| Suez Crisis in 1956: the reality | |||
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By: Dr.Dipak Basu November 27, 2006 Views expressed here are author’s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom. 
Feedback(The author is a Professor in International Economics in Nagasaki University, Japan) About 50 years ago, supported by the Soviet arms and money, and furious with the United States for reneging on a promise to provide funds for construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River, Nasser ordered the Suez Canal seized and nationalized. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser had come to power not long after the abdication of the British puppet ruler, King Farouk, in 1952. War erupted on October 29 1956 when Israel launched a frontal assault on Egyptian forces in the Sinai. Within days Israeli forces approached the Suez Canal. The alliance between the United Kingdom, France, and Israel against Egypt was largely one of convenience. The European nations had economic and trading interests in the Suez Canal, while Israel wanted to reopen the canal for Israeli shipping and end Egyptian-supported guerrilla incursions. Britain and France tired of the challenges Nasser posed to their imperial interests in the Mediterranean basin. By early 1956, American and British officials agreed to a top-secret policy, code-named Omega, to isolate and confine Nasser through a variety of subtle political and economic measures. Nasser had a dream: to build a high dam south of Aswan on the Nile, which, it was hoped, would end forever Egypt's grinding poverty. It was a mammoth project and the keystone of his popularity. By the energy generated by that dam and the irrigation that it would make possible, Egypt, he said, would be reborn and recapture the greatness of its ancient past. Initially USA and the World Bank had agreed to finance it on condition that Egypt would cut off its relationship with the Soviet Union, East European countries and China. Nasser disagreed to be a member of the US-led alliance against the Soviet Union, which came forward to finance the Aswan dam. Exactly one week after USA" renege on the Aswan Dam project, Nasser acted by “nationalizing” the Suez Canal. He said he was forced to do it because, with the withdrawal of the USA-World Bank offer, he now had to find money from another source if work on the dam was to go ahead. No one had suffered any material damage through the change in management due to that nationalization. What had been violated, was the imperial prestige of Britain, France and the USA. Then, a conspiracy was designed by USA, Britain and France to get back the Suez Canal from Egypt. Western Conspiracy: USA came up with an ingenious scheme for getting the canal back to international ownership without having to resort to force: a Suez Canal Users" Association, or SCUA, as it came to be known. Members of this new organization, instead of paying dues and fees to the old Canal Company or Egypt, would pay them to the new Association. The Soviet Union, China, and East European countries would not be allowed to be members of this exclusive club, and they would not be allowed to use the Suez Canal. Both Pakistan and India refused to join this club. In 1958 CIA had organized a coup in Pakistan to put a military dictator Ayub Khan in power. Instead of India, the most popular candidate after the creation of the Non-Alligned Group in 1955, USA put Taiwan in the vacant seat of the permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. On the secret military front things were well advanced. British troops were ready to go into action as soon as September 8th. The Israelis had kept up raid attacks on Syria and Jordan, but all the while they were planning the invasion of the Egyptian-held Sinai peninsula. The original date set for the attack was October 20th. For a variety of reasons it had to be postponed. The next date was set for October 29. The attack began at dusk when in a three pronged drive into the Sinai peninsula Israeli mechanized forces smashed several Egyptian positions near the southern end of the border, while a main force drove towards Cairo and the Suez Canal. At dusk on the 30th British and French bombers began flying sorties over Egyptian territory. Bombing of the airfields began in earnest with the coming of the daylight hours. The raids were to continue all day and into the night of the 31st. Cairo was plunged into darkness three times during the night as waves of British bombers attacked. The Soviet Union came to the rescue. Soviet Intervention: In the night of 1 November several Iloshin-28s – flown by Soviet pilots tried to bomb the Israeli airfield at Hatzor. In the night to 3 November a formation of Royal Navy fighters was actually intercepted by a Soviet fleet of MiG-17Fs, lead by Sergeiy Sinkov. The Egyptian commander of Port Said already considered a capitulation when the Radio Cairo reported about an outbreak of the WWIII, and that the Soviet Union was coming to help Egypt. Egypt was expecting the invasion and made preparations with the help of the Soviet Union to combat the invasion. On 27 September 1955 Cairo concluded a contract with Prague for deliveries of 86 MiG-15 and MiG-15UTI interceptors, 39 Ilushin Il-28 bombers, 20 Il-14 transports, 20 Avia C-11 trainers, as well as 200 T-34 tanks and other weaponry. Only few days later the first Czech and Soviet instructors started arriving in Egypt, and it did took much longer until the orders were increased to include also the first MiG-17s, and over 