The end of Amer
ONE MORNING some time after 5 June, Nasser called Amin Howeidi, then a minister of state at the cabinet, to ask him to take the necessary measures to reintegrate the Ministry of War and the army into the constitutional framework so as to "avoid another crisis". He urged Howeidi not to divulge the matter, but Nasser himself gave hints here and there in a bid to assess probable reactions.
The problem seemed to be that of defining the authority of the political and military spheres, and Howeidi told Nasser that he was not ready to participate in making another crisis. Attempts to discharge Amer had been underway. He had been placed under house arrest and his relatives had come from Upper Egypt to stay in his house, which had become a virtual fortress.
Nasser appointed a three-member committee composed of Sami Sharaf, the president's secretary for information, Shaarawi Gomaa, minister of the interior, and Howeidy, to draw up a strategy dubbed the "Johnson plan" to deal with Amer.
The plan went thus: Nasser would telephone Amer at home and ask him to visit him in Manshiyat El-Bakri. During the drive, Amer was to be arrested on Salah Salem Street. This aspect was modified for fear of the disturbance Amer's supporters could cause. The other option was to arrest Amer's supporters at his house. General Mohamed Fawzi would then ask the guards to leave.
Huweidy fills in the details of the meeting between Nasser and Amer. Amer refused Nasser's suggestion that he resign and remain in his house during the critical period. He became angry and insulted Nasser repeatedly. Howeidi remembers: "When I joined them in the room, Amer looked at me and said, 'It seems you have some plan ready.' Sadat stood there weeping; Hussein El-Shafei and Zakariya Mohieddin were silent. Amer went into the bathroom and came out smiling, holding a glass of water. He told me: 'Go tell the president that Amer took poison.'
"When I went upstairs, Nasser was in his pyjamas and slippers. I delivered the message, but Nasser refused to believe it. He exclaimed: 'Amer is a coward, and if he had the courage to commit suicide we would have not been in this mess in the first place.'
"The doctor was called, however, and Amer was saved. I drove him home."
Amin Howeidi says that Amer repeatedly attempted to commit suicide. He swears no one killed the commander-in-chief but he himself.
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