Egypt and American Foreign Assistance 1952–1956: Hopes Dashed PDF
Preview Egypt and American Foreign Assistance 1952–1956: Hopes Dashed
Egypt 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. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 978-0-312-29621-6 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN ISTHEGLOBALACADEMICIMPRINTOFTHE PALGRAVEMACMILLANdivision of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-38831-8 ISBN 978-1-4039-7600-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/9781403976000 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First edition: October 2002 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my family 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.
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