Abdel Hakim Amer (11 December 1919-14 September 1967) was Minister of Defense and Chief-of-Staff of the Egyptian Army from 1956 to 1967, in both posts succeeding Hussein el-Shafei and preceding Zakaria Mohieddin. He also served as Vice-President from 1958 to 1965, preceding Mohieddin.
Biography[]
Abdel Hakim Amer was born on 11 December 1919 in Astal, Samallot, in Al Minya Governorate of Anglo-Egypt Sudan (present-day Egypt) and he joined the Egyptian Army in 1939. Amer served in the Israeli War of Independence of 1948-49 and he aided in the overthrow of Farouk I of Egypt in 1952, and in 1956 he was appointed the commander-in-chief of Egypt's army. He led Egyptian forces against Israel, France, and the United Kingdom's forces during the Suez Crisis and he was made the first Vice-President of Egypt in 1958 under General Gamal Abdel Nasser, the dictator of Egypt. He also aided the Yemen Arab Republic against Saudi Arabia-backed monarchists and he also served in the 1967 Six-Day War. In August of 1967 he was deposed for allegedly plotting against Nasser, and he chose the option of killing himself with poison honorably rather than be jailed and inevitably hung.