III.

World Figure

Following the Bandung Conference (1955), at which he emerged as a world figure, having espoused a policy of nonalignment (see Nonaligned Movement), Nasser's relations with the West deteriorated. In 1956 Britain and the United States withdrew their financial support from his Aswān High Dam project. In order to obtain funds for the project, Nasser then nationalized the Suez Canal. This brought aggression from France and Britain in alliance with Israel. Under pressure from the U.S., however, the three were forced to withdraw, and a United Nations emergency force was subsequently placed as a buffer between Egypt and Israel.

By this time Nasser had become a hero in the Arab world. In 1958 Syria and Egypt united under his presidency, forming the United Arab Republic. The union, however, broke up in 1961 after a coup in Syria. Nasser subsequently espoused a program of Arab socialism, in which banks and utilities were nationalized to finance a program of industrialization.

By 1967 the Arab-Israeli situation had deteriorated. After the UN peacekeeping force, at Nasser's request, had been withdrawn, and Egyptian guns blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli ships, Israel attacked Egypt and occupied the entire Sinai Peninsula up to the Suez Canal (see Six-Day War). Nasser, taking responsibility for the debacle, resigned, but the people took to the streets, demanding his return to government. He never, however, regained his previous stature. On September 28, 1970, he died suddenly of a heart attack.