100 MiG-15s. In total, by late October 1956 the EAF of Egypt had no less but 150 operational jet fighters, 39 jet bombers, and 440 pilots – of which some 110 were Soviet built MiGs and Ilushins. Even more important, the Czechs and the Soviets have started building comprehensive radar net, including no less but 60 radars and several air-defense centers, which covered most of the airspace over northern Egypt. The Suez-Crisis increased in intensity on the afternoon of 5 November when the Soviet Union sent diplomatic notes to Britain, France and Israel threatening to crush the aggressors and restore peace in the Middle East through the use of force, and perhaps even retaliate by attacking London and Paris with atomic weapons. Soviet forces concentrating in Syria for intervention in Egypt alarmed USA. In early November 1956 Khrushchev already have started airlifting massive number of Soviet Army, aircrafts and tanks in Syria and a ground attack on Israel was imminent. President Eisenhower’s reaction to these threats was that “if those fellows start something, we may have to hit ’em—and, if necessary, with everything in the bucket.” Khrushchev sent a private letter to Ben-Gurion reminding him that the Soviet Union possessed missiles that could reach Israel. That has provoked Eisenhower to ask Britain, France and Israel to withdraw from Egypt, as USA was not interested to have a direct war with the U.S.S.R. Lester Pearson, the Canadian external affairs minister, suggested the creation of a United Nations Emergency Force to keep the peace between the opposing forces until a political settlement could be achieved. Tensions remained high until 15 November, when United Nations forces were brought into Egypt to provide a buffer between the Egyptians and the invasion forces. From that point on, the threat of Soviet intervention gradually dissipated. Pearson won the 1957 Nobel Pace Prize for his efforts at creating U.N. peacekeeping forces. Impacts on the Middle East: The Soviet Union’s unequivocal support for Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt during the Suez Crisis in 1956 proved to be an enormous public relations coup. While risking nothing, Moscow positioned itself as a staunch defender of the Arab cause, gaining good will and support from the emerging nationalist Arab elite. Strategically, after this point, the Soviet Union no longer had to worry about being surrounded by a belt of U.S.-sponsored regional military alliances, NATO, CEATO and CENTO. Throughout the 1960s, the Soviet strategy of encouraging Arab nationalism against Western imperial powers and emerging U.S. global hegemony was quite successful. One by one, newly created Arab states fell into the Soviet orbit by openly declaring their “socialist objectives” and hostility to U.S. “imperial policies.” After the Six Day War in 1967, which resulted in a humiliating defeat for the Arab states, the Soviet Union funneled enormous quantities of military aid to its allies in the region and established itself as a major regional player. By 1973, half the Arab world could be counted within the Soviet sphere of influence. The Soviet Union had naval bases in Egypt, Syria and Yemen; the Soviet political, financial, military and intelligence support for Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) gave Moscow a reputation as the champion of the Palestinian cause that only increased its influence in the Arab world. During the ‘Post- Suez Era’, the declining imperialist states were forced in to the realization that their power was limited and that, outside the American umbrella, they could do very little. In Britain, confidence in the conservative Party was gradually eroded while in France, the Fourth Republic fell, and de Gaulle came to power. Eisenhower's post- Suez attempt to re- establishes Western dominance in the region was defeated by the very reverberations of Suez. In late 1957, Eisenhower encouraged Turkey to consider an incursion into Syria. When a pro-Soviet and pro-Nasser revolution of General Kassem replacing the King of Iraq in July 1958 threatened to spark similar uprisings in Lebanon and Jordan, finally, Eisenhower ordered U.S. soldiers to occupy Beirut and to transport supplies to British forces occupying Jordan. With Kennedy a new orientation to combat the Soviet Union began to take shape, reinforced by the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. This strategy pursued by all American administrations since Kennedy, reached its zenith with Reagan"s Star Wars program during the 1980s, with the result that the Soviet Union expended massive resources and energy on the arms race to the economy. Conclusion: Without the Soviet Union Egypt would be occupied by Israel, Britain and
France with the tacit approval of USA. In 1956 USA was supporting
imperialism of France in Indo-China and Algeria, of Britain in Africa,
Malaya, Aden and Persian Gulf, of Portugal in Angola, Mozambique and
Timor, of Belgium in Congo to suppress freedom movements. It has also
organized coups against democracy in Pakistan (1958), Iran (1953), Vietnam
(1955), and in South American countries to install dictators. It would be
unrealistic to imagine that USA had discouraged Britain-France-Israel in
1956 to have their empire in Egypt because USA was anti-imperialistic. The
reason was the resistance posed by the Soviet Union. Otherwise Egypt would
be occupied in the same way today Iraq is now occupied, as there is no
Soviet Union anymore. Do you wish to reach our readers?
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