Encyclopedia
The
Suez Crisis was a
war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. The conflict pitted
Egypt against an alliance between the
United Kingdom,
France and
Israel. The
United States also played a crucial role, albeit not a military one.
This alliance against Egypt largely took place as a result of the Egyptian leader
Gamal Abdel Nasser's action of nationalizing the Suez Canal Company, which operated the
Suez Canal, an important asset to French and British economies, particularly as a chokepoint in world oil shipments. British policy makers initially feared an Israeli attack on Egypt, and sought cooperation with the United States throughout 1956 to deal with Egyptian-Israeli tensions.
The alliance between the two European nations and Israel 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.
When the
USSR threatened to intervene on behalf of Egypt, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs
Lester B. Pearson feared a larger war and came up with a clever plan to separate the opposing forces by placing
United Nations forces between them to act as a buffer zone or 'human shield' .
The Crisis resulted in the resignation of the
British Conservative
Prime Minister, Sir
Anthony Eden, and marked the completion of the shift in the global balance of power from traditional European powers to the
United States and the
Soviet Union and was a milestone in the decline of the
British Empire.
Background
The
Suez Canal was opened in 1869, having been financed by
France and the Egyptian government. Technically, the territory of the canal itself was sovereign Egyptian territory, and the operating company, the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal was an Egyptian-chartered one . In 1875, the British government of
Benjamin Disraeli bought out the Egyptian share of the company, giving it partial control over the canal's operations, which it shared with mostly French private investors. In 1882, during foreign intervention in Egypt, the United Kingdom took de facto control of the physical canal. The canal was of strategic importance, being the ocean trade link between Britain and its colonies in
India, the
Far East as well as
Australia and
New Zealand. The area as a whole was strategic to
North Africa and the
Middle East.
The importance of the canal as a strategic center was apparent during both
World Wars. During the
First World War, the British and French closed the canal to non-Allied shipping. During the
Second World War, it was tenaciously defended during the
North African Campaign.
Daniel Yergin, a historian of the oil industry, wrote:
- [I]n 1948, the canal abruptly lost its traditional rationale. For the year before India became independent, and control over the canal could no longer be preserved on grounds that it was critical to the defense either of India or of an empire that was being liquidated. And yet, at exactly the same moment, the canal was gaining a new role — as the highway not of empire, but of oil. The Suez Canal was the way most of the growing volumes of Persian Gulf oil got to Europe, cutting the 11,000 nautical mile journey around the Cape of Good Hope to Southampton down to 6,500 nautical miles . By 1955, petroleum accounted for two thirds of all the canal's traffic, and in turn two thirds of Europe's oil passed through it. Flanked to the north by Tapline and the Iraq Petroleum Company pipelines, the canal was the critical link in the postwar structure of the international oil industry.
British troops were withdrawn from
Palestine in 1947 and the state of
Israel was formally established in 1948, shortly followed by the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, which further established Israel's independence. See
history of Israel,
history of Egypt.
In 1952, officers in the Egyptian army overthrew the monarchy of
King Farouk who had been a close ally of the British. Abandoning policies co-operative with European powers, the new government asserted an independent and
Arab nationalist identity. This led to conflict with the European powers over the Suez Canal. Especially once Israel's port of
Eilat was completed in the mid 50s, conflict also heated up over the only gateway to it, the
Straits of Tiran.
Meanwhile, the so-called
Gaza Strip - a part of the former British mandate, now occupied by Egypt - became a haven for masses of Palestinian refugees and a hotbed for guerilla activity against the fledgling Jewish state. In response, from 1953–1956 the
Israel Defense Forces launched a number of strikes. These attacks were assisted by the future prime minister of Israel,
Ariel Sharon, who interrupted his studies at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem to become the military leader of the first special forces unit of the IDF: the elite Unit 101. This policy of reprisals was a major source of internal dispute between
hawks, led by
David Ben-Gurion, and
doves, led by his successor for a short time, Moshe Sharett. It sometimes led to strong external criticism from the United Nations and even Israel's supporters.
The Gaza raid on 1955 February 28 marked yet another turning point in relations between the two enemies. In retaliation Egypt began to sponsor official Fedayeen and commando raids on Israel, sometimes through the territory of
Jordan, which also officially opposed these raids, while still publicly discouraging Palestinian infiltration. There were secret talks, through various intermediaries and methods, between Egypt and Israel, but the escalating tensions between the IDF and the Fedayeen put an end to them.
