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Show -4- II - The assertion that a new American attitude toward the Arab world, and a new Arab attitude towards the United States, may be taking shape today, and the suggestion that, in the interest of everyone concerned, they should - that is to say, the belief that authentic improvement in American-Arab relations is now, for the first time in years, at once feasible and timely - is predicated on the fact that real, objective changes, affecting one of the major obstacles to American-Arab understanding and cooperation, have occurred since the summer of last year. The obstacle to which I am referring is the Arab pursuit, and America's active intolerance, of neutralism. Let us inquire into the changes which have occurred with respect to this obstacle. In the first place, neutralism, in one form or another, has come, since the summer of 1958 , to be embraced more widely and applied more actively than ever before as the official policy of governments in the Arab World. One by one, Arab governments committed to a foreign-policy orientation at variance with the basic tenets of neutralism have fallen, and have been replaced by governments pursuing a more or less neutralist policy in world affairs. At the s-ame time, Arab governments formerly half-hearted in their espousal of neutralism have become more actively dedicated to it. The Republics of Iraq, Lebanon and the Sudan belong to the first category; and the transformation in each case has been brought about by a revolution or coup d'etat. The Kingdoms of Morocco and Saudi Arabia belong.to the second category. This far-reaching change in the foreign-policy orientation of five Arab States took place in less than one year - between March, 1958 (when real policy-making authority was given to Prince Faisal in Saudi Arabia) and February, 1959 (when the government of Abdullah Ibrahim came to power in Morocco). Between these two dates, the revolutions in Lebanon and Iraq and the coup d'etat in the Sudan took place. |
