Salah Salim

Salah Salem (; September 25, 1920 – February 18, 1962) was an Egyptian military officer and politician who was a prominent member of the Free Officers Movement that orchestrated the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

Early life and military career Salem was born in 1920 to an Egyptian family in Sinkat, Sudan, which was a colony ran by Egypt and Britain under a condominium, at the time. He was raised in the Hilmiyyat Gadida neighborhood of Cairo, where he was educated at the Ibrahimiyyeh School. In 1938, he graduated from the Royal Egyptian Military Academy. He graduated from college in 1948. That same year, Salem served in the Egyptian and Sudanese army in the Palestine War as an infantry officer. Salem, Amer and Abdel Latif Boghdadi were included in the eight-member executive committee of the Free Officers.

Career under Naguib and Nasser In the initial stages of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 that overthrew King Farouk, Salim was given the task of commanding artillery units in al-Arish. Afterward, he became a member of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). Salem was committed strongly to preserving the Egyptian union with Sudan, which was under continual threat by the United Kingdom, which had occupied Egypt and Sudan since the end of the 19th century.

Salah Salem photographed in Sudan in 1954. The photo earned him the nickname the "Dancing Major" Salem earned the nickname the "Dancing Major" after being photographed dancing with Sudanese tribesmen. Accusations that he was bribing Sudanese politicians later caused Naguib to block Salem's appointment as the Egyptian government's representative in Khartoum. He condemned Iraq's membership of the Baghdad Pact, saying: "This is a serious development which may threaten the Arab League and expose Arab nationalism to great dangers..." On January 31, 1955, he along with foreign and prime ministers from Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri as-Said. The meeting ended with a realisation that the demands of Said's Iraq and Nasser' Egypt were irreconcilable.

In the Suez Crisis of 1956, known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression, Salem is said to have demanded that Nasser hand himself over to the British forces invading the country, as a means of ending the war.

In 1957, Nasser appointed Salem the editor of Al-Shaab newspaper. In 1960, Salem was made chairman of the Press Syndicate. Salem died in 1962 of chronic kidney disease, after seeking treatment both in the Soviet Union, and the United States. A major street in Cairo is named after him.