The sudden and unexpected death of Muhammad V on February 26, 1961, during minor surgery unleashed a torrent of grief from a people who had come to revere the shy and retiring figure who, by sheer force of will, had become father of the nation. Designated as heir apparent in 1957, the thirty-two-year-old Crown Prince Hassan was of a different temper. He stayed close to his father’s side throughout the last tumultuous years of French rule, absorbing the lessons of political survival at home and in exile. Educated at the palace by a battery of French and Moroccan professors (including the brilliant Mehdi Ben Barka in Mathematics) and later at Bordeaux, where he received a law degree, he was open to the world and far more at ease with the accoutrements of modernity than his father. Yet he was also a lover of tradition and the prerogatives of power: the tinsel uniforms, the hand kissing, the palace ceremonial ordained by ancient protocol. Unlike his father, he was completely fluent in French in addition to Arabic, and spoke capable English as well. Cold-blooded and hot-tempered, an amateur of fast cars and sleek women, with a broad streak of ambition and a love of command, he was more than ready to rule.

THE NEW KING TIGHTENS HIS GRIP ON POWER

Hassan II’s credentials were impressive but not altogether flawless. His postindependence success in organizing the FAR and repressing revolts in the Rif and the south had burnished his reputation as a decisive and effective leader. But among the common people, his worth was questioned by his supposed attraction to the forbidden pleasures of life. Viewed as a playboy whose nocturnal wanderings in the company of hard-drinking army officers cast doubt on his attachment to religious values, the young king faced the challenge of creating a public persona consonant with his role as “Commander of the Faithful.” His primary objective was to convert that reserve of symbolic capital into political coin. Thus the early years of his reign were devoted to building his own signature image based on the mythic aura of his father, while setting an agenda aimed at eliminating opponents and consolidating his personal power.