ABSTRACT
From the late 1940s through the Suez crisis of 1956, US officials faced a bewildering variety of security problems with regard to Egypt. When Britain decided to wage war on Egypt in late 1956, however, US officials took steps to halt the attack on the grounds of US national security. During the decades preceding World War II, Egypt emerged as a region of strategic importance to the British Empire. US officials who examined the security situation in the Middle East during the early years of the cold war recognized the immense potential strategic importance of Egypt. Contingency war plans devised in the Pentagon in 1946 also stressed the importance of maintaining access to British air bases in Egypt. Military bases in Egypt also possessed other attractive features. After the 1954 Anglo-Egyptian treaty, US officials hoped to win President Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser's cooperation with their plans for securing the Middle East against Soviet expansion.
