Project FF
military coup in Egypt supported by the CIA
Project FF or Fat Fucker was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project in the 1950s aimed at pressuring King Farouk of Egypt to make political reforms that would lessen the likelihood of political change in the country contrary to American interests. The government of the United States was concerned that the ever-increasing political instability in Egypt, much of it linked to the perceived corruption and incompetence of both the royal court and the traditional political establishment, would inevitably result in the toppling of the Egyptian government if not remedied. In particular, they feared the prospect of a partial or full communist takeover. The project was masterminded by CIA Director Allen Dulles, Secretary of State Dean Acheson, CIA operative Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt Jr., and CIA Station Chief in Cairo Miles Copeland, Jr.
The historian Matthew F. Holland wrote, "Kim's idea was to orchestrate 'peaceful revolution' in Egypt to replace the corrupt political system in Egypt with a progressive dictatorship under the king that would be more amenable to American control. Copeland had unofficially named the operation 'Project FF', the 'FF' unflatteringly standing for 'Fat Fucker'."
However, the unwillingness of Farouk to change eventually caused the project to move to support his overthrow. Roosevelt secretly met with the Free Officers Movement, a group of nationalist revolutionaries in the army of Egypt and Sudan that was opposed to the monarchy and to the United Kingdom's continuing military presence in the country. The Free Officers, led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, had already been planning to overthrow Farouk, and launched their revolution with a coup d'etat against the King on 23 July 1952. Miles Copeland stated that the US provided support for the revolutionary government to be "coup proof" and helped in establishing the new General Intelligence Agency (Al-Mukhabarat el Aam), modelled after the American Central Intelligence Agency, as well as German advisors who had served in Nazi Germany military intelligence, including the Abwehr, to help with the rebuilding of security apparatus.
Project FF was used as a blueprint for the following year's Operation Ajax, the CIA role in the coup backed by the Americans and the British in Iran against the democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
“Project FF” enters the record as military coup in Egypt supported by the CIA. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Project, military and coup can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Project FF” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Project, military and coup provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q22935782. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1952.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Project FF”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Project FF primary sources, Project FF archive and Project research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Project FF”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Project FF” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.