Middle East: The Camel Driver

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President Nasser and President Kennedy have become close correspondents. "We are very frank with each other," says Nasser. "We don't exchange diplomatic words but express honest and frank opinions. I believe we have built up a confidence in each other." The confidence ex tends to U.S. Ambassador John Badeau, who speaks fluent Arabic and has unlimited access to Nasser, while his British counterpart sees Nasser only twice a year at formal meetings. The Communists are so convinced that the U.S. controls events in the Middle East that the Polish ambassador in Cairo stopped a U.S. diplomat at the entrance to a luncheon party and said bitterly: "I must congratulate you on your tremendous achievements in Iraq and Syria. You have made two great coups."

Jiggled Leg. At week's end in Cairo, the conferences on Arab unity droned on to the accompaniment of cigarette smoke and endless small cups of coffee. Nasser sat in on the negotiations, serenely confident that what finally emerged would be what he wanted. At 45, Nasser's hair has greyed at the temples, and he has given up tennis for the less demanding sport of swimming. He appears as physically fit as ever and retains his old nervous habits of jiggling his leg while sitting, and of smoking five packs of L. & M.s a day; like most Egyptians, he cannot stand the local brands. He still works twelve and 18 hours at a clip and is still the only man in the government who can be reached at any hour. A close aide says: "I've never heard of anyone getting chewed out for calling Nasser in the middle of the night. I do know of many who have been given unshirted hell for not calling him when something happened. He won't like you to say this, but it is still strictly a one-man show. He has lots of good technical help, but he trusts no one else with politics."

Even more than Russians, Arabs express their folk wisdom in proverbs, ranging from the cautionary (see cover) to the racially skeptical ("Better the tyranny of the Turks than the justice of the Arabs"). There are proverbs aplenty to fit the dream of unity. To the ambitious Nasser, other Arab leaders might point out the one that says. "The camel driver has his plans, and the camel has his." But proverbs are eclipsed by power, and last week nothing was more certain than that whatever unity scheme emerges in the Middle East, must, first of all, be satisfactory to Gamal Abdel Nasser. For of all the revolutions involved, only his in Egypt has survived and prospered for a full ten years.