‘The U.S. are being very difficult’

Abstract

The British and American intelligence services had undertaken some contingency planning about ways to counter the increasing Soviet influence in Egypt. Confronted with a memorandum entitled ‘Means of Bringing about the Fall of Nasser’, Dulles asked that the title should be changed to something more innocuous. An American colleague warned the British that this should not be seen as a title change alone: it was in fact a policy decision. Dulles continued to make clear that so long as there was no interference with navigation in the canal, there were no grounds for military action.