Suez Crisis

{{Warbox| conflict=Suez Crisis
The Tripartite Aggression
The Sinai War |campaign= |colour_scheme=background:#bccccc |image= |caption=Israeli troops preparing for combat in the Sinai peninsula. |date=October 1956 – March 1957 |place=Egypt, (Sinai and Suez Canal zone) |result=Coalition military victory
Egyptian political victory
United Nations cease-fire
UNEF occupation of Sinai
Straits of Tiran re-opened to Israeli shipping |casus=Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal |combatant1= Dwight D. Eisenhower |combatant2= United Kingdom
France
Israel |combatant3= Egypt Eden's resignation marked the last significant attempt Britain made to impose its military will abroad without U.S. support. Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister Eden's successor, was every bit as determined as Eden had been to stop Nasser, although he was more willing to enlist American support in future, for that end. Some argue that the crisis also marked the final transfer of power to the new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

The incident demonstrated the weakness of the NATO alliance in its lack of planning and cooperation beyond the European stage. From the point of view of General de Gaulle, the Suez events demonstrated that France could not rely on allies any more. Britain withdrew its troops in the midst of the battle without warning its allies. In 1957, following these events, the French government launched an autonomous nuclear programme conducted in the Sahara, known as Force de frappe, as a deterrent not only against the USSR but vis-à-vis every potential threat around the globe. By 1966 de Gaulle withdrew France from the integrated NATO military command. According to the protocol of Sèvres agreements, France secretly transmitted parts of its own atomic technology to Israel, including a detonator.

The imposed end to the crisis signalled the definitive weakening of the United Kingdom and France as global powers. Nasser's standing in the Arab world was greatly improved, with his stance helping to promote pan-Arabism. The crisis also arguably hastened the process of decolonization, as the remaining colonies of both Britain and France gained independence over the next several years.

After Suez, Aden and Iraq became the main bases for the British in the region while the French concentrated their forces at Bizerte and Beirut.

File:Canadian members of UNEF on Egypt-Israel border 1962.jpg

Canadian members of the UNEF on the Egypt - Israel border in 1962.

UNEF was placed in the Sinai (on Egyptian territory only) with the express purpose of maintaining the cease-fire. While effective in preventing the small-scale warfare that prevailed before 1956 and after 1967, budgetary cutbacks and changing needs had seen the force shrink to 3,378 by 1967.

After border disputes led to a series of military clashes between Israel and Syria, the Egyptian government, warned by a false Soviet intelligence report of an imminent Israeli invasion of Syria, began to remilitarize the Sinai in support of its ally, and demanded that UNEF withdraw. This action, along with the blockade of the Straits of Tiran, was the final step in a series of escalations between the two sides that led to the Six Day War of June 1967. During the war, Israeli armed forces captured the east bank of the canal, which subsequently became a de facto boundary between Egypt and Israel and the canal was therefore closed until June, 1975.

In Canada, the Suez Crisis contributed to the adoption of a new national flag without references to that country's past as a colony of France and Britain. The Egyptian government had objected to Canadian peacekeeping troops on the grounds that their flag at that time included a British ensign. This further encouraged Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to advocate the simple Maple Leaf that was eventually adopted.

See also

• Anglo-American relations
• Franco-American relations
• Israel-United States relations
• Protocol of Sèvres

References

• Walter Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001).
• Ahron Bregman, Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947 (London: Routledge, 2002). ISBN 0-415-28716-2
• L.J. Butler, Britain and Empire: Adjusting to a Post-Imperial World I.B. Tauris 2002. ISBN 1-86064-449-X
• Erskine B Childers, The Road To Suez MacGibbon & Kee 1962 ASIN B000H47WG4
• John Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation: The Retreat From Empire in the Post Cold War World Palgrave Macmillan 1988. ISBN 0-333-29258-8
• Robert M. Hendershot, Family Spats: Perception, Illusion, and Sentimentality in the Anglo-American Special Relationship VDM Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-639-09016-1
• Ronald Hyam, Britain's Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonisation 1918-1969 Cambridge University Press 2006. ISBN 0-521-68555-9
• Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy Simon & Schuster 1994. ISBN 0-671-51099-1
• Keith Kyle, Suez: Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East (I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2003). ISBN 1-86064-811-8
• Leuliette, Pierre, St. Michael and the Dragon: Memoirs of a Paratrooper, Houghton Mifflin, 1964
• Aniruddha Pathak - Conquest of Suez Canal
• David Reynolds Brittania Overruled: British Policy and World Power in the Twentieth Century Longman 1991/2000. ISBN 0-582-38249-1
• David Tal (ed.), The 1956 War (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2001). ISBN 0-7146-4394-7
• Bertjan Verbeek, "Decision-Making in Great Britain During the Suez Crisis. Small Groups and a Persistent Leader" (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2003).
• Yergin, Daniel (1991). The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-50248-4.. Chapter 24 is devoted entirely to the Suez Crisis.

External links

• Israel's Second War of Independence, essay in Azure magazine.
• Sinai Campaign 1956
• Canada and the Suez Crisis
• July 2006, BBC, Suez 50 years on
• July 2006, The Economist, An affair to remember
• Suez and the high tide of Arab nationalism International Socialism 112 (2006)
• Detailed report on the Suez campaign by Ground Forces Chief of Staff General Beaufre, French Defense Ministry archive (French)
• Bodleian Library Suez Crisis Fiftieth anniversary exhibiiton
• Royal Engineers Museum - Royal Engineers and Suez 1956

Media links

• "The Suez canal and the nationalization by Colonel Nasser" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 1 August 1956 Fr.
  (views of Nasser EG, Pineau FR, Lloyd UK, Murphy US, Downing street, comment on international tension)
• "The new pilots engaged for the Suez canal" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 3 October 1956 French
  (views of Port Said, the canal and Ferdinand de Lesseps' statue few weeks before the Suez Crisis, incl. a significant comment on Nasser)
• "French paratroopers in Cyprus" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 6 November 1956 French
  (details on the French-British settings and material, views of Amiral Barjot, General Keightley, camp and scenes in Cyprus)
• "Dropping over Port Said" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 6 November 1956 French
  (views of British paratroopers dropping over Port Said, comment on respective mission for the French and British during Operation Amilcar)
• "Suez: French-British landing in Port Fouad & Port Said" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 9 November 1956 mute
  (views of French-British in Cyprus, landing in Port Fouad, landing Port Said, Gal Massu, Gal Bauffre, convoy)
• "The French in Port Said" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 9 November 1956 mute
  (views of prisoners and captured material, Gal Massu, para commandos, Egyptian cops surrender, Gal Beauffre, landing craft on the canal)
• "Dropping of Anglo-French over the canal zone" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 14 November 1956 French
  (views of 2 Nordatlas, paratroopers, dropping of para and material circa Port Said, comment on no bombing to secure the population)
• "Canal obstructed by sunken ships" French news from the National Audiovisual Institute, 14 November 1956 French
  (views of troops in Port Said, Ferdinand de Lesseps' statue, comment on the 21 ships sunken by the "dictator")