The CIA treated Nasser as an asset it could influence because he socialised with an American intelligence contact. Dinners and golf supplied access, but they did not give Washington control over Egyptian policy. That confidence fitted a wider tendency to interpret Middle Eastern leaders through their relationship with the superpowers. The nationalisation announcement on 26 July 1956 exposed the difference between maintaining contact with Nasser and predicting what he would do.
Notable Point · 49:42-50:09
When the CIA Mistook Access for Control
CIA contact with Nasser encouraged false confidence that the agency understood or could influence him before nationalisation.