In 1969, Richard M. Nixon became the thirty-seventh President of the United States. He brought with him an aggressive foreign policy aimed at retarding the escalating Cold War and ending America's war with Vietnam. In his inaugural address, he exclaimed that under his leadership the United States was going to enter an era of negotiation, leaving the age of confrontation behind. Determined to create a structure of peace around the world, Nixon and his administration fashioned a policy to reflect their goals. This study seeks to understand why the Nixon administration allowed the Middle East to fall into the peripheries of their foreign policy. A conflict as devastating as the October War was certainly the kind of incident Nixon and his advisors wished to avoid. Between the years of 1969 and 1973, they worked tirelessly in the Middle East and around the globe to secure a more hospitable international climate; so why, despite their efforts, did the Arab-Israeli conflict spiral so devastatingly out of control?

Este trabalho enfoca dois romances egípcios traduzidos para o inglês: City of Love and Ashes, de Yusuf Idris, escrito em 1955 e publicado em 1956, e War in the Land of Egypt, de Yusuf al-Qa\'id, escrito em 1975 e publicado em Beirute em 1978. Ao tematizar a libertação nacional no centro da ação do enredo, ambos veicularam críticas ao regime militar instalado após o golpe de junho de 1952, mas por caminhos distintos. Enquanto a obra de Idris apresenta um enredo otimista que dispensa o exército e assim constitui uma espécie de história alternativa, o texto de al-Qa\'id levanta um ataque frontal às instituições estatais do país, mas termina por reforçar sua presença e mandato. A comparação dos dois romances expõe a complexidade política crescente que a existência prolongada do exército no poder representou para a intelectual crítica egípcia. / This work focuses on two Egyptian novels translated to English: City of Love and Ashes, by author Yusuf Idris, written in 1955 and published in 1956, and War in the Land of Egypt, by Yusuf al-Qa\'id, written in 1975 and published in Beirut in 1978. By framing national liberation at the core of the plot\'s action, both have aired criticisms of the military regime implemented by the coup of June 1952, but through distinct paths. While Idris\' work present an optimistic plot that foregoes the army and thus constitutes a sort of alternative history, al-Qa\'id\'s text deploys a frontal attack on the state institutions of the country, but ends up reinforcing its presence and mandate. The comparison of these two novels exposes the growing political complexity that the prolonged existence of the army in power represented to the Egyptian critical intelligentsia.

Este trabalho enfoca dois romances egípcios traduzidos para o inglês: City of Love and Ashes, de Yusuf Idris, escrito em 1955 e publicado em 1956, e War in the Land of Egypt, de Yusuf al-Qa\'id, escrito em 1975 e publicado em Beirute em 1978. Ao tematizar a libertação nacional no centro da ação do enredo, ambos veicularam críticas ao regime militar instalado após o golpe de junho de 1952, mas por caminhos distintos. Enquanto a obra de Idris apresenta um enredo otimista que dispensa o exército e assim constitui uma espécie de história alternativa, o texto de al-Qa\'id levanta um ataque frontal às instituições estatais do país, mas termina por reforçar sua presença e mandato. A comparação dos dois romances expõe a complexidade política crescente que a existência prolongada do exército no poder representou para a intelectual crítica egípcia. / This work focuses on two Egyptian novels translated to English: City of Love and Ashes, by author Yusuf Idris, written in 1955 and published in 1956, and War in the Land of Egypt, by Yusuf al-Qa\'id, written in 1975 and published in Beirut in 1978. By framing national liberation at the core of the plot\'s action, both have aired criticisms of the military regime implemented by the coup of June 1952, but through distinct paths. While Idris\' work present an optimistic plot that foregoes the army and thus constitutes a sort of alternative history, al-Qa\'id\'s text deploys a frontal attack on the state institutions of the country, but ends up reinforcing its presence and mandate. The comparison of these two novels exposes the growing political complexity that the prolonged existence of the army in power represented to the Egyptian critical intelligentsia.