[Fiji Hill]

While I wouldn't go as far as to say that Suez was our biggest foreign policy blunder since the War of 1812, it certainly wasn't one of Eisenhower's or Dulles's better moments.

And while Dag Hammarskjöld's halo turns out to be tarnished, I'm not sure that he could have been much worse than the UN's current Secretary General.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

A Man, A Plan, A Canal

reminds of the word play:

A man a plan a canal panama spelled backwards is:
A man a plan a canal panama.

[Alberta's Child]

The biggest blunder the U.S. made in that situation was getting involved in the first place. There was no compelling reason for the U.S. to enforce some stupid agreement between Egypt and a former European colonial power.

[ASA Vet]

It was also the first war I actually paid attention to in the news.

[bybybill]

What a bunch of nonsense! The French, Israelis, and Brits failed to tell Ike all the while it was the US that kept them free. If the Russians had stepped in, guess who would have to save their butts.
The current problems belong to Carter, the fool that allowed the crazies to take over Iran.

[evad]

I remember this guy well

After his military successes, all the wannabees starting wearing a patch over one eye :)

[Restorer]

Eisenhower had wrecked the trust between the United States and its former World War II allies for a generation; in the case of France, for all time. If anyone wonders why French politicians are always willing to undermine American initiatives around the world, the answer is summed up in one word: "Suez."

This is just stupid. The French were undermining and backbiting the US long before this.

The idea that they were loyal allies prior to 1956, and would be still, had we not "blundered" at Suez, is just too ridiculous for words.

[Conan the Librarian]

Any old wargamers out there might like to know that Strategy and Tactics Magazine...(Yes the old S&T is still around) recently did a sim of the French/British Assault on Suez from this war.

I'll have to break it out now.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. also

2006israelwar or WOT

..................

Not as big an error as the author would have readers believe, but contemporaries have noted that Ike later considered it to be a mistake, as did Nixon in his memoirs. The idea was that Nasser would become pro-US, he didn't. It's not unreasonable to assume Arab duplicity over the Suez affected Nixon's actions in 1973.

[Buck W.]

Had Jimmy Carter been involved, he would have solved the problem by giving the canal away.

[Publius6961]

While I wouldn't go as far as to say that Suez was our biggest foreign policy blunder since the War of 1812

Most useful responses to a complex situation demand more than a baseless opinion. In this case, for instance, can you think of a bigger one?

Other than perhaps handing over to the world's ugliest and mean baboons most of the world's energy supplies earlier in the century?