The Other Side of Suez

Apart from its revelations about the attitude and conduct of British prime minister Anthony Eden, who deeply resented President Nasser's championing of Egyptian independence, actively encouraged plots to fabricate dissent, turned a blind eye to several assassination attempts and eventually connived with the French and the Israelis to manufacture a 'war' as an excuse for sending in British troops to 'act as a buffer' between the Egyptians and the Israelis and protect Western interests as represented by the Suez Canal — apart from all this, the programme went on to make direct comparisons between these events of 50 years ago and the present situation in Iraq.
Eden sabotaged UN efforts for a negotiated settlement, described Nasser as a Soviet puppet who must be removed, cited 'sexed-up' intelligence reports to back up his arguments, and disastrously under-estimated the resistance of the Egyptian population to the sending in of British troops. Does this sound at all as if no lessons have been learned from history? Miscalculation followed miscalculation as Anthony Eden hatched his petty little plans to discredit Nasser. He totally failed to anticipate the disapproving reaction of the United States and the Cold War consequences of his actions. He similarly failed to allow for how the Soviet Union would react (as it was, Khruschev threatened to bomb London and Paris and cracked down on the Hungarian uprising to demonstrate that Soviet interests would also be 'protected').
Further unfortunate consequences which followed from the Suez crisis were a shift of US policy which saw them becoming actively involved in Middle East affairs, and a tragic miscalculation by Nasser of his and Egypt's power, which led in turn to the disastrous Arab-Israeli war of 1967, the aftermath of which still plagues the region to this day.

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