Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Suez War (1)
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Egypt's strongman Nasser had championed "Arab-style democracy (Korean-style democracy)," and it quickly began spreading across the Middle East.
"With a reformist and incorruptible military atmosphere, the nation gets tidied up cleanly, guiding society to a Korean-style endpoint. Just hearing it makes me swoon."
Iraq's young officer Abdel Karim Qasim drew a major lesson from Nasser's success.
If Nasser had succeeded, they could too.
Iraq's Free Officers renamed themselves the National Salvation Officers.
"How incompetent and backward the Arabs were in this war. The only way to revive this pathetic, rotten country is through Arab-style democracy."
The National Salvation Officers launched coup preparations to overturn the chaotic nation in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli War's defeat.
In preparing their coup, they referenced Yi Seong-jun's coup extensively.
"To succeed in a coup, we need to win over the field officers who control the actual troops."
The National Salvation Officers rapidly expanded their forces around young officers dissatisfied with the defeat.
Of course, they didn't spend months on coup preparations.
Dragging it out too long risked leaks.
After exactly one month of preparation, they launched a military coup on August 1, 1949.
They chose that day specifically because it was the day before Iraq's army promotion reviews ended.
This too was drawn from Yi Seong-jun's coup.
"Charge in!"
Qasim's coup forces scaled the palace walls in one go.
"R-Rebellion?"
Iraq's King Faisal II grasped the situation late and quailed at the coup troops' momentum.
"Your Majesty, o-our army can't hold them off."
Even the royal guard whined weakly, so Faisal II and the royals decided to surrender.
"W-We surrender. So end the bloodshed here."
With Faisal II ordering surrender, the coup ended in swift victory for the rebels.
Seeing the rebels spare them for now, Faisal II thought it a small mercy.
But the rebels had no intention of letting them live.
"Looking back, both Yi Seong-jun and Nasser made one mistake: sparing useless, threatening monarchs."
No sooner had the rebel command decided than they sent soldiers to execute the royals in the audience chamber.
Seeing the rifle-armed troops, Faisal II said,
"I'll give you the crown, the kingdom, my position—all of it. Just spare my life."
"Fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat.
Major Abdul Sattar Saba al-Iboushi killed the king, his uncle Abdul Illah, Illah's wife Princess Hiyam, Faisal's aunt Princess Nafsia, and others on the spot.
The merciless slaughter didn't end there.
"Get rid of the prime minister too."
Having finished the blood-soaked massacre, the coup forces proclaimed the Republic of Iraq.
"But the Iraqi royals are from the Hashemite clan. Killing the Prophet's kin like that?"
Everyone was aghast, but Qasim didn't care.
"What's so special about the Prophet's bloodline?"
What mattered was the politics they pursued.
Upon taking power, Qasim openly professed his faith in Korean-style democracy.
"From now on, we will advance as one community, one nation united under a single leader. Forget feudal tribes and monarchies. A new Arab world awaits us."
Qasim's rise deeply unnerved Israel.
"Egypt's already a headache, and now Iraq's taken over by Yi Seong-jun followers too. We need countermeasures, countermeasures."
"It's not like we can tell Yi Seong-jun, who's lounging in Pyongyang, to stop exporting revolution."
Korea wasn't exporting revolution for them to protest; this coup had happened independently of Korea.
David Ben-Gurion agonized over the issue.
Meanwhile, the Ba'ath Party was founded in Syria.
Mossad reported it was another group of radical Korean-style democracy followers.
It looked like Israel's neighbors were all turning into Korean-style democracies.
'This is bad.'
Israel was thoroughly frightened.
Even feudal Arab states were a handful for Israel; now these guys were modernizing(?) via Korean-style democracy.
If the Arabs invaded after that, what would happen to Israel?
'We can't allow that.'
They needed to strike first before it came to that.
Win once, and there'd be no more problems.
By then, Israel would have nukes too.
David Ben-Gurion gathered his cabinet ministers to discuss a preemptive war.
"To survive, we need a preemptive strike, right?"
"The problem's the justification."
This was Israel's biggest headache.
Even fascist imperial powers had retreated in disgrace after starting wars without justification.
A small player like Israel doing that would make it a pariah.
After debate, the Israeli government devised one approach.
"Cut off modernizing Egypt's funding?"
With American Jewish influence, it wouldn't be hard.
"If we squeeze their funding lifeline, how will Egypt react?"
"They'll scale back projects, obviously?"
Golda Meir shook her head.
"Once they've shouted reform, they can't retreat. Retreating crumbles their power base."
Ben-Gurion finally caught on to Meir's thinking.
Strangle Egypt's lifeline to force them to seek a new one.
There was only one nearby: the Suez Canal.
Its owners were weakened from colonial wars.
"Will Nasser so easily decide to take on the great powers Britain and France?"
"He will. He's a politician."
When thirst maddens you, you drink seawater despite knowing it's poison.
Nasser was no different.
Better to draw a sword than sit choked.
He'd think that preferable to weakening his base.
"If Nasser obliges, we'll have our war justification. Let's proceed as the lady says."
If Nasser seized the Suez Canal, Israel could launch a preemptive war under the pretext of aiding Britain and France.
That would be straightforward.
Israel's IDF, victorious against all Arabs before, could crush Egypt easily.
Israel began preparing its fireplay.
*
"Present, arms."
I posed for photos side-by-side with my Egyptian state guest, General Nasser.
A figurehead pretty face hovered over Nasser, but in substance-first Daehan, such things didn't earn head-of-state treatment.
Ah, real power matters.
I sat across from Nasser for a brief chat.
"Your Excellency, your policy advisory team has been a huge help. That New Community Movement, right?"
Essentially Park's Saemaul Undong wholesale.
Just tweaked the name to differentiate from the original.
"It's nothing special. Between you and me, right?"
Sometimes you have to spout nonsense like this.
Like I'd ever met Nasser to act chummy.
But celebs had a duty to indulge fans' wishes.
I wasn't cold enough to rebuff a fan who'd come to Pyongyang chasing Korean-style democracy.
"Haha, yes. Your Excellency and I are comrades in Korean-style democracy."
Nasser was more talkative than expected.
Since we'd started talking, I decided to offer him some advice.
"In ruling your country, you'll often face funding shortages."
"Yes, loans are already a headache. Did Your Excellency go through that too?"
"It's always the case even now."
I quickly drew the line lest he think I was asking for money.
Then Nasser lowered his voice and said,
"Truth is, I do have a bottomless money pit."
"If you did, wouldn't you have tapped it already?"
"You can't touch Suez that lightly."
What? Suez?
Is this guy nuts?
I hurriedly advised him.
"One piece of advice: never nationalize it abruptly."
"But why?"
"Britain and France won't sit idle. Is your Egypt ready to face them?"
Even toothless, a lion's a lion.
"Of course not."
Nasser seemed to acknowledge reality.
"Your Excellency, we're the long-view types. Chasing short-term gains can ruin everything."
That was the Suez War.
Nasser got the canal but at the cost of massive lives and war expenses.
Isolation from the West was a bonus.
Even after reclaiming it, Israel kept it unusable for years, so the Suez War was pure loss for Egypt.
We wrapped up our private talk and the informal summit.
At farewell, Nasser bowed to me.
"I'll treasure Your Excellency's advice like gold and jade."
Good, do that.
Middle East calm means peace of mind for me too.
Let's avoid big wars till we have nukes.
After that, fight if you want; I won't care.
So just five years of peace.
I'm not asking much.
I hoped Nasser wouldn't betray my expectations.