 Anwar Sadat with military officers ofEgyptian Army, 1971 | |
| Date | 15 May 1971 |
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| Location | Egypt |
| Participants | Anwar Sadat |
| Outcome |
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Thecorrective revolution, (officially launched as the "corrective movement")[1] often termedde-Nasserization,[2] was a reform program launched on 15 May 1971 by PresidentAnwar Sadat.[1][3] It involved purgingNasserist members of the government and security forces, often considered pro-Soviet andleft-wing, and drumming up popular support by presenting the takeover as a continuation of theEgyptian Revolution of 1952, while at the same time radically changing track on issues of foreign policy, economy, and ideology. This includes a large shift in Egyptian diplomacy, building ties to theUnited States andIsrael, while breaking from theUSSR and, after signing theEgyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty, Egypt's subsequent suspension from theArab League.
Sadat's corrective revolution also included the imprisonment of other political forces in Egypt, includingleftists and officials still loyal toNasserism. Sadat used the corrective revolution as a way to 'exorcise Nasser's ghost' from Egyptian politics, and to establish his domestic legitimacy.[4]
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Personal
3rd President of Egypt | ||
Shortly after taking office, Sadat shocked many Egyptians by the dismissal and imprisonment of Vice PresidentAli Sabri and Interior MinisterSharawy Gomaa, who controlled the secret police.[5] Sadat's popularity rose as he curtailed the secret police,[5] expelled Soviet military from the country[6] and reformed the Egyptian army for a renewed confrontation with Israel.[5] During this time, Egypt was suffering greatly from economic problems caused by theSix-Day War and the Soviet relationship also declined due to their unreliability and refusal of Sadat's requests for more military support.[7]
In an attempt to revitalize the economy, Sadat enacted theInfitah, a series of policies that attempted to open the economy to Western private investment. Despite significant changes in areas such as loan, tariff, and tax policies, the increase in capitalistic investment was disappointing. This was at least partially due to public hesitation to the change, not wanting to lose the gains in education, equality, and wages made during theNasser administration, or national sovereignty to foreign powers. The public sector therefore retained a large amount of control over the economy, leading Western investors to remain relatively suspicious of Egypt. Regardless, capital investments did come, and the economy experienced a slow but steady recovery in the following years.[8]
In the early years of his presidency, Sadat encouraged older, more moderate Islamist groups and intellectuals, freeing political activists imprisoned byPresident Nasser, and even promoting of ex-Muslim Brotherhood leaders such as Sheikth al Ghazali to state positions.[9][10] His motives were two-fold: provide a conservative foil to leftists that maintained the ideals of the previous administration, and to hopefully appease more rebellious Islamist movements, such as the rapidly growingal-Jama'a al-Islamiyya.[11] However, when Sadat began to initiate peace talks withIsrael in 1977, his tenuous management ofjihadist groups began to fail rapidly. These talks were a sharp change in Sadat's international policy, who said of Israel in 1970, "Don't ask me to make diplomatic relations with them. Never. Never. Leave it to the coming generations to decide that, not me."Most notably, despite Sadat's initial minimum demand forPalestinian self-determination, the treaty signed in 1979 made no definite plan for Palestinian independence.[12] By 1981, Egyptian discontent peaked, including multiple violent riots including various radicalIslamist organizations, to which Sadat responded with uncharacteristic force, detaining 1,600 opponents, followed by the forced expulsion of over 1,000 Soviet citizens he accused of conspiracy.[12] During a parade in October 1981,Sadat was shot by a group of extremists, connected to various Islamist groups.[13]
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{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| Major events before 2010 | |
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| Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014) | |
| 2017–present | |
