the needs of either of the world’s superpowers—the United
States or the Soviet Union. He was also a spokesman for Arab
nationalism, a movement that would bring together Arab
nations as a collective counterweight against great power and
Israeli interests in the region. To this end, Egypt was briefly
unified with Syria as a single country called the United Arab
Republic. Nasser found nonalignment difficult. Egypt needed a
lot of money to build the Aswan High Dam and effectively had
to choose between seeking money from the West or from the
Soviet Union. Nasser chose the West, asking the United States
and Great Britain for the necessary funds. Those countries
responded with loan conditions that Nasser thought would
hurt his standing as an independent, nonaligned leader. So, for
many months he did not accept or reject the Western loan offer.
By the time he finally did agree to its terms, the Western lend-
ers, especially the United States, were so angry with Nasser that
they withdrew the offer.