Reprieve for Nasser

President Johnson’s recent decision to restore U.S. surplus food shipments to Egypt came at a particularly critical period for the Nasser regime. Just eight days earlier, in the face of an enormous budgetary deficit, the Egyptian Government had announced that it would henceforth withhold a half-day’s wages from the monthly paycheck of its employees. In a country that has been following the socialist path for the past eight years this ruling affects 80 per cent of the working force. Even under competent leadership, Egypt would be in trouble. Her farmers, restricted to the fertile Delta and the valley of the Nile—that is, to approximately 3 per cent of Egypt’s total territory—find it almost impossible to feed a population of 28 million that grows by 600,000 mouths a year. Until last November, when the tap was turned off, the United States was pumping 50 million Egyptian pounds worth of wheat, poultry and meat into Egypt. Then the United States, angered at Nasser’s continued military and political support of the Congo rebels, announced it would not renew the surplus food agreement.

Nasser’s reply was typical, but hardly politic. In a major speech at Port Said on December 23, the Egyptian dictator proclaimed: “We consider Tshombe to be nothing but an agent of imperialism, a servile agent of American and Belgian interests in the Congo. We can’t permit such a person to succeed in Africa. He must fall. . . I say now that we have sent arms to the Congo—and we will send in more. . . .”

GC

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Gilbert Comte

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President Johnson’s recent decision to restore U.S. surplus food shipments to Egypt came at a particularly critical period for the Nasser regime. Just eight days earlier, in the face of an enormous budgetary deficit, the Egyptian Government had announced that it would henceforth withhold a half-day’s wages from the monthly paycheck of its employees. In a country that has been following the socialist path for the past eight years this ruling affects 80 per cent of the working force. Even under competent leadership, Egypt would be in trouble. Her farmers, restricted to the fertile Delta and the valley of the Nile—that is, to approximately 3 per cent of Egypt’s total territory—find it almost impossible to feed a population of 28 million that grows by 600,000 mouths a year. Until last November, when the tap was turned off, the United States was pumping 50 million Egyptian pounds worth of wheat, poultry and meat into Egypt. Then the United States, angered at Nasser’s continued military and political support of the Congo rebels, announced it would not renew the surplus food agreement.

Nasser’s reply was typical, but hardly politic. In a major speech at Port Said on December 23, the Egyptian dictator proclaimed: “We consider Tshombe to be nothing but an agent of imperialism, a servile agent of American and Belgian interests in the Congo. We can’t permit such a person to succeed in Africa. He must fall. . . I say now that we have sent arms to the Congo—and we will send in more. . . .”