Why did Eisenhower give the Suez Canal to the Egyptians?

[swing_voter]

At the end of WWII, colonized nations were tired of of their colonizers. Egypt, Vietnam, India, and a host of other colonized nations wanted their freedom.

Egypt started by nationalizing the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is how shipping gets from Asia and the Pacific to Europe and the Atlantic. That way you don't have to sail all the way around Africa to get to Europe.

France and Britain owned the Suez Canal so they joined with Israel to fight a war with Egypt. This enraged the whole Muslim world, many of whom were colonized nations themselves. And all of them hated Israel with a passion.

So France, Britain and Israel started the war, and it was quickly obvious that they were winning.

Eisenhower told France, Britain and Israel to stop. America produced about 75% of the world's oil back then and Eisenhower threatened an oil boycott. Also, America owned a lot of British currency at that time and America threated to dump the British currency and completely ruin the British economy.

France, Britain and Israel stopped the war.

France and Britain, both huge colonialists were humiliated. Later, this would cause a lot of problems for America, like the Vietnam War.

So why did Ike do it?



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[DataPoint]

The crisis politically destroyed Anthony Eden's government.

 

[Tigerace117]

At the end of WWII, colonized nations were tired of of their colonizers. Egypt, Vietnam, India, and a host of other colonized nations wanted their freedom.

Egypt started by nationalizing the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is how shipping gets from Asia and the Pacific to Europe and the Atlantic. That way you don't have to sail all the way around Africa to get to Europe.

France and Britain owned the Suez Canal so they joined with Israel to fight a war with Egypt. This enraged the whole Muslim world, many of whom were colonized nations themselves. And all of them hated Israel with a passion.

So France, Britain and Israel started the war, and it was quickly obvious that they were winning.

Eisenhower told France, Britain and Israel to stop. America produced about 75% of the world's oil back then and Eisenhower threatened an oil boycott. Also, America owned a lot of British currency at that time and America threated to dump the British currency and completely ruin the British economy.

France, Britain and Israel stopped the war.

France and Britain, both huge colonialists were humiliated. Later, this would cause a lot of problems for America, like the Vietnam War.

So why did Ike do it?



.

Because the Canal was rightfully Egypt’s in the first place. Eisenhower wisely made the decision that it wasn’t worth getting the US drawn into a potential quagmire and pissing off most of the world(Nasser’s actions, for instance, made him a hero to the common people across the Middle East) to back fading colonial empires which would need to be propped up by America to do much of anything.

 

[Allan]

The man who became Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping to sort that out. That crisis also led to the adoption of Canada's current flag. The Canadian flag at the time, flown by Canadian peacekeepers, included a British ensign which was offensive to the Egyptians.

 

[swing_voter]

How did it lead to the Vietnam War?

France owned Vietnam. Vietnam was France's colony.

When Vietnam revolted against French rule, France asked America for help. America had humiliated the French over Suez so America reluctantly agreed to give France millions of dollars to fight the French/Vietnamese War.

It was a face saving gesture from America to France.

Even with all that money, France lost.

But then people were afraid of Vietnam going communist as much of the Vietnamese leadership was communist and the Vietnamese communists were actively getting aide from the Soviets.

So America had to do what it could to prevent Vietnam from going communist. This was as much to demonstrate to America's allies that we were dependable and would invest a lot into preventing communism, as anything else.

Almost everyone knew it was unwinnable.

And the Vietnamese/American War started.


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[Jredbaron96]

So why did Ike do it?

He was running a campaign for "peace", and would have looked like a colonial war monger backing the French and British.

 

[swing_voter]

He was running a campaign for "peace", and would have looked like a colonial war monger backing the French and British.

Eisenhower wanted to get rid of the colonies.

The Cold War was on and the Soviets were literally invited in by the Muslims in the Middle East, for guns and such.

 

[HK.227]

So why did Ike do it?.

He was trapped.
If he supported Britain and France, the middle east would go pro-Soviet.
If he did nothing, the middle east would go pro-Soviet.
If he supported Egypt, France and Britain would certainly be angry, but would not go pro-Soviet.

 

[swing_voter]

He was trapped.
If he supported Britain and France, the middle east would go pro-Soviet.
If he did nothing, the middle east would go pro-Soviet.
If he supported Egypt, France and Britain would certainly be angry, but would not go pro-Soviet.