Throughout 1956, tensions increased between Israel and Egypt, with Egyptian fedayeen launching frequent incursions into Israeli territory and Israel launching retaliatory raids into Egyptian territory. On 1956 July 26, Egypt, under the leadership of President
Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, which operated the vital trade route to the east, and in which British banks and business held a 44% stake. This nationalization was done in order to raise revenue for the construction of the
Aswan High Dam on the
Nile River. Concerning the Aswan High Dam project, the
United States and Britain had previously agreed to help pay for this project, but cancelled their support after Egypt had bought tanks from
communist Czechoslovakia, then part of the
Soviet bloc, and also had extended diplomatic recognition to the
People's Republic of China. The better relationship with the Chinese was the result of the
Bandung Conference in 1955, where Nasser had asked the Chinese to use their influence on the Soviets to supply Egypt with the necessary arms.
The British Prime Minister of the time, Sir Anthony Eden, tried to persuade the British public of the need for war and so, perhaps in an attempt to recall
World War II-era patriotism, he compared Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal with the nationalism of
Benito Mussolini and
Adolf Hitler twenty years earlier. However, it is interesting to note that the very first comparisons between 1930s dictators and Nasser during the crisis was made by the opposition Labour leader,
Hugh Gaitskell and the left-leaning tabloid newspaper, the
Daily Mirror is a British [i] left-wing tabloid [i] daily newspaper [i]. ...
. Eden had been a staunch opponent of
Neville Chamberlain's policy of
appeasement and he claimed that a display of force was needed to prevent Nasser becoming another expansionist military threat. Eden had also been exercised over Nasser's apparent role in the dismissal of British military leader
Glubb Pasha in Jordan prior to the canal company nationalization. The French also were hostile because of Nasser's support for insurgents in Algeria.
Between July and October 1956, unsuccessful initiatives encouraged by the United States were made to reduce the tensions that would ultimately lead to war. International conferences were organized to secure agreement on canal operations; no agreement was secured.
In the months that followed Egypt's nationalization of the canal company, with the support of the former managers of the company that operated the canal, Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez, a secret meeting between Israel, France and Britain took place at
Sèvres, outside
Paris. Details on the Protocol of Sèvres only emerged years later, as records of the meeting were suppressed and destroyed. All parties agreed that Israel should invade and that Britain and France would subsequently intervene, instruct the Israeli and Egyptian armies to withdraw their forces to a distance of ten miles from either side of the canal, and then place an Anglo-French intervention force in the Canal Zone around
Port Said. It was to be called "Operation Musketeer".
Invasion
On October 29, 1956, Israel invaded the
Gaza Strip and the
Sinai Peninsula and made rapid progress towards the Canal Zone. As per the agreement, Britain and France offered to reoccupy the area and separate the warring armies. Nasser refused the offer, which gave the European powers a pretext for a joint invasion to regain control of the canal and topple the Nasser regime. To support the invasion, large air forces had been deployed to
Cyprus and
Malta by the UK and France and many
aircraft carriers were deployed. The two airbases on Cyprus were so congested that a third field which was in dubious condition had to be brought into use for French aircraft. Even RAF Luqa on
Malta was extremely crowded with
RAF Bomber Command aircraft. The UK deployed the aircraft carriers HMS
Eagle,
Albion and
Bulwark and France had the
Arromanches and
Lafayette on station. In addition, HMS
Ocean and
Theseus acted as jumping off points for Britain's and the world's first
helicopter-borne assault. The United Kingdom and France began to bomb Egypt on October 31 to force the reopening of the canal with Operation Musketeer. Nasser responded by sinking all 40 ships then present in the canal, closing it to further shipping until early 1957.
On late November 5, the 3rd Battalion of the
Parachute Regiment dropped at El Gamil Airfield, clearing the area and establishing a secure base for incoming support aircraft and reinforcements. At first light on November 6,
Commandos of Nos 42 and 40 Commando
Royal Marines stormed the beaches, using
landing craft of
WWII vintage. Salvos from the battlegroup standing offshore opened fire, giving covering fire for the landings and causing considerable damage to the Egyptian batteries and gun emplacements. The town of
Port Said sustained great damage and was seen to be alight.
Acting in concert with British forces, 500 heavily-armed paratroopers of the French 2er RPC , hastily redeployed from combat in Algeria, jumped over the al-Raswa bridges from Nordatlas transports of the ET 1/61 and ET 3/61, together with some combat engineers of the Guards Independent Parachute Company. Despite a loss of two soldiers, the western bridge was swiftly secured by the paras, and Corsairs of the Aéronavale 14F and 15F flew a series of close-air-support missions, destroying several SU-100s. F-84Fs also hit two large oil storage tanks in Port Said, which went up in flames and covered most of the city in a thick cloud of smoke for the next several days. Egyptian resistance was initially stiff but variable, some machine gun and cannon positions fought back until destroyed, while other Egyptian troops ran away. In addition to their normal armament of grenades, MAS-49 rifles, and
MAT-49 submachine guns, French paratroops were equipped with light machine guns, rifle grenades, and designated marksmen with telescope-sighted
MAS-36 rifles. The paras employed the rifle grenadiers and MAS marksmen to eliminate enemy strongpoints and snipers. One of the parachute regiment's members, Pierre Leuliette, noted that Egyptian infantry resistance was strongest where Egyptian officers stayed and fought with their men.
