Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace

by Alex von Tunzelmann

Overview

A lively, revelatory popular history that tells the story of both the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956—a tale of conspiracy and revolutions, spies and terrorists, kidnappings and assassination plots, the fall of the British Empire and the rise of American hegemony under the heroic leadership of President Dwight D. Eisenhower—which shaped the Middle East and Europe we know today.

The year 1956 was a turning point in history. Over sixteen extraordinary days in October and November of that year, the twin crises involving Suez and Hungary pushed the world to the brink of a nuclear conflict and what many at the time were calling World War III. Blood and Sand delivers this story in an hour-by-hour account through a fascinating international cast of characters: Anthony Eden, the British prime minister, caught in a trap of his own making; Gamal Abdel Nasser, the bold young populist leader of Egypt; David Ben-Gurion, the aging Zionist hero of Israel; Guy Mollet, the bellicose French prime minister; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, the American president, torn between an old world order and a new one in the very same week that his own fate as president was to be decided by the American people.

This is a revelatory history of these dramatic events and people, for the first time setting both crises in the context of the global Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the treacherous power politics of imperialism and oil. Blood and Sand resonates strikingly with the problems of oil control, religious fundamentalism, and international unity that face the world today, and is essential reading for anyone concerned with the state of the modern Middle East and Europe.

Blood and Sand includes 25-30 black-and-white photographs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062249258
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	318,316
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Alex von Tunzelmann is the author of Blood and Sand, Indian Summer, and Red Heat. She lives in London.

Table of Contents

Maps xi

Author's Note xv

Prologue: "I Want Him Murdered" 1

1 Monday, October 22, 1956: "We Must Keep the Americans Really Frightened" 41

2 Tuesday, October 23, 1956: The Hammer and Sickle Torn Out 79

3 Wednesday, October 24, 1956: A Plan on a Cigarette Packet 113

4 Thursday, October 25, 1956: Bloody Thursday 134

5 Friday, October 26, 1956: The Two Musketeers 151

6 Saturday, October 27, 1956: The Omega Plan 182

7 Sunday, October 28, 1956: No Picnic 208

8 Monday, October 29, 1956: "Sandstorms in the Desert" 215

9 Tuesday, October 30, 1956: Ultimatum 239

10 Wednesday, October 31, 1956: Perfididus Albion 271

11 Thursday, November 1, 1956: "There is Something the Matter with Aim" 291

12 Friday, November 2, 1956: "Love to Nasty" 314

13 Saturday, November 3, 1956: "Help the Burglar, Shoot the Householder" 341

14 Sunday, November 4, 1956: Reaping the Whirlwind 357

15 Monday, November 5, 1956: "Hit 'Em with Everything in the Bucket" 377

16 Tuesday, November 6, 1956: Back Down 399

Epilogue: "The Curse of the Pharadhs" 424

Fates 449

Acknowledgments 457

Notes 461

Bibliography 503

Index 511

Editorial Reviews

Gripping....Von Tunzelmann, an Oxford educated historian with an eye for human detail as well as a sure-handed grasp of the larger picture, does a marvelous job of recreating the tension and bungling that swept up up Cairo, London, Moscow, Budapest, Paris and Washington during the harrowing two weeks of Oct. 22 to Nov. 26, 1956.... Not only exciting and satisfying but also timely.” — Evan Thomas, New York Times Book Review

“Anchored with fresh documentary evidence, Blood and Sand is a riveting re-evaluation of the Cold War crises of 1956: Suez and Hungary. Alex von Tunzelmann has written a definitive history of these crucial events — a real page-turner and monument to first-rate scholarship.” — Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America

“This thrilling ticktock brings the emotional core of geopolitical maneuvering into dramatic focus, with portraits of leaders variously honorable, pigheaded, irresolute, pusillanimous, and susceptible to mood swings.” — The New Yorker

“This book offers a shrewd, exciting history of the Suez crisis of 1956, and makes a clear case for its relevance today.” — New York Times

“The effect is a cinematic, you-are-there style of history-writing, which plunges the reader into the chaos of events.” — Adam Kirsch, Tablet

