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With skill, Dictator Nasser last week sought to display a double image: an Egypt under calm discipline, an Arab world up in arms. The Arab League's political committee, ever ready to accent the negative, met in Cairo and strongly endorsed Nasser's seizure of the Suez. On the day the London conference began, all Egypt stopped work for 24 hours, and stopped talking for five minutes, in protest. About the only operation in the country unaffected by the strike was the daily passage of ships through the canal, which the government's control agency ordered to continue as usual. In Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, Western-owned pipelines stopped pumping oil for most of a day. In Libya, police used tear gas to break up a pro-Egyptian demonstration. Nasser's propaganda news agency proclaimed the organization at a secret session "somewhere in Jordan," of an Arab underground stretching from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf. "Particular stress was laid on the importance of destroying oilfields and pipelines and paralyzing work of all imperialist companies sucking the blood of Arab peoples." That was the clenched fist of the man with the cigarette in his other hand.
Gamal Abdel Nasser is a tall (6 ft.), hefty Egyptian of 38 who just four years ago was an unknown infantry officer in a beaten and discredited army. Not very long ago, Western leaders (and even Israel's) saluted him as a genuine, responsible leader at last in the Middle East, a young man whose forceful vision might yet bring tranquillity where there was chaos. Today, having seized control of the world's most important waterway, he is defiantly whipping up Arab hatred to drive the Western powers from the Middle East. Said one Western expert: "We thought we were dealing with a kitten. In fact it was a leopard."
There are other names for him too. London's Tory Daily Mail calls him "Hitler on the Nile." The Peking press coos: "Egyptian brother." France's Premier Guy Mollet has called him "a megalomaniac" dictator. "This is how Fascist governments behave," warns Sir Anthony Eden. The Cairo press calls him "savior of the people," the Israelis say "highway robber," "treacherous wolf." Nehru's private verdict: "Too young and inexperienced." To France's Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, Nasser is "a congenital liar."
"One-Card Game." Nasser's own view of himself is as a man of destiny, fitted to play a role in the Arab world "wandering aimlessly in search of a hero" (see box). "We are in a position to ruin the West if we set to work and stop talking," he has said.