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The disappointments have also affected Gamal Nasser, an impatient man. They have set him to casting beyond his own regime and his own country for the causes of his troubles. "The West has decided that Egypt doesn't count," he grumbled recently. "Therefore, because Egypt is troublesome, they've decided to wreck Egypt and isolate us." Admitting—unlike such neutralists as India's Nehru—that Egypt and the rest of the Middle East dare not remain defenseless against Communist expansionism, Nasser nevertheless disdains any defensive handclasp with the Western powers. "We are suspicious of all the great powers," he insists.
Nasser does not look like a man with a chip on his shoulder. He carries 200 Ibs. with the lithe grace of a big, handsome All-America fullback. His wiry, close-cropped hair is greying at the temples and thinning just above the forehead, where there is a faint scar made by a police club. He has a big, slightly hooked nose and a close-trimmed black mustache, a row of regular, white teeth and a brilliant, easy smile. His eyes are piercing and brown, and he talks quietly, gently, and has never been known to raise his voice or lose his temper. Beneath his apparent softness, there is a streak of rough, tough ruthlessness. Last week in his Cairo office, he talked quietly, but he let the toughness come through.
"We have no hostile attitude towards America," he said. "I have always tried to build up friendly relations, only keeping in mind that these relations must not take us toward any sort of domination. But gradually, I have realized that there is always some obstacle between us, and that obstacle is Israel. America helps Israel with money and moral support, and they use the money to buy equipment to be used against us. But when we ask America to supply us with arms for defense, nothing is done."
Alexander & Napoleon. Many Moslems have an unspeakable, uncontrollable hatred for Israel, but Nasser's emotion is a composite of worry, envy, chagrin and wounded pride that the little nation should have licked all the Arab states and come out of it with an army twice the size of Egypt's. "They'll take equipment anywhere they can get it," he claimed. "We are beginning to learn from them." It was his way of calling attention to the report that Russia has been offering to supply Egypt with arms, no strings attached, and perhaps even to finance its dam. So far Nasser has rejected the offer. Was he thinking of reconsidering the offer? The answer was a rueful grin and a teasing shrug.