The Other Side of Suez (BBC Documentary)

Video Statistics and Information

Video

Captions Word Cloud

Captions

this is a story of how the government of the United Kingdom decided to attack an Arab nation of how afraid its oil supplies are under threat it embarked on a strategy of regime change of how Britain deliberately bypassed the United Nations and of how a British Prime Minister led the nation to war based on suspect intelligence but this isn't Iraq 2003 this is Egypt 1956 these are british paratroopers fighting on the orders of British prime minister antony eden he has gambled on a war in a desperate bid to destroy egypt's new young President Gamal Abdul Nasser I'm actually convinced the action we have taken is right this is a war over who will run this Egyptian waterway the Suez Canal and the vital oil supplies which are transported through it Suez is a crisis which will push the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe that moment I did think this is really going to be the third world war in Britain we know sewage is a war based on a Prime Minister's lie a lie which destroys him now my six sexed-up their intelligence but seen from the other side Suez is a story of how a small poor Arab country defended itself against the Western world and one people will defend their country they would defend their land July the 26th 1956 it is a warm evening as Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser prepares to address his people his country's in ferment only seven days before the young president had suffered a humiliating blow when the West sabotage his key plan to lift Egypt out of poverty now two hundred thousand people gather to hear their president's response but unknown to the crowd thirty people stationed on the banks of the suez canal are listening for a password a Frenchman's name hidden in nasa's speech many women have their radio on to follow the speech waiting for new password dealerships when they hear this word their president has told them to storm the offices of the Suez Canal Company hi usefulness of the economy CEO Ferdinand de Lesseps as jubilant Egyptians celebrate NASA heads to a movie theater to relax he doesn't know that in London Antony Eden has already decided to have him killed Egypt cradle of ancient civilizations and in the post-war era strategically the most valuable country in the Arab world thanks to this the Suez Canal which carries oil to the economies of the West the company that runs the canal is largely owned by Egypt's old colonial masters Britain and France and is staffed by Europeans we consider the Suez Canal Company is a country inside our country a state inside Asli Egypt sees virtually nothing of the tens of millions of dollars the canal earns each year feelings of resentment are growing imagine somebody foreigner in your country and he gives you nothing he takes everything and give you nothing is that justice in February 1955 Egypt's young President Gamal Abdul Nasser meets British Prime Minister Antony Eden for the first time the two men dislike one another from the start the impression of prisoners are both untreated was that he called small Churchill another you know committed with imposing the British point of view on the other side for Eden Egypt remains part of Britain's sphere of influence in the Middle East although nominally independent since 1922 Egyptian kings have dutifully done what British prime ministers have told them to do he lived in the legend of the Empire but the world was different Eden didn't realize the change in the balance of power Anthony Eden is every inch the conservative Prime Minister educated at Eton and Oxford he was foreign secretary during the war and is Winston Churchill's hand-picked successor but in NASA Eden encounters a new kind of Arab leader he is part of a new generation of Egyptians determined to secure real independence for their country an array Hakata clearing misil alcohol is tomorrow other million hairs it dies sell many heavy Nasir is one of a group of officers who had overthrown the Playboy King Farouk in 1952 two years later NASA had shown Britain that Egypt would not be pushed around an aggressive guerrilla campaign forces the British to evacuate eighty eight thousand soldiers from the biggest base in the world on the banks of the Suez Canal at that time what was most important is real independence and to get free really free by evacuating the troops there was an operation against the British troops parallel to the negotiations when the negotiations go in a smooth way we is the resistance when the bridge delegation became stubborn we intensify the resistance by the spring of 1956 Egypt is free of British troops with his country moving away from its colonial past NASA embarks on an ambitious plan to transform the lives of his people Egypt was very much push back world half percent of the people who are possessing merely about 75% of the fortune we had one of the lowest standards of life the majority of Egyptians were in streets with naked feet nasa's solution is to build a huge dam on the nile at aswan which will provide water for agriculture and electricity it will be the biggest dam in the world and will lift Egypt out of poverty once and for all this project of the high dam will provide Egypt with water to double the farms and will give power electricity to ingest sterilized Egypt but NASA needs 400 million dollars to realize his dream an enormous sum in the 1950s his first port of call is the West in the beginning NASA and all the evolution have no problem with the Americans on the contrary we can get help of the Americans the World Bank backed by the United States and Britain agrees to give him a loan at this point NASA's relations with the Americans seem close NASA's favorite film is It's a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart he really loves that film and Washington arranges to send out a special copy of the film with Arabic subtitles by 1956 egypt's glamorous young president is confident his plans to develop Egypt are on course but NASA has another problem which will destroy his plans as the sporadic fighting takes on the proportions of full-scale war dead and captured arms are the order of the day as both Arabs and Israelis put their nation's on a full mobilization basis NASA fought in the Arab armies defeated by the Israelis in 1948 since then the Middle East's newest state has fought a border war with its Arab neighbors Israel's very existence is an affront to NASA NASA was at a time a great danger an enemy very soon it was clear that he aspires to be the unifier of world Marcel made great speeches he was handsome he was eloquent he carried fire with him there was a catastrophe the Israelis see themselves surrounded by enemies and fearing attack they are desperately trolling the world for arms the Americans were very strict they wouldn't surprise arms so did Great Britain and I thought that the only opening we have is France France agrees to supply Israel with the Jewish state's first jet fighters to NASA it looks like an increasingly powerful enemy is at the gates the French are giving Israel arms I am confronting situation that may distract my country truth ice density so NASA decides he too will look abroad for arms as with the loan for his dam his first call is on the United States NASA from the first day of the volution ask the Americans I need arms our army needs are and he asked the British the same question neither the British nor the Americans gave response to that but this is the 