History of the Republic of Egypt
On 22–26 July 1952, the Free Officers, a group of disaffected officers in the Egyptian army founded by Gamal Abdel Nasser, and headed by General Muhammad Naguib, initiated the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 with the overthrowing King Farouk, whom the military blamed for Egypt's poor performance in the 1948 war with Israel and lack of progress in fighting poverty, disease, and illiteracy in Egypt. In the following two years, the Free Officers consolidated power, and, following a brief experiment with civilian rule, abrogated the 1953 constitution, and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953, Muhammad Naguib as Egypt's first President.
Afif al-Bizri
Bizri led the officer delegation that pleaded with Nasser for a full union between Syria and Egypt in 1958. He personally participated in the talks that eventually led to the establishment of the United Arab Republic on February 1, 1958. However, Bizri fell out with Nasser soon after the union because Nasser appointed his friend Egyptian General Abdel Hakim Amer as governor of Syria. Nasser distrusted Bizri's communist leanings, and eventually dismissed him from office in June 1959, and outlawed the communist party soon after.