A Portrayal of Dissonance: The Anglo-American Perception of Nasser from 1952–1970

During the Cold War, no figure dominated the politics of the Middle East as successfully as Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt. Nasser’s Egypt was at the intersection of the world’s superpowers. Nasser used this position to play the United States and USSR against each other to his benefit. The resulting coverage of Nasser in Western media reflected this tumultuous relationship. These papers highlight the underestimation of non-Western powers through the lens of a global superpower in this era. This underestimation of other powers, which Nasser’s Egypt was subject to, created a dissonance when Egypt asserted its own power. The conflict between Nasser’s large political influence and his perceived inferiority caused the narrative around Nasser to be riddled with anxiety. The anxiety is seen in the coverage of Nasser’s creation of the United Arab Republic, his aggressive political maneuvering in the Middle East, and his championing of the pan-Arab movement. The conflicting influences of the Soviets and the United States heavily contributed to the narratives surrounding Nasser. An important political ally for either superpower in the Cold War, Nasser loomed large as the perceived leader of the Arab world.