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1956 Eisenhower and the Suez Canal Crisis
Oct. 3rd, 2011 04:56 pmI thought I might use my library borrowings to resume racking up history notes, and I found “Eisenhower 1956” about the Suez canal crisis. A couple of months ago, I saw the author, David A. Nichols, giving a presentation and discussion on this book, and I immediately put it on my wish list, and now I am reading it for free, and I can see after only a few pages that this is a big break indeed. But then the Middle East always seems to be of more than passing interest these years.
_ _ _
“We cannot and will not condone armed aggression - no matter who the attacker, and no matter who the victim. We cannot - in the world any more than in our own nation - subscribe to one law for the weak, another law for the strong; one law for those opposing us, another for those allied with us. There can be only one law or there will be no peace.”
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, November 1, 1956
_ _ _
Wow, that’s beautiful, isn’t it? In brief, Egypt nationalized the canal, and then the French, British, and Israelis moved in to attack and conquer. Eisenhower, instead of siding with our allies, reined them in instead.
It seems we somehow jumped off-track since then, and this is at least a factor in why we are not enjoying a lot of peace these days. Americans just got too greedy, suffering from the corruption of power, and came to favor amorality over principle and justice, and now we are too deep in those dark woods to find our way back out.
_ _ _
“We cannot and will not condone armed aggression - no matter who the attacker, and no matter who the victim. We cannot - in the world any more than in our own nation - subscribe to one law for the weak, another law for the strong; one law for those opposing us, another for those allied with us. There can be only one law or there will be no peace.”
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, November 1, 1956
_ _ _
Wow, that’s beautiful, isn’t it? In brief, Egypt nationalized the canal, and then the French, British, and Israelis moved in to attack and conquer. Eisenhower, instead of siding with our allies, reined them in instead.
It seems we somehow jumped off-track since then, and this is at least a factor in why we are not enjoying a lot of peace these days. Americans just got too greedy, suffering from the corruption of power, and came to favor amorality over principle and justice, and now we are too deep in those dark woods to find our way back out.
