ABSTRACT
The Egyptian contacts and exchanges with the Soviet Union during 1974 were all the more important because relations with the United States remained rather delicate throughout the year. To be sure, there had been an enormous improvement in US–Egyptian relations ever since the October War. Diplomatic ties had been reestablished. Nixon had visited Egypt in mid–1974 and extensive cooperation agreements between Egypt and the US were signed at that time. But I remained somewhat sceptical. The US was still committed, first and foremost, to Israel. It was not prepared to give Egypt any arms. To complicate matters, by August 1974 Nixon had been forced to resign and we had to find out whether the new Ford administration would pursue the same policy toward Egypt.
