ABSTRACT
On March 8, 1963, a coalition of officers put an end to the conservative regime in the name of pan-Arabism via a coup d’état, one month after the Iraqi Ba‘athists had done the same in Baghdad. The new government, directed by Salah Bitar, reunited the unionist forces, including the Ba‘athists, representatives of the Arab National Movement, members of the Unionist Movement, and other Nasserist organizations, which were opposed to the separatist regime. Meanwhile, even as a minority, the Ba‘athist officers sought to expand their presence in the National Council of the Revolutionary Command and thereby gain exclusive control over the military sector of the party.
