Suez Canal, Eastern Europe and Chaos

The Suez Canal Crisis

The Middle East Beast

The Middle East:

· Russians were extending their influence

· Dulles tried to improve relations with the Arabs, even though it broke Truman’s policy of support for Israel. But he was unwilling or unable to match the communist aid program

· Late 1955 the Egyptians had been able to negotiate an arms deal with the Czechs

· Dulles responded by offering Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser aid for the Aswan Dam

· The Dam would be used to harness the power of the Nile, technical experts approved it

· By February 1956 the deal was ready

The deal going south:

· Dulles struggled to sell the deal at home

· Pro-Israeli politicians denounced the dam

· Southern Congressmen were worried that it would allow them to produce more cotton

· Old Republicans feared the cost and the effect on the budget

· All opponents agreed that the Egyptians wouldn’t provide the technicians nor the industry to use the dam effectively

· As a result, Dulles began so back away

Nasser is being naughty, and Dulles ‘ant havin it:

· April 1956 Nasser formed a military alliance with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen

· He refused to stop his arms deal with the Czechs

· Nassar withdrew recognition from Chiang Kai-shek and recognised communist China

· So, in May Dulles had enough he withdrew from the Aswan Dam but didn’t make it public

· Dulles assumed that the Russian’s wouldn’t step in as they didn’t have the technology to pull it off

· July 19^th1956 the Egyptian foreign minister was arriving Washington to discuss the dam, when Dulles announced that they would be pulling out of the project

· Nasser then seized the Suez Canal and a crisis began to unfold

· Nasser gained back his prestige and $25-million annual profits from the canal

Britain and France’s tantrum:

· Britain and France were furious

· They relied on the canal for oil

· They believed that the Arabs wouldn’t have the skills to run the canal properly and they were worried that Nasser wouldn’t let their ships through

· Long and complicated negotiations ensued, which got nowhere

· Dulles was concerned about protecting American oil interests in the Middle East

· France and Britain want full control of the Suez Canal, which made Dulles fearful of the Arab reaction to this classically colonial stance

Who’s to blame?

· Senator Fulbright claimed that the Dam project was sound and that Dulles had chosen to drop it completely on his own accord

· Dulles had misjudged Nasser’s attitudes toward the Soviet Union and the importance of the dam to him

· Dulles made no strong attempt to persuade his congressional opposition

· As a result of him being short with Nasser America’s relationship with France, Britain, NATO and Nasser had been damaged

Soviets taking advantage of the situation:

· They began to prepare for a naval base in the Mediterranean

· They alienated Israel and her supporters

AHHH DULLES

· But they also failed to gain any Arab allies

Did Dulles really mess it all up?

· Well, no not really

· The Middle East contained 64% of the world’s known oil reserves

· The leading producers being; Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq

· During WWII American companies aided by the government forced concessions on the British and the Arabs allowing them to have a major interest in Middle Eastern Oil

· Despite Dulles’ mistake these interests were still secure

If you need a job done, do it yourself:

· The Suez Canal was necessary to move the oil

· Dulles tried to use negotiations to suggest that Britain, France and Nasser all control the canal, but the Europeans had other plans…

· In line with Israel they began to draw up plans for an invasion of Egypt, the US was not informed

Hold up, Eastern Europe needs some attention people:

· In February 1956 the twentieth Party Congress was taking place

· Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his crimes and suggested that Stalinist restrictions would be relaxed

· In April Cominform was dissolved

· The CIA got a copy of Khrushchev’s secret speech and published it worldwide

· Ferment spread across Eastern Europe

Poland is not happy:

· Riots force Khrushchev to disband the old government and allow Wladyslaw Gomulka, an independent communist, to take power on 26^thOctober 1956

· Poland remains communist and a member of the Warsaw Pact

· They did manage to gain substantial independence and set an example for the rest of eastern Europe

I think Hungary wanted a bigger table
this is the only one IKEA had

Hungary want a seat at the table of liberation:

· Before the war they were the most Fascist but their Stalin imposed government was the most alien

· On October 23^rdstudents took the streets and demanded that the puppet government be replaced with Imre Nagy

· Workers joined the demonstration and the riot spread

· Khrushchev agreed and gave power to Nagy but the people wanted more

· They asked for the removal of the Red Army and the creation of an anti-Communist political party

· By October 28^thRussians gave in and troops began to withdrew around Budapest

The peace turning south, again:

· Just as the European balance of power was about change Israel invades Egypt

· In a matter of hours, they had defeated Nasser’s army and taken the Sinai Peninsula

· Britain and France issued an ultimatum arranged in advance, warning the combatants to stay away from the canal

· Nasser rejected the note

· Europeans began to bomb Egyptian military targets and they prepared to move troops in on the pretext that it would be to stop the fighting between Israel and the Arabs

And back to Europe:

· 31^stOctober the day after the bombing Nagy announced that he was withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact, this was a week before the US general election

· The soviets move

· Russian tanks crush the Hungarian rebels who were fighting back with Molotovs

· 7,000 Russians killed

· 30,000 Hungarians killed

· America doesn’t involve troops as Eisenhower doesn’t want to risk WWIII for Eastern Europe

· He also knew the only way to win would have been nuclear holocaust which would have devastated most of Europe

· Liberation was a sham and it failed

· Nagy is capture and executed

The Suez Canal of Birmingham

Suez gets serious:

· The British and French are given away by hoe rapidly they were able to mobilise, proving that the event was staged

· Eisenhower was upset at the colonial tactics and that they weren’t informed

· The American introduce a resolution at the UN urging a truce and imposed an oil embargo on Britain and France

· Khrushchev 5^thNovember warned that if they didn’t withdrawn Russia would destroy them

· Being only hours away from the canal, they call and ceasefire and pullback

Lessons learned:

· America: stop irresponsible taking about liberation

· Russia: the nationalism in Eastern Europe is strong

· Israel: they need to act alone to take on the Arabs

· Egypt: look to the USSR for support as their threat force the withdrawal of Britain and France

"I think we are going to need a big bed,
Mao likes to cuddle"

Egypt getting into bed with Russia:

· Nasser praised Russia for their help as they were building the Aswan Dam for him

· The Russian’s now had a foot on the ground in the Middle East

· Nasser spread propaganda for Arab unity and Socialism

· He took aid from the USSR and allowed more Soviets into the country

· This caused fear the Russia would move into the Middle East

· Coups and countercoups in Syria, Jordan and Iraq added to the tensions

· Eisenhower asked congress for authority to us troops in the Middle East

Hello Lebanon:

· July 15^th1958 Eisenhower sent the Marines into Lebanon to support President Camille Chamoun

· This was a unilateral action that risked general war in support of a less than democratic nation

· The rhetoric used to justify it was grand, he compared the situation to China and Greece

· The action was less grand, the Joint Chiefs wanted to overrun the country but they were taking airfields and the capital

· The Russians were unwilling to take drastic action

· Nasser flew to Moscow to ask for aid but was turned down

Mutual respect between the West and the East:

· Eisenhower was acting in Lebanon to protect Western oil holdings which were seen as vital

· The Russians may have let this happen as they felt like they were getting ahead

The Cold War

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