“A thoroughly well-researched, action-packed, and highly readable account of the two major international crises that shook the world in 1956, Blood and Sand is a fascinating tale of plots and conspiracies, of deception and double-dealing, of bullying and blundering.” — Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World

“Von Tunzelmann deftly describes and links these twin struggles and offers excellent profiles of the key players, including Nasser and Eisenhower, shown here as the true ‘hero’ for his wisdom and restraint. This is an outstanding reexamination of these sad, history-altering events.” — Booklist, starred review

“Gripping.... A timely and insightful must-read for anyone who cares about Middle Eastern history or 20th-century diplomacy.” — Library Journal

“Skillfully and artfully integrates the complex, simultaneous Suez and Hungarian crises of 1956 into a single story of Cold War conflict as no one has before.” — Publishers Weekly

“Von Tunzelmann’s narrative cracks along like an international political thriller as she tracks the action day by day, sometimes hour by hour. A fine new account of an unnecessary crisis.” — Kirkus

From the Publisher

This book offers a shrewd, exciting history of the Suez crisis of 1956, and makes a clear case for its relevance today.

New York Times

This thrilling ticktock brings the emotional core of geopolitical maneuvering into dramatic focus, with portraits of leaders variously honorable, pigheaded, irresolute, pusillanimous, and susceptible to mood swings.

The New Yorker

This thrilling ticktock brings the emotional core of geopolitical maneuvering into dramatic focus, with portraits of leaders variously honorable, pigheaded, irresolute, pusillanimous, and susceptible to mood swings.

The New Yorker

Anchored with fresh documentary evidence, Blood and Sand is a riveting re-evaluation of the Cold War crises of 1956: Suez and Hungary. Alex von Tunzelmann has written a definitive history of these crucial events — a real page-turner and monument to first-rate scholarship.

Douglas Brinkley

The turmoil and danger created by the Suez crisis and the Hungarian rebellion have largely faded from popular memory. With Blood and Sand, Alex von Tunzelmann, an Oxford-educated historian with an eye for human detail as well as a sure-handed grasp of the larger picture, does a marvelous job of recreating the tension and bungling that swept up Cairo, London, Moscow, Budapest, Paris and Washington during the harrowing two weeks of Oct. 22 to Nov. 6, 1956. The background of the crisis was complex, and some readers may get slightly dizzy as the author corkscrews back in time from her gripping narrative. But the ultimate reward is a deeper understanding of the forces at work, as well as a wild ride down a zigzag trail left by the flailing of men with bloated and broken egos.

The New York Times Book Review - Evan Thomas

07/18/2016
British historian von Tunzelmann (Red Heat) skillfully and artfully integrates the complex, simultaneous Suez and Hungarian crises of 1956 into a single story of Cold War conflict as no one has before. Her day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour, staging of events and of the characters who caused and managed them is a deeply researched achievement. If there’s a pivot to the book, it’s U.K. Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s unhinged feelings about Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose government seized and blocked the Suez Canal. But the Soviet-American military stakes were probably higher in Hungary, whose tragic fate was left to Soviet brutality. That neither crisis precipitated world war was thanks in large part to the Eisenhower administration’s determination, in the midst of Ike’s reelection campaign, not to aid Britain, France, and Israel in reversing Nasser’s canal seizure, and its less defensible decision to leave Hungary to its fate. Snappy prose and revealing evidence carry the often riveting story along. But it’s hard to find an argument, idea, or interpretation anywhere in the book—that is, to learn von Tunzelmann’s considered views. If fact-filled narrative were all there was to historical writing, this book would be unsurpassed; history being more than chronicle, the book suffers as a result. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A thoroughly well-researched, action-packed, and highly readable account of the two major international crises that shook the world in 1956, Blood and Sand is a fascinating tale of plots and conspiracies, of deception and double-dealing, of bullying and blundering.

