Editing Hafez al-Assad (section)

===Aflaqite leadership: 1963–1966===

====Military work====
[[File:Michel Aflaq and Salah Jadid in 1963.jpg|thumb|Michel Aflaq and [[Salah Jadid]], 1963.]]
Not long after Assad's election to the Regional Command, the Military Committee ordered him to strengthen the committee's position in the military establishment.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=89}} Assad may have received the most important job of all, since his primary goal was to end factionalism in the Syrian military and make it a Ba'ath monopoly;{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=89}} as he said, he had to create an "ideological army".{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=89}} To help with this task, Assad recruited [[Zaki al-Arsuzi]], who indirectly (through [[Wahib al-Ghanim]]) inspired him to join the Ba'ath Party when he was young.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=89}} Arsuzi accompanied Assad on tours of military camps, where Arsuzi lectured the soldiers on Ba'athist thought.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=89}} In gratitude for his work, Assad gave Arsuzi a government pension.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=89}} Assad continued his Ba'athification of the military by appointing loyal officers to key positions and ensuring that the "political education of the troops was not neglected".{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=90}} He demonstrated his skill as a patient planner during this period.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=90}} As [[Patrick Seale]] wrote, Assad's mastery of detail "suggested the mind of an intelligence officer".{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=90}}

Assad was in charge of the Syrian Air Force.{{sfn|Reich|1990|pp=53–54}} By the end of 1964 he was named commander of the Air Force, with the rank of major general.{{sfn|Reich|1990|pp=53–54}} Assad gave privileges to Air Force officers, appointed his confidants to senior and sensitive positions and established an efficient intelligence network.{{sfn|Reich|1990|p=54}} Air Force Intelligence, under the command of [[Muhammad al-Khuli]], became independent of Syria's other intelligence organizations and received assignments beyond Air Force jurisdiction.{{sfn|Reich|1990|p=54}} Assad prepared himself for an active role in the power struggles that lay ahead.{{sfn|Reich|1990|p=54}}

===={{anchor|The power struggle and the 1966 coup}}Power struggle and 1966 coup====
{{main|1966 Syrian coup d'état}}
[[File:Salah Jadid, strongman of Syria.png|thumb|General Salah Jadid, who launched a 1966 coup together with Assad.]]
In the aftermath of the 1963 coup, at the First Regional Congress (held 5 September 1963) Assad was elected to the [[Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|Syrian Regional Command]] (the highest decision-making body in the Syrian Regional Branch).{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=87}} While not a leadership role, it was Assad's first appearance in national politics;{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=87}} in retrospect, he said he positioned himself "on the left" in the Regional Command.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=87}} Khalid al-Falhum, a Palestinian who would later work for the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO), met Assad in 1963; he noted that Assad was a strong leftist "but was clearly not a communist", committed instead to Arab nationalism.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=88}}

During the [[1964 Hama riot]], Assad voted to suppress the uprising violently if needed.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=94}} The decision to suppress the Hama riot led to a schism in the Military Committee between Umran and Jadid.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=95}} Umran opposed force, instead wanting the Ba'ath Party to create a coalition with other pan-Arab forces.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=95}} Jadid desired a strong [[one-party state]], similar to those in the communist countries of Europe.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=95}} Assad, as a junior partner, kept quiet at first but eventually allied himself with Jadid.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=95}} Why Assad chose to side with him has been widely discussed; he probably shared Jadid's radical ideological outlook.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=96}} Having lost his footing on the Military Committee, Umran aligned himself with Aflaq and the National Command; he told them that the Military Committee was planning to seize power in the party by ousting them.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=96}} Because of Umran's defection, [[Rifaat al-Assad]] (Hafez's brother) succeeded Umran as commander of a secret military force tasked with protecting Military Committee loyalists.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=96}}

In its bid to seize power the Military Committee allied themselves with the regionalists, a group of cells in the Syrian Regional Branch that refused to disband in 1958 when ordered to do so.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=97}} Although Aflaq considered these cells traitors, Assad called them the "true cells of the party"; this again highlighted differences between the Military Committee and the National Command headed by Aflaq.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=97}} At the Eighth National Congress in 1965 Assad was elected to the [[National Command of the Ba'ath Party|National Command]], the party's highest decision-making body.{{sfn|Devlin|1975|p=330}} From his position as part of the National Command, Assad informed Jadid on its activities.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=187}} After the congress, the National Command dissolved the Syrian Regional Command; Aflaq proposed [[Salah al-Din al-Bitar]] as prime minister, but Assad and [[Brahim Makhous]] opposed Bitar's nomination.{{sfn|Rabinovich|1972|p=192}} According to Seale, Assad abhorred Aflaq; he considered him an [[Autocracy|autocrat]] and a rightist, accusing him of "ditching" the party by ordering the dissolution of the Syrian Regional Branch in 1958.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=98}} Assad, who also disliked Aflaq's supporters, nevertheless opposed a show of force against the Aflaqites.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=100}} In response to the imminent coup Assad, Naji Jamil, Husayn Mulhim and Yusuf Sayigh left for London.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=101}}

In the [[1966 Syrian coup d'état]], the Military Committee overthrew the National Command.{{sfn|Reich|1990|p=54}} The coup led to a permanent schism in the Ba'ath movement, the advent of [[neo-Ba'athism]] and the establishment of two centers of the international Ba'athist movement: one Iraqi- and the other Syrian-dominated.{{sfn|Seale|1990|p=102}}