The Iraqi Revolution of 1958 by Romero Juan;

Author:Romero, Juan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UPA
Published: 2011-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Peaceful and violent popular reactions

The population of Baghdad and other cities took to the streets in celebration of the overthrow of the old regime and their newly won freedom. Some scholars and analysts have argued that the crowds that filled the streets in Baghdad were “a mob of hundreds of thousands . . . milling through the streets screaming its joy and its thirst for vengeance . . . The revolutionaries were apparently unprepared for this reaction . . .”21 The Baghdadis had been encouraged earlier in the morning in ‘Arifi’s radio address to come out into the streets and watch the revolution unfold. A report from the American Embassy in Baghdad refers to another public announcement, the issuance by the Military Command on July 15 of Republic Order No. 8. The Order can without too much stretch of the imagination be interpreted as inciting the Baghdadis, since it promised a reward of ID 10,000 ($28,000) “to whomever arrests the traitor Nuri al-Sa‘id who escaped from the people’s anger.”22 A third instance of the Free Officers inciting the population occurred later the same day after Nuri al-Sa‘id had been killed and ‘Abd al-Salam ‘Arif called on Baghdadis to “come and see the body of the ‘enemy of Allah’ and the people”.23 “The enemy of Allah,” ‘adu al-Ilah is a pun on ‘Abd al-Ilah, the meaning of which is “servant of god.” The American Embassy report from Baghdad also states that “[s]ome reliable sources reported that the larger mobs and groups were harangued and incited to specific action by known Ba‘thists.”24

One can infer from the account referred to in the above paragraph that the demonstrators had evil intentions and that they appeared to have been “organized” by the insurgents to a certain extent over the radio; the latter assertion is confirmed by the Embassy report quoted above. This does not exclude the possibility that some crowds could have been organized or incited by other forces. The report, written by the Second Secretary at the American Embassy in Baghdad, also states the following: “[T]he mob was called out, assisted with transportation, and incited to action early on the morning of July 14.25 The secretary further states that the task of mobilizing mob support had been “sub-contracted” by the Free Officers to Ba‘thist leaders. This was confirmed by reliable sources who had identified some of the agitators inciting the mob as individuals “associated with the local Ba‘thist organization.”26 Furthermore, the Iraqi Army had, according to Embassy witnesses, been directly involved in transporting young men early on the morning of July 14 from outlying areas of Baghdad in military vehicles; other young men were transported in civilian vehicles.

Norman Daniel, an eye-witness to the Iraqi revolution, gives an account of the first hours of the revolution diametrically opposite to that of Dann and the second secretary at the American Embassy, emphasizing: “No one who was on the streets that morning will doubt the cheerful air of spontaneity with which this celebration of sudden freedom began .

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.