[An unpleasant surprise in cucumber time]
Drawing by L. Jordaan, published in Vrij Nederland 19 July 1958.

On 14 July 1958, a coup-d'état took place in Baghdad. The new Iraqi regime sympathized with the Egyptian president Nasser who opposed the western-inspired alliance of Arab countries under the Treaty of Baghdad (1955). Western heads of government now find their interest in oil under siege.