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2006-07-26 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

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Posted by mcsegeek1 2006-07-26 15:30|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Did France and the UK not consult with the US prior? Or did they consult with someone at State and it never made its way up to Ike? There has always been something fishy about this whole episode. I've always found it hard to believe that the same Ike that took covert action in Iran and Guatemala, wouldn't support the UK and French in this campaign.

Posted by 11A5S 2006-07-26 17:51|| 2006-07-26 17:51|| Front Page Top

#2 No, 11A5S, they didn't. Foster Dulles was sick and in the hospital. The US was talking out of both sides of its mouth ("Nasser must be made to disgorge..." "The US does not agree to the use of violence...") and Anthony Eden thought he truly had a green light to go. He also was a sick man who was recovering from gall bladder surgery and on some pretty heavy drugs. If you're really interested, there's a doorstop book called "Suez" that covers the whole thing from start to finish. It will make you want to cry to read how woefully inept the British were and how pusillanimous the US was. We're still paying for Eisenhower's siding with Nasser both in the French hatred for us and the Arab world's sneering disdain. Nasser needed a good public ass-kicking followed by a hanging at the nearest palm tree. Instead, he became an Arab hero just because we refused to back the Euros when they went to retrieve their property. It was by far the biggest foreign policy mistake of the Eisenhower presidency; Francis Gary Powers doesn't even come close.

Posted by mac 2006-07-26 18:19|| 2006-07-26 18:19|| Front Page Top

#3 The USA was anti-colonialism, particularly French colonialism. BTW, I agree with the writer. Suez was a serious strategic error by the USA. He fails to mention the ME nationalisation of oil companies that resulted from Suez and the consequent power of OPEC. Had the British/French retaken Suez, the world would be a very different place.

Posted by phil_b">phil_b 2006-07-26 18:22|| http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/]">[http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/] 2006-07-26 18:22|| Front Page Top

#4 Thanks Mac and phil_b.

Ike had some strange quirks. His preference for covert over overt action and his resignation to the USAF theory that the era of ground war was over and that land forces were obsolete stand out. He damn near destroyed the Army in the late 50's.

I'll have to read that book once I get through the other door stop that I'm working on right now.

Posted by 11A5S 2006-07-26 18:47|| 2006-07-26 18:47|| Front Page Top

#5 And that, folks, is how sh*t happens.

IIRC, Nasser raised Suez Canal tolls so high that it started drawing traffic around the Cape of Good Hope. Nasser was a disaster for Egypt.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2006-07-26 19:17|| 2006-07-26 19:17|| Front Page Top

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