Abd al-Hakim Amer

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Abd al-Hakim Amer

Mohamed Abd al-Hakim Amer ( Arabic عبد الحكيم عامر, DMG ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm ʿĀmir ; * December 11, 1919 ; † September 14, 1967 ) was an Egyptian field marshal and commanded the Egyptian army in the Suez Crisis and the Six Day War .

Life

Amer was born in the Minya Province of Egypt in 1919. After completing civilian schooling, he attended the military academy in Cairo and was drafted into the Egyptian army in 1939. In 1948 he served in the first Arab-Israeli war .

Amer played a leading role in the officers' coup against the Egyptian monarchy in 1952 , which brought the two military men Nasser and Muhammad Nagib to power. The following year Amer was promoted to chief of staff. In 1956 he became the head of the united military command, which was set up due to the political rapprochement between the two states of Syria and Egypt. He also led the Egyptian forces in the Suez Crisis against Israeli and British-French forces. In 1964, Decree 117 followed, with which Amer also had the powers of the Minister of War transferred to his role as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, thereby gaining control over the defense budget.

The lost war of 1967 marked the end of Amer's career. He was dismissed from his post and given early retirement. But as early as August of the same year the regime was preparing a show trial to present the people with a scapegoat for the lost war. Amer was arrested with fifty military men and civilians, including two ministers, on the pretext of preparing a coup . On September 14, 1967, he was given the choice between charges and suicide by senior officers. Since the outcome of the proceedings was clear from the start, Amer chose suicide by poison . According to another account, Amer was taken to hospital the day before his death after a first suicide attempt using poison tablets, returned home the next day and died after a second suicide attempt. He was buried with full military honors.

Amer was close friends with Nasser. He had married one of his daughters to Nasser's younger brother. Nasser gave his son the first name Abd al-Hakim, following Amer's example.

Rating

Mohamed Fawzi , General and Minister of War under Nasser, described in his memoirs how Amer played an important part in the failure of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria in 1961 through wrong decisions , and how Amer exploited his personal relationship with Nasser to continually gain further powers finally, in 1962, got Nasser to sign Decree 2878. The deputy commander-in-chief no longer seemed obliged to the control authorities, but only to give an account to Nasser. Decree 117 followed in 1964, with which Amer also had the powers of the Minister of War transferred to his role as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, thereby also gaining control over the defense budget. In 1966 powers were to be shared again, but Amer had already installed Shams Badran , a favorite, as Secretary of War. Fawzi concluded that Amer was building a favoritism in the military in which officers cared more about personal enrichment than about the effectiveness of subordinate units. He attributed the defeat against Israel in the Six Day War in 1967 to misjudgments and decisions by Amer and Nasser and their conflict over control of the Egyptian military.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tough Times for Nasser Time , September 22, 1967
  2. ↑ Michael Oren: Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, New York, 2002, p. 40
  3. ↑ Youssef H. Aboul-Enein: “Reconstructing a Shattered Egyptian Army: War Minister Gen. Mohamad Fawzi's Memoirs, 1967-1971”, US Naval Institute Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-61251-460-4 , p. 13, 14th
  4. ^ A b Youssef H. Aboul-Enein: "Reconstructing a Shattered Egyptian Army: War Minister Gen. Mohamad Fawzi's Memoirs, 1967-1971", US Naval Institute Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-61251-460-4 , pp. 5 to 10
personal data
SURNAME Amer, Abd al-Hakim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Amer, Abdel Hakim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian general
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Minya Province, Egypt
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1967