Do you think perhaps that Egypt's border with Israel had something to do with this?
Of course not. South Korea, shortly after being freed from Japanese colonialism, was invaded by successively North Korea, by international troops led by the US, and then by China. A major war was fought in the heart of their homeland. Egypt's cities , on the other hand, weren't occupied or destroyed by Israel. The fighting Egypt has been engaged in has been primarily in the sparsely occupied and undeveloped Sinai and in Yemen.
...the crushing of the nationalist leader Nasser specifically because he might have led Egypt on the same trajectory as South Korea
Nasser wasn't crushed - his aggressive plans to take over the southern part of Israel and move into Saudi Arabia were
frustrated, however. His efforts to establish a beachhead in Yemen (at one point he had 75,000 Egyptian troops fighting in the country) also failed. Nevertheless, he died in office. So it is wrong to say he was crushed. More correct to just say he was a colossal failure.
Nasser's socialist economic policies were also the opposite of the successful economic policies of South Korea. This is what Egypt's under-performance vis a vis South Korea should be blamed on. |
