Yergin, Chapter 24: the Suez Crisis

Andrew McCarthy Sarah Paradoski Lupe Ramsey Global Energy Crises—Summer 2007

Yergin, Chapter 24: The Suez Crisis

1869  Suez Canal completed by Ferdinand de Lesseps’ Suez Canal Company  What was once an 11,000 mile journey for ships is now 6,500 mile trip 1875  Egypt’s 44 percent ownership of the Canal came up for purchase and with the assistance of the Rothschild family was immediately bought by the British government under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli 1947  Most of the United Kingdom’s territories such as India gain independence by this time effectively shifting the canal’s original purpose of defending India to one centered on the transportation of petroleum 1952  A group of military officers successfully ousted the Egyptian King 1954  Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser topples the original military government led by General Mohammed Naguib and begins his ultra-nationalist, pan-Arabist diatribes against the West and particularly the British for their continued control of Egypt’s canal, not due to expire until 1968  British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden negotiates a deal with Nasser whereby Britain agreed to withdraw its troops from the canal zone within 20 months 1955  Later that year, the Americans, British, and the World Bank consider a massive loan to Egypt to build a dam on the Nile  The West learns that Nasser solicited weapons from the USSR in addition to Nasser’s friendly relations with “Red China.” American Senators and Israeli leaders alike begin to pull support for the dam for their own reasons  Washington instead decides to support Tito of Yugoslavia over Nasser 1956  20th anniversary of Hitler’s remilitarization of the Rhineland  Eisenhower is up for reelection this year—was running on a ticket of peace so any hope of the Americans engaging Nasser militarily should have been dispensed with by the British and French—Unfortunately they did not factor this into their plans  June: the last British troops leave canal zone  Early July: Dulles officially pulls the funding of the Aswan Dam loan surprising Nasser  July 26: Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal  September: Eisenhower sends a wealthy Texas oil man, Robert Anderson, to Saudi Arabia to push the Saudis into pressuring Nasser to compromise—his warning: the US will move away from oil toward nuclear energy—King Saud dismissed the warning  October: French and British pilots responsible for guiding ships through the canal zone are withdrawn which they thought would leave the “ill-trained” Egyptians unable to run the canal—they were wrong  October 24: British, French, and Israeli officials secretly meet in France to discuss a military plan: Israel occupies the Sinai while Britain and France issue an ultimatum to Nasser—if Nasser refused, the British and French would invade the canal zone  October 29: Israel launches its attack on the Sinai  October 31: after refusing Britain and France’s ultimatum, British and French forces bomb Egyptian positions and invade—infuriates Eisenhower  November 6: Eisenhower wins a landslide victory over Adlai Stevenson— demands the British, French, and Israelis withdraw threatening a US oil embargo of Europe  Saudi Arabia institutes an oil embargo against Britain and France  November 7: Britain announces that domestic oil consumption to be cut by 10 percent  Early December: Oil Lift bailout program commences  Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OECD) creates the Petroleum Emergency Group to equitably allocate American and European oil supplies among European nations—but the Texas Railroad Commission decides not to allow higher production because price worries thereby exacerbating Europe’s situation 1957  Spring: by this time companies cede to political pressure and increase oil production making the Oil Lift successful—helped by the fact that Europe was still largely a coal-based economy (oil accounted for only 20 percent of energy consumption on the continent)  March: Bermuda Conference—to ameliorate the strained relationship between the US and Britain  April: the US suspends the emergency Oil Lift program  mid-May: British government abolishes gasoline rationing and then reluctantly directs British ships to use the Suez Canal  January: Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns—his reputation forever marred by Nasser’s victory

British Prime Minister Anthony Eden is remembered as “the last prime minister to believe Britain was a great power and the first to confront a crisis which proved she was not” (Yergin, 496).