jan 1, 1956 - Egypt Nationalizes Suez Canal

Description:

Eisenhower Doctrine: President Eisenhower’s 1957 declaration that the United States would actively combat communism in the Middle East.

Vietnam remained out of the public spotlight even as American support ramped up. The same could not be said of the Middle East, an area rich in oil, political complexity, and the legacy of European colonialism. The most volatile area was Palestine, which had a majority Arab population but was also historically the ancient land of Israel and desired by the Zionist movement as the site of a Jewish national homeland. Jewish immigration to Palestine had begun in the aftermath of World War I, and thousands of Jews arrived as anti-Semitism in Europe steadily intensified in the 1930s. After World War II, many survivors of the Nazi extermination camps resettled in Palestine, which was still controlled by Britain under a 1922 mandate from the defunct League of Nations. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine between Jewish and Arab sectors. When the British mandate ended in 1948, Palestinian leaders rejected the partition as a violation of their right to self-determination, while Zionist leaders embraced the partition and proclaimed the state of Israel. In response, the Arab nations of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt invaded the newly proclaimed state. The infant nation of Israel survived, and many Palestinian Arabs fled or were driven from their homes by the Israeli army during the fighting. The Arab defeat left these people permanently stranded in refugee camps or exiled in foreign countries. President Truman recognized the new state immediately, which won him crucial support from Jewish voters in the 1948 election but aroused opposition in the Arab world.

Southwest of Palestine, Egypt began to assert its presence in the region. Having gained independence from Britain several decades earlier, Egypt remained a monarchy until 1952, when Gamal Abdel Nasser led a military coup that established a constitutional republic. Caught between the Soviet Union and the United States, Nasser sought an independent route: a pan-Arab socialism designed to sever colonial relationships with the West. When negotiations with the United States over Nasser’s plan to build a massive hydroelectric dam on the Nile broke down in 1956, he nationalized the Suez Canal, which was the lifeline for Western Europe’s oil shipments. Britain and France, in alliance with Israel, attacked Egypt and seized the canal. Concerned that the invasion would push Egypt toward the Soviets, Eisenhower successfully pressured France and Britain to pull back. After reclaiming the Suez Canal, Nasser built the massive Aswan Dam on the Nile with Soviet support. Eisenhower had likely avoided a larger war, but the West lost a potential ally in Nasser.

In early 1957, concerned about Soviet presence in the region, the president delivered a “Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East.” The document outlined a policy that came to be known as the Eisenhower Doctrine, which stated that American forces would assist any nation in the region that required aid “against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by International Communism.” Invoking the doctrine later that year, Eisenhower helped King Hussein of Jordan put down a Nasser-backed revolt and propped up a pro-American government in Lebanon. The Eisenhower Doctrine was further evidence that the United States had extended the global reach of containment, by incorporating the Middle East into the Cold War’s rigid binary logic. In search of regional allies, always with an eye on the West’s vital oil supply, the United States had initiated a commitment to intervening in the region that would endure for decades.

Added to timeline:

Date: