Abstract

This article reexamines the economic and strategic aspects of Soviet-Egyptian relations in the mid-1960s based on recently declassified documents from Russian archives and recently published memoirs in Arabic. The article explores the tensions that developed between the Soviet Union and Egypt as the Soviet government exploited Egypt's economic difficulties to press for basing rights that would help to offset the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. In addition to offering a corrective to scholarly understanding of the Soviet-Egyptian relationship at this time, the article provides a fascinating glimpse into the mechanics of Soviet foreign economic policy and carries revisionist implications for students of the origins of the Six-Day Mideast War.

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