Freda Utley L Tbwaf Chinaslorymdlhe HICHCOSTOFWCEANCE $3.00 SECOND PRINTING
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f Freda Utley l tbwaf CHINASlORYmdlHE HICHCOSTOFWCEANCE $3.00 SECOND PRINTING Will the Middle East go Com- munist? It happened in China, and it can happen in the Middle East too, says this expert on world affairs, just returned from a world tour of the Far East, South East Asia, India, and the Arab States. FREDA UTLEY, a lifelong stu- dent of politics, economics and history, draws a deadly parallel between the events that brought the Chinese Reds to power and recent happenings in the Middle East. She spares neither the “liberals” who opened the way for Communist domination of China, nor the “conservatives” now playing into Moscow’s hands by their attitude toward Arab nationalism. She regards President Eisenhower’s stand on Suez as wise as it was principled, because the crucial point is whether the Arab peoples in their struggle for freedom and national independence shall be helped by the West-or forced, like the Chinese a generation (Continued on back flap) Jacket design by Bob Amft (Continued from front flap) ago, to turn to the USSR for aid. She calls for an American policy of practical idealism, sensitive to the rights of both Arab and Jew. Her balanced evaluation of today’s problems and tomor- row’s possibilities in the world’s hottest danger zone is likely to prove as true and prophetic as her books on Japan, Russia, China and Germany. FREDA UTLEY, distinguished author, lecturer and newspaper correspondent, is English by birth, American by adoption and cosmopolitan in outlook and ex- perience. She combines a flair for shrewd observation with a talent for drawing realistic con- clusions, and of relating present problems to past history and experience. As Bertrand Russell has said, her writing “combines the keen- est and most comprehensive intellectual understanding with deep and sincere emotion- holding the reader’s attention as intensely as a great novel.” ,.c..... HeEc*lc.an 0 WILL THE MIDDLE EAST GO WEST? BOOKS BY FREDA UTLEY LANCASHIRE AND THE FAR EAST JAPAN’S FEET OF CLAY JAPAN’S GAMBLE IN CHINA CHINA AT WAR THE DREAM WE LOST LAST CHANCE IN CHINA LOST ILLUSION THE HIGH COST OF VENGEANCE THE CHINA STORY WILL THE MIDDLE EAST GO WEST? BY FREDA UTLEY HENRY REGNERY COMPANY CHICAGO 1957 COPYRIGHT 0 1957 BY HENRY RECNERY COMPANY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REFRODllCE THIS BOOK OR PORTIONS THEREOF IN ANY FOR\! M’1TH”UT FERXflSSIOh OF THE I’~‘BI.ISIII:R. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARD NUMBER 5,-‘5yq.,, MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA First printing October, 1957 Second printing December, 1957 To my friend Charles E. Lee, whose encouragement and help were invaluable in the writing of this book CONTENTS I The Arab-China Parallel, 1 II The United States versus the USSR in the Middle East, 32 III Background to Suez, 74 IV In the Holy Land, 113 V Israel: Our Problem, 133 VI The Challenge of Both Imperialisms, 169 PREFACE I VISITED THE MIDDLE EAST for the first time in Decem- ber 1956, on the last lap of a seven-months tour of the Far East, Southeast Asia and India. I therefore cannot claim any such expert knowledge of the Middle East as I have gained of the Far East during three decades of study and writing on that area. But the problems of the Arab world today, and the challenge they present to Western statesmanship, are so similar to those we failed to meet in China that I have felt impelled to write this book. My journey itself, symbolizing as it did a shift in the locus of world crisis, drew my attention from the Far to the Middle East. I was in Formosa when Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal; in Japan and Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore in August and September; in Thailand and Burma during the first half of October; and in New Delhi when Britain, France and Israel launched their attack on Egypt and while Soviet Russia was drowning the Hungarian people’s revolution in blood. After six weeks in India, 1 spent two weeks in Pakistan and Iran before flying to Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. In Asia I wit- nessed at first hand the reactions of friends, enemies and neu- trals to America’s principled stand on the Suez crisis and, in ix Will the Middle East Go West? sharp contrast, their reaction to Pandit Nehru’s failure even to speak out unequivocally against Soviet imperialism in Hungary. Noting and chronicling these reactions, I had no doubt that Vice-President Nixon was right when he said, “history will give eternal credit to our President and the Secretary of State for choosing the hard road of principle.” Nor could I doubt, even without waiting for history to pronounce judgment, that Eisen- hower’s politically courageous and principled stand on Suez had won millions of friends for America in Asia and Africa. In- deed, I had high hopes that the President’s action marked the initiation of a policy that would turn the tide in our favor against the Moscow-Peking axis in the East, both Far and Near. The effect in India was electrical. The leading newspapers, normally subservient to Nehru and therefore anti-American, changed their tune. Nehru was criticized for his failure to utter any outright condemnation of Russia’s bloody suppression of the Hungarian people’s revolution, while the United States was warmly praised for protecting Egypt against America’s closest allies. The old argument which has kept even Nehru’s critics quiet-namely, that Soviet Russia checks and restrains “Western imperialism” -no longer seemed to justify Nehru’s friendliness toward Moscow and Peking, now that the greatest power in the West was stopping Anglo-French-Israeli aggression against Egypt. In Pakistan hopes were aroused that America might take a similar principled stand on Kashmir. And when I came to the Middle East, where I spent the month of December, it was won- derful to be able to say, “I am an American,” at a moment when decades of distrust of the West among the Arab peoples were being dissipated by evidence that the United States stands for justice and freedom from aggression for all men, irrespective of nation, race or creed. There was no doubt that America’s prestige and influence had X Preface been enhanced in Asia and Africa, and even in most European countries; for it is a grave mistake to assume that France and England alone count in the formation of “European” opinion. West Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain welcomed Eisenhower’s stand on Suez. The Scandinavian countries, to judge from the conversations I had with Swedish and Danish journalists and officers in Cairo and in the bomb-devastated city of Port Said, were on our side. Canada had stood with us in the United Na- tions, and even in England we perhaps made more friends than enemies, for many Englishmen opposed Eden’s rash, stupid and unprincipled attack on Egypt. Yet, following my flight back to the United States at the year’s end, I was appalled, if not surprised, to find that most American newspapers, columnists and commentators appeared not to know the score. Toward the realities of the dangerous situation in the Middle East they were displaying the same sort of igno- rance, indifference or prejudice that most of them had formerly shown concerning China, when they believed that the Commu- nists there were liberal “agrarian reformers.” In India I had been outraged at Nehru’s reluctance to take a stand against Russia’s attack on Hungary. In America I was shocked to find that many of my former friends and associates, beside whom I have long fought the good fight against the world- wide threat of Communist imperialism, were as myopic in one eye as Nehru in the other. Yesterday, “liberals” paved the way for the Communist con- quest of China, either by their ignorance or their sneaking sym- pathy for Moscow’s Chinese puppets. Today, conservatives and old guard Republicans have taken the lead in advocating a policy on the Middle East as misconceived and misinformed as the policy of President Truman, General Marshall and Dean Acheson on China. The overwhelming vote given to President Eisenhower last xi Will the Middle East Go West? November shows that the American people have more sense than either liberal or conservative Eggheads. But when the mag- azines and newspapers of the United States fail to present both sides fully and fairly, the good sense of the American public cannot exert itself against the powerful propaganda of inter- ested foreign pressure groups and their American supporters. Yesterday, in the case of China, lack of knowledge of the facts, and the powerful influence of the Chinese Communist lobby and its dupes in Washington and the American press, caused our failure to support the Chinese Nationalist Government in its desperate struggle against the Chinese Communist forces armed by Moscow and under her orders. Today, there is a clear and present danger that we shall also unwittingly help the Commu- nists to power in the Middle East-thanks to even more powerful lobbies and to our lack of understanding of the situation, and because the Communists are adept at playing both sides of the street in order to divide and rule. As Mr. Nixon said on May 23, 1957, on his return from his African tour, the Soviet Union and Communist China regard Africa and the Middle East today “as important a target as China was to them 20 years ago-if they can win a substantial number of the uncommitted nations to their Communist side they will gain the balance of power and people and resources in the world which will enable them to bring the free nations to their knees without the necessity of fighting a war.” The problem is how to prevent their doing so.