Presidency of Richard Nixon coup." Herring also notes, however, that whether or not it took part in the coup, the U.S. created the atmosphere in which the coup took place. Early in his first term, Nixon pressured Israel over its nuclear program, and his administration developed a peace plan in which Israel would withdraw from the territories it conquered in the Six-Day War. After the Soviet Union upped arms shipments to Egypt in mid-1970, Nixon moved closer to Israel, authorizing the shipment of F-4 fighter aircraft. In 1970 Anwar Sadat succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser as the President of Egypt. In October 1973, after Israel
Assassination of Anwar Sadat arrest of numerous opposition figures. Though Sadat still maintained high levels of popularity in Egypt, it has been said that he was assassinated "at the peak" of his unpopularity. Earlier in his presidency, Islamists had benefited from the "rectification revolution" and the release from prison of activists jailed under Nasser but Sadat's Sinai treaty with Israel enraged Islamists, particularly the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad. According to interviews and information gathered by journalist Lawrence Wright, the group was recruiting military officers and accumulating weapons, waiting for the right moment to launch "a complete overthrow of the existing order" in Egypt. Chief