Digital Archive digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org International History Declassified

June 18, 1955 Intelligence Brief Submitted by Hassan Tuhami, Head of the Intelligence Branch at the President’s Office, to Gamal Abd al-Nasser

Citation:

“Intelligence Brief Submitted by Hassan Tuhami, Head of the Intelligence Branch at the President’s Office, to Gamal Abd al-Nasser,” June 18, 1955, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Muhammad al-Tawil, Lubat al-Amm wa-Gamal Abd al-Nasser (Cairo, 1986) pp. 149-151. Obtained and translated for CWIHP by Guy Laron. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/112263

Summary:

Egyptian Head of Intelligence Tuhami briefs President Nasser on the need to continue negotiating an arms deal with the Soviet Union.

Original Language:

Arabic

Contents:

English Translation Top Secret

To the President Gamal Abd al-Nasser

I want to update you on the following:

I met with Jones [code name for Miles Copeland, a CIA operator in Cairo] and it appears that the Americans are convinced that exerting pressure on the Egyptian government would yield only contrary results... [1]

Comment:

In view of the reaction in Washington as documented by this and the previous memo and the clear change in the American policy towards Egypt, Israel, and the Arab countries in the last few days, we still recommend that Egypt continue its speedy negotiations with Russia, in order to obtain weapons, for the following reasons:

1. The Egyptian army needs these arms to stand against Israel and we now have ample justification to buy them from Russia even in small quantities and to keep the option of revoking the agreement with it if the US decides to turn against Egypt completely – though we do not foresee such a move.

2. The continuation of the Cairo-Moscow negotiation and its consequences in the coming months will have a strong influence on decision makers [in America] to do what Egypt wishes, as they will feel that our position is real. Luckily, this period [of negotiations with the Soviets] dovetails with the time in which the American policy towards next year is being studied and formed.

3. Egypt's ability to achieve an arms deal with Russia would push the Pentagon to act against the State Department's policy, which led America into the state of affairs in which Egypt became a military force armed with Eastern weapons. This move impedes the Pentagon's plans to arm Egypt with Western weapons. Indeed, the Pentagon has a concrete five-year plan to build a strong Egyptian army with 550 million dollars in military aid.

4. Egypt will reap great benefits from the rapprochement with Russia, because now we can win Russia's support when the world's problems will be discussed during the next Big Four summit, and we will ensure that both [Cold War] camps keep on struggling over control of our area. This, in turn, will keep Egypt free from the influence of either camp.

5. It is high time to appoint a military attaché and an air force attaché in our Moscow embassy to help determine what weapons we should purchase from Russia.

Yours truly, Hassan Tuhammi

______

NOTES:

[1]From this point onward Tuhami describes his conversation with Copeland which adds little to the contents of the related memo from June 15.