members of the People's Party. All ministers and pro-Hashemite statesmen were also abducted, and Parliament was dissolved. In protest, President Atassi presented his resignation to the disbanded Parliament, refusing to submit it to Shishakli, on 24 December 1951. Opposition to military rule During the Shishakli years (1951 to 1954), Atassi spearheaded the opposition, claiming that the Shishakli government was unconstitutional. He rallied the support of disgruntled officers, pro-Hashemite politicians, and members of all outlawed political parties, and called for a national uprising. In February 1954, Shishakli responded by arresting his son Adnan and placing the veteran statesman under house arrest. Such was Atassi's stature in Syria as its elder statesman that Shishakli dared not subject him to the indignity of outright imprisonment. The officers mutinied, political leaders mobilized against the government, and an armed uprising broke out in the Arab Mountain. On 24 February 1954, the government of Adib al-Shishakli was finally overthrown. Four days later, on 28 February, Atassi returned to Damascus from his home in Homs and reassumed his duties as President. He appointed Sabri al-Assali as Prime Minister, and restored all pre-Shishakli ambassadors, ministers, and parliamentarians to office. He tried to eradicate all traces of the four-year Shishakli dictatorship. Final years In what remained of his term, the 80-year-old president tried to curb the influence of military officers and worked relentlessly against the leftist current that was brewing in Syria, characterized by socialist ideology, sympathies for the Soviet Union, and blind adherence to the policies of the socialist leader of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser who were supported by members of the president's own powerful clan, such as Jamal al-Atassi and Nureddin al-Atassi. Atassi defied President Nasser and worked in vain to keep Syria out of his socialist orbit. Unlike most Arab leaders, Atassi believed that Nasser was too young, inexperienced and ideological to lead the Arab world. The Syrian President cracked down on Nasserite elements and clashed with his own pro-Nasser Prime Minister Sabri al-Asali, accusing him of wanting to transform Syria into an Egyptian satellite. In 1955, the President was tempted to accept the Baghdad Pact, an Anglo-American agreement aimed at containing Communism in the region, but Nasserite elements in the Syrian Army prevented him from doing so. He rallied in support of Hashemite Iraq, whose leaders were competing with Nasser over pan-Arab leadership, and was allied to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Sa'id. Atassi then dissolved