137. Telegram From the Embassy in Egypt to the Department of State1
1953. Information contained first paragraph Deptel 22142 conveyed Nasser this morning. He thanked me for information but in general gave impression he did not believe we would find ourselves able to let him buy any significant amounts of equipment from US. He spoke at some length about apparent inability of tripartite powers to let Egypt become as strong as Israel. In this connection he was particularly critical of French who [he] says have supplied rather large quantities of tanks to Israel. Yet when delivery date came for previously arranged deliveries of same type of tanks to Egypt they [Page 263] had demurred saying Egypt’s North African policy primarily responsible.
I felt it best not to encourage Nasser as to amounts of equipment he might be able to obtain from US as must avoid creating expectations which probably would not be forthcoming. I did say I believed, however, he would be able to purchase from the West in general the armaments that he would find himself financially able to purchase on commercial basis.
I would expect that Egyptian Embassy Washington will follow through this interview with specific requests. I told him this best way handle matter although there would be advantage our knowing here what requests they were putting to Washington.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 474.008/6–2255. Secret; Priority. Received at 2:48 p.m.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 132.↩