page_title: Salah al-Din al-Bitar
section_title: Second cabinet: 13 May – 4 August 1963
hierarchical_section_title: Salah al-Din al-Bitar / Terms as Prime Minister / First term / Second cabinet: 13 May – 4 August 1963
caption_attribution_description: English: Syria´s President Amin al-Hafez at Cairo Airport in August 1963 being greeted by President Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt / President Hafez had just come to power, five months after the Baath Party takeover. Standing to the far right is the Baath co-founder, Prime Minister Salah al-Bitar
context_page_description: Salah al-Din al-Bitar was a Syrian politician who co-founded the Arab Ba'ath Party with Michel Aflaq in the early 1940s. As students in Paris in the early 1930s, the two formulated a doctrine that combined aspects of nationalism and socialism. Bitar later served as prime minister in several early Ba'athist governments in Syria but became alienated from the party as it grew more radical. In 1966 he fled the country, lived mostly in Europe and remained politically active until he was assassinated in 1980.
context_section_description: Bitar's second cabinet was composed largely of Ba'athists and independents, however, six ministerial portfolios were left vacant for a possible reconciliation with the Nasserites. Hafiz was appointed deputy prime minister and also continued as interior minister. Unionist Ba'ath officials—such as Zuhur, Jamal al-Atassi and Sami Droubi—were not included in Bitar's second cabinet. General Ghassan Haddad, an independent, took over Zuhur's post as planning minister and Ziad al-Hariri, the independent chief of staff, was appointed defense minister. The formation of Bitar's second cabinet began a new phase in Egyptian–Syrian relations; the Egyptian government stated that Bitar's cabinet was an "unjustified blow to the Union's state". The Syrian media and press reported in kind, but their communiques made clear distinctions between Nasser and the "incompetent" people within the Egyptian government.
  A power struggle between Hariri and the Military Committee occurred between 23 June and 8 July 1963. The Military Committee viewed Hariri's independent power base with unease. Bitar supported Hariri in his conflict against the Military Committee; presumably believing that Hariri worked as a check on the Military Committee's growing power. On 23 June, when Hariri was on a diplomatic visit to Algiers, the Military Committee transferred his supporters from sensitive military posts and demoted Hariri to become Syria's military attaché in Washington. On the same day, a new Agrarian Reform Law—which abolished the 1962 Agrarian Reform Law and amending the 1958 one—was published. Bitar had promised to introduce a new agrarian law for some time; according to Rabinovich its publication was "probably fixed so as to serve the Ba'ath in its struggle against Hariri". Hariri resisted the Committee's move and promptly returned to Damascus to marshal his supporters. Neither Hariri nor the Committee sought a violent confrontation, and when it became clear that the Committee had a larger following in the officer corps, Hariri admitted defeat and left the country. He left for Paris on 8 July and was accompanied to the airport by Haddad and Bitar. Bitar reportedly had tears in his eyes when he said goodbye because he believed that without Hariri, the Committee would have full control over the military, leaving the civilian leadership considerably weaker in its competition for control of the Ba'ath Party.
  On 18 July, Jassem Alwan, a Nasserite officer, launched a coup against the Ba'athists. The coup failed but the Ba'athists' violent suppression of it was controversial—20 suspected conspirators were immediately executed. President Atassi was removed from his post on 27 July and was replaced by Hafiz; according to Rabinovich, the Ba'athists thought it unnecessary to have an independent figurehead after the failed 18 July coup. Alwan's attempted coup and Atassi's demotion affected Egyptian–Syrian relations. On 22 July, the traditional date for Nasser's Revolution Day address, Nasser stated that Egypt had withdrawn from the Federal Union Agreement, blaming the Ba'athists for the withdrawal. He condemned the Ba'ath as irreligious and heretical; the latter was particularly effective because many Syrian Muslims viewed the Ba'ath Party's open embrace of secularism and the fact that many party officials were Christians or belonged to heterodox Muslim sects with disdain. Once order had been restored after the coup attempt, Bitar dissolved his cabinet and appointed a new one on 4 August.
caption: Hafiz at Cairo Airport in August 1963 being greeted by Nasser. Bitar is standing to the far right
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