In the afternoon, 522 additional French paras were dropped near Port Fuad. These were also constantly supported by the Corsairs of the French Aéronavale, which flew very intensive operations: for example, although the French carrier
LaFayette developed catapult problems, no less than 40 combat sorties were completed. In total, the French lost ten killed and 30 injured troops during the landing and the subsequent battles.
Meeting stiff resistance, British commandos of No. 45 Commando assaulted by helicopter and upon landing, moved inland from the port. Shore batteries hit several helicopters and casualties were sustained. Friendly fire from British carrier-borne aircraft caused heavy casualties to 45 Commando and HQ. Street fighting and house clearing was the order of the day. Again, stiff opposition from well entrenched
sniper positions caused a number of casualties.
Cease-fire and withdrawal
The operation to take the canal was highly successful from a military point of view, but a political disaster due to external forces. Along with Suez, the United States was also dealing with the near-simultaneous
Soviet-
Hungary crisis, and faced the public relations embarrassment of criticizing the Soviet Union's military intervention there while not also criticizing its two principal European allies' actions.
Thus, the
Eisenhower administration forced a cease-fire on Britain and France, which it had previously told the Allies it would not do. Part of the pressure that the United States used against Britain was financial, as Eisenhower threatened to sell the United States reserves of the British pound and thereby precipitate a collapse of the British currency. After Saudi Arabia started an oil embargo against Britain and France, the U.S. refused to fill the gap, until Britain and France agreed to a rapid withdrawal. There was also a measure of discouragement for Britain in the rebuke by the
Commonwealth Prime Ministers
St. Laurent of
Canada and
Menzies of
Australia at a time when Britain was still continuing to regard the Commonwealth as an entity of importance as the residue of the
British Empire and as an automatic supporter in its effort to remain a world power.
The British government and the
pound thus both came under pressure. Eden was forced to resign and the invading forces withdrew in March 1957. Before the withdrawal,
Lester Pearson, Canada's acting cabinet minister for external affairs, had gone to the
United Nations and suggested creating a
United Nations Emergency Force in the Suez to "keep the borders at peace while a political settlement is being worked out." The United Nations eagerly accepted this suggestion, and the force was sent, greatly improving conditions in the area. Lester Pearson was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his efforts. The United Nations Peacekeeping Force was Lester Pearson's creation and he is considered the father of the modern concept "
peacekeeping".
Aftermath
Eden's resignation marked, until the
Falklands War, the last significant attempt Britain made to impose its military will abroad without U.S. support. Scott Lucas wrote "that Britain did not require
Washington's endorsement to defend her interests".
However, Nigel Ashton argues "that
British strategy in the region changed very little in the wake of Suez.
Macmillan was every bit as determined as Eden had been to stop Nasser" although he was more willing to enlist American support in the future for that end. Some would argue that the crisis also marked the 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 outside of the European theatre. From the point of view of General
de Gaulle, the Suez events demonstrated that
France could not rely on allies, especially the
United States, when pursuing her own foreign policy goals. This eventually led to
France pulling out of the
NATO military network to safeguard its own interest.
The crisis signed the downsizing of United Kingdom and France as
Global Powers and greatly improved Nasser's standing in the Arab world, helped to promote
pan-Arabism, and reinforced hostility against the State of Israel. It also 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.
By early 1957 all
Israeli troops had withdrawn from the Sinai. As part of the deal, the
United Nations Emergency Force was placed in the Sinai 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. The
Egyptian government then began to remilitarize the Sinai, and demanded that the UNEF withdraw. This action, along with the blockade of the
Strait of Tiran, led directly to the
Six Day War. 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.
Eisenhower later admitted, after retiring from office, that the Suez Crisis was perhaps the biggest mistake he made in terms of foreign policy. Not only did he feel that the United States weakened two crucial European Cold War Allies but he created in Nasser a man capable of dominating the Arab world when Nasser was little liked let alone respected amongst other Arab countries.
Notes
References
ISBN 0-671-50248-4 Chapter 24 is devoted entirely to the Suez Crisis.
- Leuliette, Pierre, St. Michael and the Dragon: Memoirs of a Paratrooper, Houghton Mifflin, 1964
Further reading
- Walter Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present .
- Ahron Bregman, Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947 . ISBN 0-415-28716-2
- Keith Kyle, Suez: Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East . ISBN 1-86064-811-8
- David Tal , The 1956 War . ISBN 0-7146-4394-7
See also
External links
- July 2006, BBC,
- July 2006, The Economist,
