which forbade assembly and demonstration of the people except with the consent of the interior minister, who was also authorized to disperse any illegal gatherings by force if necessary...

...But the restraint of his words veils the tremendous joy in the hearts of the Iraqi people that now they can have a taste of freedom, and an opportunity to educate their children and to enjoy the benefits of the material riches of their country...

...It has taken the first step towards equal rights for all the people by discarding the outmoded tribal law...

...The board has been generous in financing palaces, a grandiose but useless opera house, irrigation projects which benefited only Nuri's feudal landowners, and in building houses that were handed out to supporters of the old regime—and taken back if the support were withdrawn...

...The press in the United States hailed it as "a great personal triumph for the diplomacy of Secretary Dulles...

...All labor unions were dissolved and literally hundreds of patriots imprisoned, tortured, and exiled...

...The newly elected parliament met for one day and was adjourned never to be called back again...

...But widespread corruption, favoritism, and the granting of contracts to dummy companies nullified its impact on the people as a whole and put most of the money in the pockets of the already rich and powerful...

...Furthermore, he never hid his contempt for intellectuals and students...

...It was the end of an old, outdated, and hated regime and the beginning of a new, happier chapter in the history of my country...

...Nutting's prophetic words were fulfilled soon after by the Bagdad mob that shed the blood of the dictator Nuri es Said...

...It stiffened the opposition of President Nasser to the pact...

...He regarded this pact as another means of perpetuating Western domination of the area...

...charter and the principles of the Bandung conference...

...The people have varied in their response from actual revolution in 1920, to various small or scattered Kurdish revolutions, to numerous insurrection movements and general defiance...

...World War I marks the beginning SALIH WAKIL, assistant professor of enzyme chemistry at the Institute for Enzyme Research at the University of Wisconsin, is an Iraqi who has kept in close touch with political developments in his own country...

...Resistance to the absolute rule of the feudal sheiks was mounting, and demands for land reform were heard everywhere...

...The idea was to have the governments of the Middle East, principally Turkey and Pakistan, play an important role in the formulation of the alliance...

...it promised to call for a plebiscite to ratify a new constitution and to observe democratic principles...

...This is an outright violation of the Iraqi constitution which forbids the deportation of Iraqians...

...He attended school in Iraq, college at the American University, Beirut, Lebanon, and Is a graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle...

...A new drama was unfolding...

...There was no time even to type and to distribute the text of the pact to the deputies...

...His opposition was not based on jealousy, as the American press wanted us to believe, but rather on a deep-rooted mistrust of Western colonialism...

...This simple statement of a poor, elderly artisan who has lived through two generations of bloodshed and tyranny in our homeland expresses the feelings of the overwhelming majority of my fellow Iraqians toward the successful revolution...

...1946 stands out as the year of greatest relative freedom and democracy in the whole history of Iraq, for it was then that political parties and trade unions were permitted to function...

...An open revolt had swept the country in late 1956 in support of Egypt against French-British-Is-raeli aggression...

...ROOTS OF REVOLUTION by SALIH WAKIL Several days after the startling news of the revolt in Iraq on July 14, I received a letter from my father, a retired shoemaker in the city of Bagdad, the capital of Iraq...

...The Iraqi people immediately rejected/ this treaty and were so aroused that the ruling class was forced to retreat from its position and scrap the Portsmouth Treaty...

...The brutality of the regime varied from extreme savagery to mild repression, depending on the degree of resistance by the people, general conditions within the country, and the international situation...

...The nationality act, which authorized the interior minister to withdraw Iraqi citizenship from and deport anyone convicted under Article 89A...

...If there is any sympathy toward communism among the new Iraqi leaders, it has not been weakened by the short-sighted and self-contradictory policies of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, which have identified the United States so closely with the corrupt dictatorship which ruled Iraq with blood and iron...

...Nasser had just completed the settlement for the final withdrawal of British forces from the Suez Canal Zone and was in no mood to enter into new alliances...

...After World War II, conflict between the people and the ruling clique sharpened, and the dictatorship assumed an especially brutal form...

...The 1952 revolt brought on a government reaction more intense than ever in its brutality...

...It was under these circumstances that the "Portsmouth Treaty" was negotiated by the then prime minister Salih Jabir to bring the 1930 Treaty up to date and to establish a new relationship with Britain based upon the "common defense" of the two countries, with various concessions to British military and economic interests...

...But soon the ruling class discovered that this freedom would basically undermine their power...

...In June, 1954, a new parliament was elected with 13 members of the opposition squeezing through despite police efforts to interfere in their election...

...These two dependable allies, under the pretense of Islamic unity, were counted on to pull in other countries, such as Iran...

...Thus the Bagdad Pact came into being...

...and to "abrogate" the 1930 treaty with Britain...

...But for the first time in Iraqi history a prime minister had refused to give way to a mob that was howling for his resignation, if not for his blood (my emphasis), and this was something of the greatest significance for the future...

...Workers were massacred in Habania, in Basra, and the Zubiar-Basra oil fields...

...The fact is that the revolution would have come even if the United States and the Soviet Union did not exist...

...Nuri was pictured by the West as the great champion of democracy and Iraq was the bastion of "the free world"—but this view did not prevail within Iraq...

...Schools and colleges throughout the country were infested with government agents and secret police, resulting in the dismissal of hundreds of teachers...

...Immediately the government arrested anyone opposed to the 1948 treaty and another reign of terror swept the entire country...

