1970 Syrian Corrective Revolution

Syrian Corrective Revolution
Part of Cold War
Date 13 November 1970 Location Syria Result Overthrow of Salah Jadid Anti-leftist purge inside the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Syria Hafez Al-Assad becomes President of Syria
Belligerents
Syrian Government	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Syria Syrian Armed Forces Syrian Army Syrian Navy Syrian Air Force Syrian Air Defense Force Air Force Intelligence Directorate Military Intelligence Directorate
Commanders and leaders
Salah Jadid Nureddin al-Atassi	Hafez Al-Assad Ahmad al-Khatib Mustafa Tlass

Part of a series on
Ba'athism
Organisations Arab Ba'ath (1940–1947) Arab Ba'ath Movement (1940–1947) Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1947–1966) pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement (1966–present) pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement (1966–present)
People Zaki al-Arsuzi Michel Aflaq Salah al-Din al-Bitar Wahib al-Ghanim Fuad al-Rikabi Salah Jadid Hafez al-Assad Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Saddam Hussein Bashar al-Assad Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri
Literature Ba'ath Constitution On the Way of Resurrection The Battle for One Destiny The Genius of Arabic in its Tongue
History Ba'athist Iraq Ramadan (8 February) Revolution November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état 17 July Revolution Iran–Iraq War Gulf War UN sanctions Iraq War Ba'athist Syria Syrian Committee to Help Iraq 8th of March Revolution 1966 Syrian coup d'état Corrective Revolution Syrian civil war
Regional organisations Algeria: pro-Iraqi Bahrain: pro-Iraqi Iraq: pro-Iraqi, pro-Syrian Jordan: pro-Iraqi, pro-Syrian Lebanon: pro-Iraqi, pro-Syrian Libya: pro-Iraqi Mauritania: pro-Iraqi Palestine: pro-Iraqi, pro-Syrian Sudan: Neutral, pro-Iraqi, pro-Syrian Syria: pro-Iraqi, pro-Syrian Tunisia: pro-Iraqi Yemen: pro-Iraqi, pro-Syrian
Related topics Arab nationalism Arab socialism Nasserism Pan-Arabism Saddamism
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The 1970 Syrian Corrective Revolution, referred to as the Syrian Corrective Movement, was the takeover by a military-pragmatist faction within the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party regime of Syria on 13 November 1970, bringing Hafez Al-Assad to power.

Background

General Hafez Al-Assad in 1970, during the Corrective Revolution

Politics were Al-Assad's lifelong interest. As a schoolboy, he joined the pan-Arab nationalist socialist Ba'ath Party, and rose to be a student leader. He joined the air force and became a conspirator, plotting with a small group of officers to overthrow the government, a task accomplished in 1963.

In 1966, another military coup resulted in an internal power change within the Ba'ath party. Regardless of the 1966 dismissal of the "old guard", personal ambition and sectarian factionalism as well as ideology differences led to continuous infighting. Many of the Baath Military Committee members left or were ousted, leaving two main factions—one of Salah Jadid and another by Hafez Al-Assad.

As a young and inexperienced defense minister in the 1967 war, Hafez Al-Assad presided over the loss of the Golan Heights. In 1970, he sent the 5th Infantry Division, reinforced by other units, into Jordan to help the Palestinians against King Hussein, but had to beat a humiliating retreat when the Jordanian Air Force intervened .

1970 Revolution

The 1970 Corrective Revolution was directed against a dominant left-wing faction of the party and, to some extent, provoked by what Al-Assad and his supporters saw as adventurous and irresponsible foreign policies (notably the Syrian intervention in the Black September conflict in Jordan, after which the Black September Palestinian faction was named). As a result of the coup, de facto leader Salah Jadid was ousted and the party was purged. This revolution turned Syria's social and political structures upside down. The Alawites, Al-Assad's tribe, although no more than 12% of the population, came to occupy plum positions in every sector of life in Syria.

See also

• Ba'athism
• Ramadan Revolution
• 8th of March Revolution
• 1966 Syrian coup d'état
• 1999 Latakia protests
• Syrian Civil War (2011–present)
• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East