Following Nasser’s death in 1970, his vice-president Anwar Sadat took over the reins of power in Egypt. An original member of the Free Officer movement, Sadat did not share the socialist thinking as Nasser and opted for a different route. Sadat was keen to tackle the dire economic state the country was in, though, in his early years in power, he treads carefully as not to upset the balance of power. To garner political support,...
Following Nasser’s death in 1970, his vice-president Anwar Sadat took over the reins of power in Egypt. An original member of the Free Officer movement, Sadat did not share the socialist thinking as Nasser and opted for a different route. Sadat was keen to tackle the dire economic state the country was in, though, in his early years in power, he treads carefully as not to upset the balance of power. To garner political support, Sadat unveiled several populist policies, as the cost of consumer goods went down, as well as some import restrictions being lifted. It became apparent to Sadat, to attract Western investment there would need to be peace between Egypt and Israel as well as the elimination of Soviet influence. In July 1972, Sadat had expelled all 15,000 Soviet advisors to the nation and used this as a pretense to get ready for war. The Yom Kippur war of October 1973 caught Israel out by surprise as Egypt and Syria attacked at the same time. Israel totally unprepared regained the upper hand as Nixon sent arms to the tune of 2.2 billion dollars, while the Soviet Union supplied Sadat, and on October 17 the Arab oil producers cut production, as the Western powers had supported Israel in the war.