...It even put King Saud and President Chamoun of Lebanon, both staunch supporters of the West, on the defensive, and they felt it necessary to disclaim any interest in joining the pact...

...Finally the logjam was broken when Secretary of State John Foster Dulles toured the Middle East in 1953 and hit upon the "brilliant" idea of the Bagdad Pact...

...The immediate reaction to this terror was the abortive uprising in November 1952, which can be regarded as a prelude to the successful 1958 revolution...

...The power of Nuri es Said could be depended upon to draft Iraq as the only Arabian member, thus opening the door to other Arab states to join...

...Immediately the government stopped publication of all newspapers, magazines, and leaflets, whether scientific, cultural, political, or religious...

...Of 145 candidates, 129 were unopposed...

...In short, it split the Arab world for the first time into pro-Western and anti-Western camps...

...A decree which authorized the interior minister to dissolve all political parties, societies, and clubs whether political, religious, economic, cultural, or scientific...

...Both from the historical record and from my own personal acquaintance with several leaders of the new government, I feel confident it will steer a democratic course...

...Nuri es Said had thus assured himself a 100 per cent victory...

...Throughout this period the real system of government can be described by one word: dictatorship...

...Surely a state of affairs like that I have just described could not have lasted for very long...

...He last visited Iraq in the summer of 1956...

...Now that Nuri had obtained his rubber stamp parliament, he proceeded to bring the Bagdad Pact into the open...

...President Nasser of Egypt immediately opposed this scheme...

...Following a public exchange of letters with the King, Nuri es Said agreed to take over the government and pledged: to dissolve the newly elected parliament...

...Then the government clamped down on the activities of political parties and the first bloody massacre of workers took place, near the oil fields in Kirkuk...

...Armed with these decrees, the government felt strong enough to call for "free elections...

...It has limited land ownership to 600 acres, thus breaking down the big estates of the feudal landlords...

...of the modern era in Iraq...

...It had its roots in the tyranny and feudalism within Iraq itself, the repression of freedom and the terror of the Iraqi rulers against their own people...

...On July 14 of this year the news was flashed all over the world of the creation of the new republic in Iraq...

...The pressure was mounting against Nuri's government as a result of such tactics...

...It sparked a serious uprising in Jordan which culminated in the dismissal of Glubb Pasha by King Hussein...

...Thus the attention of the West was focused on Nuri es Said and the crown prince Abdul Hah as the only dependable friends in that area who could make the Bagdad Pact succeed...

...This incident was used as a pretext to dissolve many trade unions and political parties and to launch a reign of terror throughout the country...

...The development board was established in 1952 with 70 per cent of the oil revenues (now over $300 million a year) being diverted towards its operation...

...One of them had had all his fingernails pulled out in prison, not for any overt act but merely because of his political beliefs...

...The mobile police came to the aid of Nuri's hatchet-men, the feudal sheiks, and did not hesitate to mow down the peasants and burn their huts...

...A decree which regulated publications within the country...

...The entry of the Iraqi forces into the Palestine war in May, 1948, brought martial law, declared on the pretense of protecting the rear of the army...

...But in spite of the United States' policies rather than because of them, the new government of Iraq indicated quickly and firmly a desire to maintain friendship with the West...

...Nuri laid careful plans for the signing of the pact at Bagdad on February 24, 1955...

...Moreover, very little money was spent on industrial development and the establishment of industries that would create jobs for the people...

...However, these gains did not last very long...

...Most of the American press views the revolt only in terms of the East-West power struggle, and since the old regime in Iraq was an ally of the West, it is assumed that the new regime must be an ally of the Communists...

...In language reminiscent of his close companion, the Koran, he said, "May I extend my congratulations on the establishment of our beloved republic...

...Hundreds of students were either jailed or drafted into the army and sent to "corrective" concentration camps...

...Much has been made in the American press of the Iraqi Development Board as evidence of a progressive, social-minded government under Nuri es Said...

...The prime minister was dismissed and a promise *was extracted that no such treaty would be approved if it did not comply with the wishes of the people...

...The board's program, on paper,« included the building of roads, bridges, dams, schools, houses, and similar worthwhile projects...

...Immediately on taking office his government issued several decrees: • Under the pretext of fighting communism, article 89A of the Bag-dadi criminal code was expanded to include the maximum penalty of execution or life imprisonment at hard labor for anyone "who advocates communism, is a member of the Communist Party, a member of peace partisans, a member of the democratic youth or the like"— (my emphasis...

...This dictatorship was almost invariably under the direction of Nuri es Said, who exerted his influence either directly while in office or by remote control from his comfortable retreats in Geneva or London...

...The labor union act, which authorized the interior minister to dissolve all trade unions and professional organizations...

...Nuri adamantly refused to accompany his economic development program, such as it was, with changes in the social structure...

...The new government, in its first decree, promised the people that it would uphold the U.N...

...Anthony Nutting, undersecretary of state in Eden's government, described the mood of the people at that time: "It had been a tough time, especially for Nuri with his record of sympathy towards Britain...

...Permits were reissued for only seven newspapers in the whole country...

...But resistance to such pacts had stiffened considerably among the peoples of the area...

...Police activities were not restricted to the urban areas but were extended to include the whole countryside...

...The Bagdad Pact isolated Iraq from Egypt and the rest of the Arab world...

...For those who knew the realities of the situation it was only a matter of time, the path was well marked, and the end was certain...

...With this parliament it took Nuri exactly 10 minutes to obtain complete approval of the pact from both houses...