1956 Nasser and Nationalism
Nov. 7th, 2011 08:04 amAfter Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, with Britain and France itching to go to war, Nasser became problem number one for the Eisenhower administration, with the problem being more complicated because, unlike America of late, Eisenhower did believe that he could just take out his hammer to solve the problem.
_ _ _
Admiral Burke said that the Joint Chiefs agreed that “Nasser must be broken,” but he said it could be accomplished though economic and political means. If not, then the United States should support British military action. Eisenhower was reluctant to adopt that conclusion. The issue was not just Nasser, he said. “Nasser embodies the emotional demands of the people of the era for independence and for ‘slapping the white Man down.’” Eisenhower foresaw that nationalism of this kind cold “array the world from Dakar to the Philippine Islands against us.”
-- David A. Nichols, “Eisenhower 1956”
_ _ _
Admiral Burke said that the Joint Chiefs agreed that “Nasser must be broken,” but he said it could be accomplished though economic and political means. If not, then the United States should support British military action. Eisenhower was reluctant to adopt that conclusion. The issue was not just Nasser, he said. “Nasser embodies the emotional demands of the people of the era for independence and for ‘slapping the white Man down.’” Eisenhower foresaw that nationalism of this kind cold “array the world from Dakar to the Philippine Islands against us.”
-- David A. Nichols, “Eisenhower 1956”