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Hours after his bloody birthday party, Hassan was on the radio assuring his 15.5 million people that he was unharmed. During the broadcast he noted that his Arab ally, the far left revolutionary regime of Libya, had immediately supported the rebels and threatened to intervene (this would have been quite a feat, since it is separated from Morocco by 650 miles of Algeria). "Personally," said the King, "I will tell you about Libya in the most vulgar manner possible. I don't give a right royal damn." Meanwhile, Algeria's Houari Boumedienne, a devotee of Arab socialism who resents monarchs, issued no statements, but called his Cabinet into session to discuss the Moroccan events.
Absolute Power. Hassan could congratulate himself on surviving an attempted coup. But he could scarcely overlook the fact that apart from tiny Tunisia, he was a man alone in a North African littoral where the dominant mood is Nasser-style Arab socialism. Hassan introduced Morocco's first Parliament in 1963, but dissolved it 18 months later when it proved fractious and unproductive. Last year he set up a modified parliamentary system, but to all intents and purposes, he is still absolute ruler over the westernmost of the Arab lands. As a descendant of Mohammed, he has spiritual as well as temporal authority and frequently doffs his smart Western clothes for traditional Moroccan white robes.
Opposition parties have been trying to get him to doff some of his power as well. Angry over agriculture setbacks, unchecked population growth, the lack of jobs for graduating students, and the presence in Morocco of three sensitive Western bases, they have launched demonstrations and, according to the King, actual plots against the crown. Last month 192 people were put on trial in Marrakech for threatening the regime. There have been other less spectacular attempts on Hassan's life, and there are persistent reports that Moroccans are training in Algeria and Syria to overthrow the King.
At week's end Hassan and his followers seemed to be in control—though it was not yet certain whether Vice President Spiro Agnew would go through with his visit scheduled for next week. With its strategic position at the western gate of the Mediterranean, its status as a monarchy in the midst of revolutionary regimes and its domestic problems, Morocco seems too tempting a target to stay quiet for long.