8 March Revolution - Planning

Planning

In 1962, the Military Committee of the Syrian Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party spent most of its time plannining to take power through a conventional military coup. The Military Committee decided it had to capture al-Kiswah and Qatana, two military camps, seize control of the 70th Armoured Brigade at al-Kiswah, the Military Academy in the city of Homs and the Damascus radio station. While the conspirators of the Military Committee were all young, the sitting regime had been slowly disintegrating and the traditional elite had lost effective political power.

For the coup to be successful, the Military Committee needed to gain the support of some of the Syrian officer corps. The collapse of the United Arab Republic (UAR), coupled with mutinies, purges and transfers left the officer corps in complete disarray and open to anti-government agitation. At the time, the officer corps was split into five different factions; the Damascus faction which supported the ancien régime, supporters of Akram al-Hawrani, a Nasserist faction, a Ba'athist faction and a group of independents. The Damascus faction was the enemy of the Military Committee because of their support for Nazim al-Kudsi's regime and the Hawranist were considered as rivals because of their stance against pan-Arabism. The Nasserists became allies of the Ba'ath, even while they supported Gamal Abdel Nasser and the reestablishment of the UAR.

The Military Committee's alliance with the Nasserists led to the establishment of secret contact with Colonel Rashid al-Qutayni, the Head of the Military Intelligence, and Colonel Muammad al-Sufi, the Commander of the Homs Brigade. The Military Committee ordered a group of junior officers to recruit the leading independent Colonel Ziad al-Hariri, the Commander of the front facing Israel, to their cause. The group was successful, and they promised al-Hariri that "If we succeed, you can become chief of staff. If we fail, you can disown us." Al-Hariri supported the committee because Khalid al-Azm, the Prime Minister of Syria, was planning to demote him.

While it planned the coup, the Military Committee and its members were frowned upon by civilian Ba'athists. The reason for the army–party alliance in the first place was to safeguard the party from repression. The Military Committee did not look favourably on the civilian leadership led by Michel Aflaq, objecting to his dissolution the Ba'ath Party during the UAR years. While Aflaq needed the Military Committee to seize power, the committee needed Aflaq to hold on power – without Aflaq they would have no support base. At the 5th National Ba'ath Party Congress, held on 8 May 1962, it was decided to reestablish the party and keep Aflaq as Secretary General of the National Command. Muhammad Umran, a leading member of the Military Committee, was a delegate at the 5th National Congress, and told Aflaq of the Military Committee's intentions – Aflaq consented to the coup, but no agreement was made between him and the Military Committee on how to share power after the coup.