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| 1965, Jan |
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| Nationalization of Syrian industry. | 1 |
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| 1966, Feb. 23 |
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| A MILITARY COUP brought down the military government of Salah al-Din al-Bitar, who was also leader of the Ba‘th Party. The victorious faction of the state and military was predominantly Alawi. The two major figures who emerged in the new government were Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad. | 2 |
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| 1970 |
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| Opening of the port of Tartus, which became the largest port in the country. | 3 |
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| Nov. 13 |
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| A MILITARY COUP toppled the government. HAFEZ AL-ASAD, the defense minister and mastermind of the coup, became president (Feb. 1971). His chief rival, Salah Jadid, was eliminated from the government. Assad also seized control of the Ba`th Party and took the further precaution of placing only trusted friends and clients in the high echelons of the armed forces. The army benefited immensely from Assad's benevolence (and anxiety), growing from 50,000 men in 1968 to 500,000 in 1986. Another feature of Assad's regime was the wild growth of the security apparatus, composed mainly of Alawis. By the late 1980s, 12 separate security forces were in operation, all carefully counterbalancing one another. | 4 |
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| Dec |
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| Proclamation of the Tripoli Charter, a proposed federation of Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Sudan. Though the plan never materialized, Arab unity remained an ideological priority of Assad's regime. Similar schemes followed throughout the 1970s, and all of them fell apart before they were realized. Among these failed attempts were a tenuous federation with Egypt and Libya (1971), an effort to merge with Iraq (1978), and preparations to unite with Libya (1980). | 5 |
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