| MILITARY COUP. The regime that succeeded it was controlled mainly by members of the BA`TH PARTY. The early years of the regime were a time of rapid growth for the Ba‘th Party, which had only about 400 civilian members in 1963. Another significant development unfolding during the remaining years of the decade was the gradual eclipse of the Sunni Muslims as a political force and the ascendency of the Alawi community. Overall, the men who ruled Syria were no longer drawn from the class of urban notables from Damascus and Aleppo. The new political elite, besides its marked military component, tended to incorporate men of a younger and more radical generation whose social roots lay in the countryside. | 2 |
