Suez Crisis

Yes, JFK was very heavily pro-Israel.

In fact, Eisenhower had been reluctant to supply heavy arms to Israel and had threatened sanction during the Suez Crisis.

But JFK opened the spigots for heavy arms supply to Israel.

And he and his brother had been ardently pro-Zionist and pro-Israel.

But they were happy to work with the free officers.

In the 1956 Suez Crisis, the United States told the European empires and Israel to stop The point is that 9-11, which is in a way a fundamental act of revolutionary, radical resistance against imperialism, against coercion, against cultural domination, is in itself not wholly contrary to a kind of American spirit that sought to smash up the old world and create a new world.

So, Eamon, where do you think – I know it's a provocative thesis, but where do you think America – sort of actually stood in that decades-long struggle to create a new world order.

Because sometimes America defended established power.

The British did it before we did.

Uh, remember, the British were heavily engaged there, and that's one of the reasons you had the 1956 Suez Crisis, and what did the 1956 Suez Crisis do? Well, on the one hand, uh, the Arab world in particular thought it was wonderful that Eisenhower pulled the rug out from under the British and the French through our control of the financial system and Britain's heavy debt, uh, and said, simply said, "You know, if you're not...

You didn't clear this with me, you didn't agree to...

You didn't discuss this with me, so either you get out or I'll collapse your economy." And the Arabs all cheered and said, "Oh, this is great.

[laughs]

...also at many good booksellers, um, is about the Suez Crisis of nineteen fifty-six, which of course, does indeed also involve a pinch point.

Mm-hmm.

One of the major ones, one of the three major ones really, in the Middle East.

I think the notion that states may overextend themselves through the use of force does actually matter here.

In many ways, the conflict that I have been thinking about a lot in the last six months is I've been thinking about the Suez Crisis and the involvement, particularly of the British, but also the French in trying to seize the Suez Canal in the 1950s.

a military operation that was effectively doomed to failure.

And partly that failed because the US got involved, partly it failed because of other politics.

Following the war, anti-colonial revolutions swept across Asia.

So in the 50s, there were a lot of independence movements in what was then British Malaya, in India, in Egypt with the Suez Crisis, in Iran and in Iraq.

Quote, an empire that had taken hundreds of years to build up came tumbling down in the decade and a half which followed the Second World War, which then led to, quote, the re-emergence of the Lawrence legend.

Bolt's distortions provide some sorely needed cultural comfort.

This one is from August of 1956.

Suez crisis, British French rush warships to the area.

Watch this newsreel.

At the Portsmouth Naval Base, Britain prepares for the worst in the Suez Crisis.

Part of her mothball fleet, idle since World War II, is hastily made ready for action.

President Nasser continues to defy the Western powers on his seizure of the canal and seeks the support of Russia and the Arab League countries.