ABSTRACT
He soon showed unexpected strength and cunning in establishing himself. His fellow members in government had at first thought him to be a figurehead behind whom they could direct policy and were very surprised when he began to take independent initiatives, including new approaches to the United States, and his backing of yet another attempt at Arab unity-a proposed federation of Egypt, Libya and Syria. The proposal was approved by President Assad of Syria and pushed by the mercurial Colonel Qaddafi of Libya who had recently taken power after an army coup. Sadat rather hesitantly believed he was following Nasser’s unionist policies. The federation was used as a pretext for his opponents to come into the open; they were led by Ali Sabry, Vice Premier and former Secretary of the Arab Socialist Union. At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the ASU in spring 1971 Sabry and his supporters resigned in protest against the federation and tried to organise mass opposition to Sadat in the ASU and amongst the police. They failed because they could not appeal to any mass support and did not have much
unity of purpose amongst themselves. In any case Sadat moved too quickly for them and arrested all the conspirators in May 1971, thereby terminating what he called ‘the nightmare of the central struggle for power’. At a subsequent trial ninety-one of them were sentenced. At the same time Sadat strengthened his support within the army, promising it a strong and honourable future role in the state. In return it assured him that it was not involved in this ‘childsplay’. He was slowly establishing himself in power as his own man, shaking off any allegiance to or reliance on the heritage of the previous regime.