I think America wanted Egypt to recognize Israel too.

They finally did, but years later.



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[Grand Mal]

At the end of WWII, colonized nations were tired of of their colonizers. Egypt, Vietnam, India, and a host of other colonized nations wanted their freedom.

Egypt started by nationalizing the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is how shipping gets from Asia and the Pacific to Europe and the Atlantic. That way you don't have to sail all the way around Africa to get to Europe.

France and Britain owned the Suez Canal so they joined with Israel to fight a war with Egypt. This enraged the whole Muslim world, many of whom were colonized nations themselves. And all of them hated Israel with a passion.

So France, Britain and Israel started the war, and it was quickly obvious that they were winning.

Eisenhower told France, Britain and Israel to stop. America produced about 75% of the world's oil back then and Eisenhower threatened an oil boycott. Also, America owned a lot of British currency at that time and America threated to dump the British currency and completely ruin the British economy.

France, Britain and Israel stopped the war.

France and Britain, both huge colonialists were humiliated. Later, this would cause a lot of problems for America, like the Vietnam War.

So why did Ike do it?



.

What has Eisenhower or the USA got to do with the Suez Canal?
Egypt owned the Canal. A British company operated it.

 

[Peter]

What has Eisenhower or the USA got to do with the Suez Canal?
Egypt owned the Canal. A British company operated it.

The USA does everything.
The rest of the world just waits to be told what to do.
It's like how the USA invented everything even though they didn't exist while most stuff was invented, it's just how good they are.

 

[Grand Mal]

The USA does everything.
The rest of the world just waits to be told what to do.
It's like how the USA invented everything even though they didn't exist while most stuff was invented, it's just how good they are.

The Suez might be being confused with the Panama Canal, which was built and operated by the US and the Canal Zone was, for all intents and purposes, American territory till they ceded it to Panama. But the Suez, hell, probably only a pocketful of trade into or out of the US would pass through there in a year.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Heck the US and NATO did nothing when India attacked Portugal and retook Goa. The US wanted Euro colonies gone

 

[Moi621]

At the end of WWII, colonized nations were tired of of their colonizers. Egypt, Vietnam, India, and a host of other colonized nations wanted their freedom.

Egypt started by nationalizing the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is how shipping gets from Asia and the Pacific to Europe and the Atlantic. That way you don't have to sail all the way around Africa to get to Europe.

France and Britain owned the Suez Canal so they joined with Israel to fight a war with Egypt. This enraged the whole Muslim world, many of whom were colonized nations themselves. And all of them hated Israel with a passion.

So France, Britain and Israel started the war, and it was quickly obvious that they were winning.

Eisenhower told France, Britain and Israel to stop. America produced about 75% of the world's oil back then and Eisenhower threatened an oil boycott. Also, America owned a lot of British currency at that time and America threated to dump the British currency and completely ruin the British economy.

France, Britain and Israel stopped the war.

France and Britain, both huge colonialists were humiliated. Later, this would cause a lot of problems for America, like the Vietnam War.

So why did Ike do it?



.

Because of the threat of joining
the communist".
DeGaulle used that to keep French colonies
such as Vietnam.


Moi

​

 

[AmNat]

At the end of WWII, colonized nations were tired of of their colonizers. Egypt, Vietnam, India, and a host of other colonized nations wanted their freedom.

Egypt started by nationalizing the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is how shipping gets from Asia and the Pacific to Europe and the Atlantic. That way you don't have to sail all the way around Africa to get to Europe.

France and Britain owned the Suez Canal so they joined with Israel to fight a war with Egypt. This enraged the whole Muslim world, many of whom were colonized nations themselves. And all of them hated Israel with a passion.

So France, Britain and Israel started the war, and it was quickly obvious that they were winning.

Eisenhower told France, Britain and Israel to stop. America produced about 75% of the world's oil back then and Eisenhower threatened an oil boycott. Also, America owned a lot of British currency at that time and America threated to dump the British currency and completely ruin the British economy.

France, Britain and Israel stopped the war.

France and Britain, both huge colonialists were humiliated. Later, this would cause a lot of problems for America, like the Vietnam War.

So why did Ike do it?



.

USG at that time would support any third world revolutionaries not directly taking orders from Moscow.