Editing Hafez al-Assad (section)

====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}}