ABSTRACT
Despite the diplomatic failure, the State Department did not give up and kept trying to promote a settlement in the Middle East. At this stage, however, the idea began to take shape that the first step was to achieve a cease-fire, and only then an overall resolution of the conflict. The failure of the American peace proposal was accompanied by new military escalation along the Suez Canal, with an intensification of Israeli air raids into Egypt. This escalation had a number of fateful implications: first of all, it stimulated Cairo to request urgent assistance from Moscow and produced direct Soviet involvement in the conflict; second, in parallel to the appeal to the Soviets (whose consequences are covered by the next chapter), President Nasser began the process, entirely tactical, that was intended to represent himself in a more favorable light to world public opinion and especially the United States, and thereby to soften Washington’s stance towards him.
