Posted on 07/16/2006 4:38:13 PM PDT by Nextrush
The Suez Canal crisis began with an American-led decision to deal with Soviet influence in Egypt.
John Foster Dulles was part of "power family" in 1950's Washington. He was Secretary of State and his brother Allen was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Foster Dulles has been historically reviled for his profession of Christianity and his opposition to Communism. He was also attacked for his "brinksmanship" policy of using diplomatic pressure to deal with America's enemies as part of the official "containment" policy.
I can't honestly comment on Dulles's Christianity but his verbal anti-Communism was real enough. However, it always stopped short of military action including any military action that would free a nation from Communist rule.
"Containment" was the name of the game in the face of Communist expansion into the nations emerging from colonial rule that would be called the "Third World."
The United States policy was heavy on carrots and light on sticks to build influence in the new nations. Money was used to influence the smaller nations towards the United States and away from the Soviet Union.
Enter Egypt into the picture with its ambitious plan to build a dam on the Nile River.
The Aswan Dam would control floods and enable Egypt to develop an agricultural industry along the Nile River.
The multi-million dollar cost was beyond Egypt's means, but plans for World Bank financing were in place by 1956.
The loan depended on tens of millions of dollars of financial support, primarily from the United States but also from Great Britain.
However, Secretary Dulles was increasingly alarmed by the Soviet influence in Egypt that began in 1955.
Egyptian Ambassador Ahmed Hussein came to the United States in July 1955 where he announced Egypt's acceptance of the loan offer.
He got no immediate response from the United States to his announcement and went into a July 19th, 1956 meeting with Secretary Dulles.
At the meeting Dulles held two pieces of paper in his hand.
The first was a list of Soviet and Communist-bloc nations military and economic aid to Egypt.
The second piece of paper was handed to Hussein and read in part:
"It is no longer feasible for the United States to participate in the project of the Aswan Dam......In the seven months since the original offer was made, the situation has changed...."
Britain made a similar announcement at roughly the same time confirming that the loan was off.
Egypt took this as a slap in the face and both Dulles and the British expected retailiation including seizure and closing of the Suez Canal.
Dulles was not worried too much about oil supply problems believing the Cape route around South Africa and other Middle East pipeline routes would deal with any shortfall caused by a canal closing.
But for Prime Minister Eden and the British government such an action would mean a reason to use military force to take back control of the canal.
Nasser met with Indian Prime Minister Nehru on July 21st and Nehru came out denouncing the decision to deny the loan.
Nasser also came to a decision he would announce on July 26h, the anniversary of his "revolution" in Egypt.
Nasser spoke that evening to a crowd of tens of thousands with his speech beamed worldwide by radio and the BBC monitoring station picking it up. A transcript was provided to the State Department, which relayed its contents to Secretary Dulles in Lima, Peru.
As Nasser spoke about the evil of foreign control of the canal, Egyptian troops swung into action. Soldiers and engineeers seized canal offices and facilities. Troops with sub-machine guns barged in and held canal employees at gunpoint.
Egypt took control of the Suez Canal from the Anglo-French Suez Canal Company and the British cabinet held an emergency meeting almost immediately.
Followup to: http://free republic.com/focus/f-news/1663452/posts
The USSR ended up building the dam. They had to move historic ruins at Abu Simbal to do it. I remember reading about it at the time in National Geographic, which treated the project as if the Soviets were landing on the moon.
Dulles was a deceitful fraud. He blathered on about Communism, yet refused to left a finger to help the Hungarians while helping the Soviet Union's buddy, Nasser in the Suez crises. The Dulles/Eisenhower meddling in the affair guaranteed the continuation of war between the Arabs and the Jews in that region which lasts till this day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.