by Ron Unz, The Unz Review:
Seventy years ago both Britain and France were still regarded as great military powers. Having emerged in the winner’s circle of World War II, they had been given permanent seats and veto power on the Security Council of the fledgling United Nations, taking their places alongside America, the USSR, and China.
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Just a decade earlier, their empires had encompassed most of the Middle East, and as a consequence they still regarded themselves as the natural overlords of that region. Hence they were outraged by the actions taken by some of the leaders of the newly independent Arab states, notably President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, who nationalized the Suez Canal in July 1956.
Europeans had controlled that vital waterway almost from the time of its original construction, and it was regarded by Britain as a crucial strategic asset.
So having formed a secret alliance with the young State of Israel, Britain and France suddenly struck later that year, using the excuse of a pre-arranged Israeli attack on Egypt to launch their own invasion and occupation of that country. Their military forces easily defeated their weak Egyptian opponents and seized control of the canal and its vicinity. They intended to topple Nasser’s government and thereby reassert their traditional dominance over the entire region and all its new Arab states.
But although the alliance of Britain, France, and Israel easily achieved a total operational military victory, battlefield successes sometimes do not determine the outcome of wars. The United States under President Dwight Eisenhower was opposed to this unprovoked military aggression against the most important Arab country and the seizure of its greatest national asset. So he deployed America’s overwhelming financial power against those invading European countries, and their economies quickly faced total collapse.
