What they do not want you to know about Nasser

The Nasser, what they do not want you to know.

Nasser, culture, and intellectuals:

The concept of neutrality was presenting itself to Gamal Abdel Nasser, yet due to his military background, he was still facing a question he found no complete answer for.

Due to his military background, Nasser viewed Egypt's geographical location as critical and challenging. He entertained doubts about whether the world's status quo and the balance of power would allow Egypt its neutral location and internal security. Thus, his days were spent consistently looking for those who can establish the concept of neutrality by applying it to the situation in Egypt, till he eventually built closer ties with the Indian ambassador, Sadar Panikkar, who was appointed in Cairo after the revolution. Sadar Panikkar was a first-class Indian intellectual whose experience in the Indian government, up until the independence, was rich and intensive. The last office Panicker assumed, before he was appointed in Cairo, was that of the Indian ambassador to the Peaple's Republic of China. Nasser was keen on inviting Panikkar to meetings and listening to what he had to say regarding the principle of neutrality, which India followed despite its membership of the Commonwealth at that time.

Meanwhile, Nasser occupied himself with reading a book authored by Panikkar, which was considered one of the most important books in politics, entitled "Aisa and Western Dominance", furthermore, he ordered the book to be translated into Arabic then distributed among the Revolution Command Council for them to read. Later, he ordered the book
to be printed and published for the public opinion in Egypt.

Panikkar had a broad-based relationships with groups of British intellectuals who belonged to the Fabian Society, and many of whom were either members of the British Labor Party, or representatives of it in the House of Commons. Nasser began to encourage Panikkar to invite the largest number of them to Egypt.

Moreover, Nasser met, during this period, with prof. Mahmoud Azmy, for the first time, who was one of the pioneers of the concept of neutrality in Egypt. In long sessions and in detail, they discussed together the fundamentals of his call for neutrality, and means to apply it to the geographical location of Egypt. After his long sessions with Nasser, Azmy would write a through study concerning all aspects of the issue to discuss it back with him (Later, Nasser decided to appoint prof. Mahmoud Azmy, who was a first-generation Egyptian intellectual, a permanent Head of the Egyptian Delegation to the United Nations).

Suez Files, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal.