Paper Summary:

This paper explains how the Suez crisis of 1956 marked a decisive military defeat, yet it was a great political and economic victory for President Nasser, Egypt, and the entire Arab world. It shows how the nationalization of the canal provided the Arab world with the hero it so badly needed. Nasser provided guidance for his people and also provided an end to the period of Western imperial dominance in Egypt.

From the Paper:

"With Nasser's nationalization of Suez, the Western powers were furious regarded the nationalization as "theft." What came to be known as the Tripartite aggression in the East, the collaboration of Britain, France, and Israel all began to deploy troops for Suez immediately.10 All of the involved nations had their concerns with Nasser's nationalization of the canal, but the four nations most chiefly concerned with the affair were Britain, France, the United States, and Israel.11 The Western powers of Britain, France, and the United States were much more concerned with the economic aspect of its nationalization, rather than the physical usage of it. For the West, Suez represented the quickest, most economical means of shipping to India and the far East. Both Britain and France had major economic interests in the canal12 and British ships represented seventy percent of the canal's daily traffic. As Terrence Robertson put it, the Suez canal was "the spinal cord of the British Empire."13 With respect to the United States, the only reason that they did not take immediate military action is that of the ramifications it would have had on the Cold War and their already tense relationship with the Soviet Union.14 Other reasons for hostility among the Westerners include the fact that Nasser had been aiding the Algerians in their movement against the French, Israel was angry about their banishment from the gulf of Aqueba and perhaps from Suez altogether upon total Egyptian control."

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