ABSTRACT
From the late 1940s through the Suez crisis, US officials faced a bewildering variety of security problems with regard to Egypt. In March 1949, US secretary of defense James Forrestal confirmed Egypt's abiding importance to US national security. After the Egyptian revolution of 1952, President Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser negotiated the departure of British forces from his country and challenged the remnants of Western imperialism elsewhere in the region. Britain joined the Baghdad Pact. The president warned Moscow that the United States would defend its allies, but he also tightened his diplomatic and financial squeezes to convince Britain and France to halt the fighting. Terrorist attacks by Egyptian guerrilla fighters, moreover, inflicted severe human, psychological, and financial costs. Egypt's hostile reaction to that message made US officials reluctant to intercede again, but they quietly encouraged the British to remain firm in negotiations with Cairo.
