Table Of ContentEgypt and American
Foreign Assistance, 1952–1956 (cid:2)
Egypt and American
Foreign Assistance, 1952–1956 (cid:2)
Hopes Dashed
Jon B. Alterman
EGYPTANDAMERICANFOREIGNASSISTANCE, 1952–1956
Copyright © Jon B. Alterman, 2002.
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DOI 10.1007/9781403976000
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available from the Library of Congress
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Contents
Abbreviations, Currency Equivalents, and Area Equivalents ix
A Note about Translation and Transliteration xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xvii
Chapter 1 Contexts 1
Chapter 2 The Economic Origins of a Partnership 15
Chapter 3 Chicken Aid 39
Chapter 4 EARIS 63
Chapter 5 The Aswan High Dam 97
Conclusion 131
Notes 135
Bibliography 177
Index 195
Abbreviations
CGF Classified General Files
CSF Classified Subject Files
DD Ops Deputy Director for Operations
ECA Economic Cooperation Administration
EARIS Egyptian-American Rural Improvement Service
FOA Foreign Operations Administration
HQ Off Headquarters Office
IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(World Bank)
ICA International Cooperation Administration
MSA Mutual Security Agency
NEA Ops Near East and South Asia Operations (part of FOA)
NEADS Near East and Africa Development Service (part of TCA)
NED Near East Division (part of FOA/NEA Ops)
PCDNP Permanent Council for the Development of National
Production
RCC Revolutionary Command Council
RG Record Group (U.S. National Archives)
SWSASME Social Welfare Seminar for Arab States of the Middle East
TCA Technical Cooperation Administration
USOM US Operations Mission (TCA, FOA, ICA missions in in-
dividual countries)
Currency equivalents:
1 Egyptian pound (£E) = $2.87
$1 = 0.35 £E
1 £E = 100 piasters
Area equivalents:
1 feddan = 1.038 acres = .42 hectares
A Note about Translation and
Transliteration
A rabic is notoriously difficult to represent in English. The system
adopted by the Library of Congress, for example, creates seven new
characters and adds five two-letter combinations to the standard
Roman alphabet. In the interests of simplicity, I have adopted a simplified
system that should be accessible to the novice reader while only minimally
annoying to the expert. Purists can consult the dissertation on which this
manuscript is based, which leaves Arabic citations wholly in Arabic script.
Also, I have generally respected individuals’ preferences for representing
their own names in English even when such spellings do not comport with
more orthodox transliteration schemes. I make an exception for transliter-
ated bibliographic entries, which are done strictly on the Library of Con-
gress’s simplified scheme. Thus, Rashed Barawy, Rashid Elbrawy, and Rashid
al-Barrawi are all the same person.
I have translated all of the Arabic materials into English myself, and I
bear full responsibility for any errors that may remain.
Acknowledgments
In the course of writing this manuscript, I have accumulated many debts.
Professor Roger Owen advised the dissertation on which this manuscript
is based, offered excellent counsel, provided work space for two years,
and, along with Margaret Owen and their children, became a good friend
throughout the otherwise solitary writing process. I did not realize the depth
of my debt to Professor Akira Iriye until I read through my dissertation for
the first time and recognized so many of his ideas in it. He has been inter-
ested and helpful throughout this project as well, and I am very grateful.
Also at Harvard, Professors Ernest May and Philip Zelikow organized sev-
eral conferences on the Suez Canal Crisis from the various national perspec-
tives that gave me the opportunity to receive feedback on some of the
material in chapter 5 from distinguished participants.
The U.S. Department of Education Jacob Javits Fellowship Program, the
Foreign Language and Areas Studies Program, and the USIA/American Re-
search Center in Egypt Traveling Fellowship provided generous financial
support for the work on which this project is based. At Harvard, I am grate-
ful for the support I received from the Charles Warren Center for Studies in
American History, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Depart-
ment of History.
My work in the National Archives facility in Suitland, Maryland, was
considerably eased by Miss Washington and Dr. Carey Conn. Mr. Robert
French, formerly of the World Bank Archives, was unfailingly helpful. In
Harvard’s Widener Library, Middle East Division head Mr. Michael Hopper
and the entire interlibrary loan staff were fantastic, and their efforts enriched
this work significantly.
My time in Cairo was eased and enriched by my good friend Amir Abdel
Hamid of the American Research Center in Egypt. Although I am still not
sure exactly why I was allowed to be the first American ever to see the Egypt-
ian Foreign Ministry Archives, I am sure the process had something to do
with the efforts of Mme. Amira Khattab and Dr. Ibrahim Sadek of ARCE,
and Ambassador Ahmed al-Messiri and Mr. Ala’ Abdel Hamid of the Egypt-
ian Foreign Ministry. Once I had gained access to the archives, Mr. Ibrahim
xiv Egypt and American Foreign Assistance, 1952–1956
Fathallah Ahmed and Mme. Sawsan Abdel ‘Aani did everything in their
power to help me. In the archives, my colleague Ala’ al-Din Abdel Ghaffaar
patiently answered many of my silly questions. Outside of the archives, Am-
bassador Tahsin Bashir, Dr. Rifaat al-Said, and Mr. Salah Dessouki were very
helpful in my efforts to meet former Egyptian government officials and gen-
erous with their time talking about Egyptian political history. I know that
Dr. Rifky Anwar is unhappy with some of what I have written. I hope he
will be more pleased when he sees it in a larger context. I enjoyed our con-
versations about EARIS immensely and I am grateful to him for putting me
in touch with other veterans of the program.
The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Languages and Literatures
at Emory University provided a welcoming environment in which I was able
to write much of the first two chapters of this dissertation. I am especially
grateful to Emory Arabic Professor Kristen Brustad. Without her encour-
agement and support when she was teaching Arabic at Harvard, this disser-
tation would have taken a drastically different form.
Mme. Aziza Shukri Hussein was kind enough to share with me her hus-
band’s personal diary from 1956 to 1957, and Mr. Christopher J. Makins
generously allowed me to quote from his father’s unpublished memoirs, to
be deposited at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Dr. Pamela Johnson gave me
materials from the evaluation of EARIS she led in 1983, and Professor
Richard Dekmejian gave me permission to quote from his interviews with
EARIS alumni. I am grateful to them all.
Professor John Waterbury, who taught my first course in Middle Eastern
studies almost two decades ago, was kind enough to remember an old stu-
dent, and sent along material that enriched chapter three. I shared ideas at
length with my colleague Dr. Martin Malin, who passed on an invaluable
list of contacts in Cairo. The late Professor David Bell and Professor Tom
Knock offered very helpful comments on chapter four, Ahmed el-Gaili
helped check translations of quotations in chapter five, and my colleagues
Mona Mourshed, Professor Margaret Menninger, and Leslyn Hall’s critical
readings improved the overall manuscript considerably.
In more recent times, Dr. Robert Satloff’s job offer kept me in Middle
Eastern studies and reintroduced me to Washington, for which I am very ap-
preciative. The United States Institute of Peace gave me a marvelous envi-
ronment in which to grow intellectually. I am deeply indebted to my
colleagues in the Research and Studies Program at the Institute, and espe-
cially to the former director of the Program, Dr. Patrick Cronin. Also at
USIP, Dr. Peter Pavilionis made several helpful suggestions on this manu-
script that add considerably to the finished product. He is a gifted editor,
and I am grateful for his interest.
