Word: bourguiba
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When Tunisian students passed a bristling condemnation of U.S. policy in Viet Nam last month, President Habib Bourguiba decided to give them a cooling little lecture himself. His message, rare in the Arab world for its espousal of U.S. views: "If the Vietnamese guerrillas could contain the American Army, China would not hesitate to unleash its masses on South Viet Nam, Asia and even Russia." Later, Bourguiba described his fellow Arabs' belligerence against Israel as "vain obstinacy" and Gamal Abdel Nasser's closing of the Gulf of Aqaba as "a monumental miscalculation." He has also shocked Moslems...
...that he unabashedly calls "Bourguibism." Bourguibism is shaped by the belief, he explains in the Cartesian style that he acquired in elite French schools, that "no domain of terrestrial life must escape man's power of reason." Ever since the French left him to rule Tunisia in 1956, Bourguiba has been trying to apply reason to nation building. He has not always succeeded, but there are increasing signs of more success than failure...
Ahmed Shukairy, the fiery chief of the Egyptian-based Palestine Liberation Organization and a special Nasser guest in Khartoum, blasted right back, labeling Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba "a traitor to the Arab cause" for having advocated peace talks with Israel back in 1965. Furious, Slim stormed out of the conference hall. "There is no justification for Mr. Shukairy's presence," he told reporters. The arguments increased in intensity until Syria's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Makhous went on Khartoum television to announce that the whole conference was "a farce and a waste of time...
...reason and reasonableness of the Israeli terms, they have thus far been rejected outright by the defeated Arabs. With the sole exception of Tunisia, whose President, Habib Bourguiba, has long argued for making peace with Israel, the Arab governments still refuse to recognize the existence of the Jewish state. At the U.N. last week, the Arab nations and their supporters seemed determined to win back by diplomacy what their armies had lost in battle...
Secret Talks. Some Arab moderates have already disclaimed the charge of U.S. involvement in the war, are anxious to maintain their ties to Washington. Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba is encouraging stranded tourists to visit his country. Even in Egypt, Foreign Office officials called in several Western European ambassadors last week, secretly asked them how Nasser could mend his relations with Washington without losing face. For all of Nasser's pro-Soviet posturing, the Communist Party is still outlawed in Egypt, and he does not want to plunge irrevocably into the Russian camp...