Avi Shlaim

Gripping....Von Tunzelmann, an Oxford educated historian with an eye for human detail as well as a sure-handed grasp of the larger picture, does a marvelous job of recreating the tension and bungling that swept up up Cairo, London, Moscow, Budapest, Paris and Washington during the harrowing two weeks of Oct. 22 to Nov. 26, 1956.... Not only exciting and satisfying but also timely.

Evan Thomas

The effect is a cinematic, you-are-there style of history-writing, which plunges the reader into the chaos of events.

Adam Kirsch

Von Tunzelmann deftly describes and links these twin struggles and offers excellent profiles of the key players, including Nasser and Eisenhower, shown here as the true ‘hero’ for his wisdom and restraint. This is an outstanding reexamination of these sad, history-altering events.

starred review Booklist

Stirring…von Tunzelmann’s brisk narrative is propelled forward by the personalities of five memorable individuals who all wanted and worked for independence…absorbingly readable.

Fortune on Indian Summer

This is history as multiple, interconnected biography . . . placing the behavior and feelings of a few key players at the center of a tumultuous moment in history.”-

New York Times Book Review on Indian Summer

Irresistible . . . A fascinating book that may well change how we look on the benighted world in which we live today.

Los Angeles Times on Indian Summer

Suitcases full of cash, torture chambers, gunboats, coups, dictatorship, and revolutionary fervor spill out of these pages…. Captures the missile crisis as a frightening and real dance of knives in a dusty Caribbean cockfighting square.

Washington Post on Red Heat

09/01/2016
Offering a day-by-day accounting of the international crisis over the Suez Canal in 1956, this latest work by Tunzelmann (Indian Summer) explains the canal's profound importance and consequence for Egypt, Israel, England, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Arguably, the most significant part of this gripping tale is the role of President Dwight Eisenhower although other pivotal actors are critically analyzed: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, French Prime Minister Guy Mollet, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Eisenhower, soon to face his 1956 reelection campaign, clearly relished the historical linkage with the likes of Great Britain and France, yet desired no war, conventional or nuclear, to assist those nations in either maintaining or expanding their respective empires. At the hands of Tunzelmann, Eisenhower is portrayed as the most levelheaded of the leaders, while Eden is cast in a more negative light. Readers will realize global actors don't solve problems so much as they do their best to cope with them. VERDICT This convincingly argued book is a timely and insightful must-read for anyone who cares about Middle Eastern history or 20th-century diplomacy, as well as students of global affairs.—Stephen Kent Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Coll., Nampa, ID

Library Journal

2016-07-19
A tale of political bungling with tragic consequences on two continents.Following the nationalization of the Suez Canal by President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt in July 1956, the governments of Great Britain, France, and Israel entered into a scheme for a joint invasion of Egypt. Each nation's leader had his own motivations, including control of the canal and oil pipelines, Nasser's support for Algerian rebels, Israeli access to the Red Sea, and a strong dislike of Nasser personally. Attempts to keep their collusion secret quickly led them into a tangle of lies to their allies—in particular the United States—to the United Nations, and sometimes to their own governments. The resulting invasion in October and November was a colossal diplomatic, political, and military fiasco resolved when an infuriated Dwight Eisenhower forced a British withdrawal by withholding support for the plummeting pound. This neo-colonialist folly further rendered Western governments incapable of confronting the Soviet Union when it crushed the Hungarian uprising that, by coincidence, occurred during the Suez crisis. For Eisenhower, who faced an election in early November, Suez was the mother of all October surprises. Guardian columnist von Tunzelmann's (Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean, 2011, etc.) narrative cracks along like an international political thriller as she tracks the action day by day, sometimes hour by hour. The British prime minister, Anthony Eden, leads the cast of characters; unhealthily obsessed with Nasser, his quixotic effort to reassert British dominance in the Middle East effectively ended Britain's status as a great power. The author lays bare at every turn the arrogance, complacency, incompetence, and wishful thinking that drove British and French decisions in a story that could appear as comedy were it not for the death, destruction, and diplomatic wreckage that resulted. A fine new account of an unnecessary crisis that "scattered dragon's teeth on all-too-fertile soil,” which “would bear gruesome fruit for decades.

Kirkus Reviews