Word: suez
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...aims were 1) keep the Communists out of the Middle East, 2) keep the peace and preserve the highest possible measure of unity of the non-Communist world, 3) keep the Suez Canal in working order so that Middle Eastern oil might continue to flow to Western Europe's industry. None of these objectives would be achieved and all of these objectives would be jeopardized by a shooting war. In the tactical sense, the U.S. was ready to accept blame from the British for dragging its feet if that might give Prime Minister Anthony Eden a better chance...
...understandable why the conclusion-jumpers were so active. In the first angry days after Nasser's seizure of the Suez, Sir Anthony had talked tough. Last week, after a month and a half of inconclusive international consultations, culminating in the abortive Menzies mission to Cairo. Eden had softened. Now some of his fellow Tories demanded that he make good on his threats. On the other hand, the Labor Party, which represents roughly half the British population, was sharply opposed to the use of force against Egypt, pressed him to submit the case...
...with trepidation but almost with eagerness that Eden summoned Parliament from vacation last week to face up to the Suez crisis in an emergency session. Eden's political hand was not bad, and only serious misplaying of it could bring him to personal disaster...
...Europe last week there was far greater concern than in the U.S. that the Suez crisis might lead to shooting and war. The French were united as at no time since World War II in demanding Nasser's destruction and thereby, they hoped, reversing the decay of their position in North Africa. The British, while speaking more softly, were moving divisions and insisting through stiffened upper lips on their right and need to fight as a last resort against the loss of their irreplaceable strategic and material stake in the Middle East. As NATO met last week in Paris...
Outwardly, Egypt's Nasser and his countrymen acted as though they did not believe their antagonists' threats. In their hearts, however, they could not be sure that one misstep, one clumsy, maneuver, even one ship accident in the Suez ("Remember the Maine!") would not bring on the guns of Britain and France...