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Seven days after the triumphal signing, Nasser faced a cheering mob in Alexandria. As he rose to make his speech a man stood up in the audience and fired eight shots at him. Nasser remained standing and all shots missed. His first cry was, "Arrest that man." Then he stepped to the microphone: "Oh, my men, stand in your places. Oh, free men, stand. I revolted for your sake. I taught you dignity and self-respect. Oh, my citizens, my men, I brought to this country dignity and freedom, and I fought for your sons. Oh, free men, stand." The panic died away. Egyptians stopped and turned to listen to the passionate, guttural Arabic streaming out to them from the excited, exciting man who had stood so close to death. "Raise your heads, brothers, because the days of feudalism and colonialism are past." It was a moment, perhaps the moment of truth for Gamal Nasser; it gave him the inspiration and the chance to step from the background and assume open command.
For one thing, the attempted assassination made it possible to break the Moslem Brotherhood's power to interfere with his aims. Six Moslem Brothers were hanged—one of the rare acts of bloodletting of the Nasser revolution. The Brotherhood's leadership was immobilized. By a curious coincidence, it was noted that a pamphlet put out by the Brotherhood bore traces of Naguib's hand. The genial general was asked to go, and meekly went into isolation in an expropriated palace on the Nile. Said Nasser: "He was a good man, though a simple one. He was really ignorant. Power spoiled him."
Since then, Nasser has gradually winnowed others from his inner circle and exerted a more commanding hand over the young officers of the Revolutionary Command Council. ("The Free Officers are my parliament," he once said of them.) In the first days of power, there were 14, and they met daily for six to eight hours to deal with problems as they arose. Today there are nine, all of them demonstrably loyal to Nasser personally. Among the departed are two said to be Communists (Yussef Siddik and Khaled Moheddine) and Abdul Moneen Amin, removed for disloyalty. Salah Salem, Nasser's vociferous Minister of National Guidance and Sudanese Affairs, famed as "the dancing major" of the Sudan (TIME, Sept. 12), was booted out recently because he had bungled the Sudanese program—or had been picked to take the blame. Cairo buzzed with talk that others also are on the way out.
While he expands his personal power, Nasser is coming closer to the day next January when he has promised to transform his military rule into representative government and give Egyptians a parliament. Not even Gamal Nasser himself seems certain that he will keep that promise. "Throughout my life," he confesses, "I have had faith in militarism." The army is the only sector of power he so far has found it possible to trust, and even there he fears that unless he can provide more equipment, morale will fall and officers will weaken to subversion from the Communist left or the passion-inflaming Moslem extremists.