Suez Crisis 1956: End of Empire and the Reshaping of the Middle East

In 1956 Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, ending nearly a century of British and French control over the crucial waterway. Ignoring U.S. diplomatic efforts and fears of a looming Cold War conflict, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden misled Parliament and the press to take Britain to war alongside France and Israel. In response to a secretly pre—planned Israeli attack in the Sinai, France and Britain intervened as ‘peacemakers’. The invasion of Egypt was sup...