A critical analysis of how Gamal Abdel-Nasser was able to play on both the American and Russian political ambitions in order to further develop his own nation's interests.

"I have often said that it is dangerous to talk privately with Gamal Abdel Nasser. If you do, you run the grave risk of being won over by the man's charm. I do not recall ever seeing any-one leave an interview with Nasser disliking the man…" Nasser more than anything was a man of charm, character but perhaps more importantly a man with a mission. Ahmed Naguib was the first president, Nasser became the second president of Egypt in 1952 and passed away in 1970. Shortly after Nasser had attained power his first goal was to militarily secure Egypt. Henceforth Nasser concentrated most of his efforts after that to provide better conditions within his own country vis-à -vis improving the economy by building the Aswan dam along with other reformist's policies.

        The main problem that met Nasser in further developing Egypt was the continuous reluctance of the west to either provide him with weapons which he was willing to pay for or to loan him money for projects like the Aswan dam and to humiliate him in front of the whole world.

Concerning weapons per-se the Americans had extremely weak reasons for not supplying Nasser with the weapons he needed and it appears that the only concern the Americans had was for Egypt to join the anti-communist pact that they were forming with their allies. In essence Nasser sought after a socialist system because he felt like the people needed many services that they simply couldn't afford, this on it's own made Egypt extremely appealing to both the United States as well as Russia since it was basically in the middle ground of both the Capitalist and Communist ideologies. The quintessential turning point for Egypt was when Nasser established strong enough contacts with Russia and was able to supply his country...