1950s the depths of the Cold War the west and the Soviet Union are locked in a battle for influence across the world NASA knows that if Washington says no then maybe Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow will say yes Egypt flexes its military muscles with a display of arms newly acquired from Russia and its satellites the first arms from the Soviet bloc land in Alexandria on the 27th of September 1955 the deal is a triumph for Khrushchev who is keen to extend communist influence in the region he didn't expect that countries would be communist immediately he was willing to wait Egypt was the first great success for this was for Khrushchev a sign the kind of relationship he could have with many of the large states in the developing world and for the West this was a very dramatic achievement but NASA is not in Chris Jobs pocket as many in the West fear none as it has never been economists never never at all we are believing I am a believer I believe in God not supposed to believe in God not supposed to pray the Communists don't believe in God Dilton hey Nasser was an anti-communist the Soviets knew full well he was an anti-communist they knew that he was putting communists in jail he didn't let those communist out of jail when his relations improved with the Soviet Union but both sides made a pragmatic decision but in Eden's view NASA does look like a communist stooge the Prime Minister and the Americans decide to punish him for cutting a deal with the Soviets their response is to mount a covert campaign against NASA codenamed Omega Omega includes propaganda that provide information to journalists to broadcasters they say NASA really isn't a very good person can you please report this Omega also includes sanctions against Egypt it includes locking military aid to Egypt then as part of this undeclared war a secret decision is taken to slow down financing on the Aswan Dam Anthony Eden and the US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles are behind the new strategy I think Dulles was angry with NASA for having almost flaunted his independence I really think that that Dulles believed that NASA's behavior was a almost a personal affront in London Eden's mistrust of NASA is increased by some mysterious intelligence reports which have just landed on his desk they are from an mi6 contact known as lucky break lucky break tells Eden that NASA is a pawn of the Soviet Union and the Egyptian people will welcome his overthrow from reading reports that mi6 is giving to British officials and giving to the Americans I think they are taking a few sources and they are sexing them up no one individual could have provided the information that NASA was so close to the Soviets that NASA was so vulnerable to being overthrown if not assassinated because that was not true that simply was not true but lucky break is telling the British Prime Minister what he wants to hear firm attitude that the government have adopted is not a Foreign Office minister Anthony nothing is one of the first to realize just how far the Prime Minister is now prepared to go over an open line when having just said it's me but we started a violent argument on the telephone and he was really violent in their conversation and ended up as shouting at me I don't want nothin neutralized I want him destroyed there were two people with all conversation eating and nothing nothing said subsequently that eating at in mode operatives within mi6 take the prime minister at his word what you have is a tell us a packet situation readin says well someone not make me rid of this turbulent Nasser I'm not exaggerating nearly every month nearly every month there was an attempt again estas from duyst either French or British or Israelis nearly every month as NASA was making a public speech in Alexandria a young man fired eight bullets at him all mr. premier the two of his aides were wounded the planes just are wildly out of control putting nerve gas into the ventilation system Nasser's headquarters trying to put poison into Nasser's coffee trying at some point to possibly shoot Nasser if lucky break did not exist 1956 he would have had to be created to justify their extravagant plans to get rid of Nasser on the 19th of July 1956 the Egyptian ambassador to the USA is called in to the State Department he is informed that the financing of the Aswan Dam is canceled if the West can't assassinate Nasser then they will destroy his dreams to develop Egypt to add insult to injury President Nasser only learns of the decision from the radio news I was surprised by the insulted attitude which the refusal was declared not by the refusal itself but the insult of attitude and which meant a humiliation now nASA has two choices he can meekly accept the West's punishment or he can fight three days later he gathers his most trusted lieutenants together President Nasser ordered me to bring him the file of the Suez killer and he told me whatever nationalizing mister I got surprised first time but in internally in in myself I got proud to think about this action at that time I felt proud NASA calculates that the Aswan Dam can still be built if the tolls of ships transiting the Suez Canal come to Egypt and not the British and French controlled Suez Canal Company but NASA knows that nationalization is a huge risk he will have to physically seize control of the canal itself the next day he is scheduled to make his first speech since his humiliation at the hands of the West all Egypt waits for his response the speech is an anti-climax he was all ethnic and the reaction the Egyptians was older he hasn't got the balls to do two to barely stand up to head state but afterwards NASA orders an old military colleague Mahmood unis to mastermind the dangerous job of taking physical control of the canal Yunus selects 30 men he can trust Yunus emphasized that if this piece of news is released then it will surely not succeed three days later Nasser is scheduled to speak publicly again the men know their cue for action is a password hidden in the President's speech which will be carried on Egyptian radio the password is the name of the man who designed the canal Ferdinand de Lesseps as they wait they still don't know if their president has definitely decided to take the gamble my feelings were a combination of first fear and of course the sense of responsibility is tremendous in the stifling July heat NASA makes his way to Alexandria's man shear Square where he is to deliver his speech once again his people wait to hear if he will respond to the West's denial of funding for the a swan dam at 9:00 p.m. NASA climbs the podium the speech is long NASA catalogues the centuries of humiliations the Egyptians have suffered at the hands of the West Jonnie Jonnie Woolworth happen neither sir his tone is measured but angry Ali abullah stapler I would the hakama left Saudi on the canal Ezard and his men are in position ready for the signal but after two hours it still hasn't come then the moment of truth in an adware Demi Ferdinand de Lesseps at the signal Yunus desert and their men simultaneously break into the four main offices of the Suez Canal Company in Alexandria NASA leaves nothing to chance he repeats the password a total of fourteen times and then our them in de listen and then our down in comer Seward Elizabeth in the canal company headquarters unison forms the European employees that the company has been nationalized he is polite but he is also armed attempts at sabotage or obstruction by the employees will not be tolerated they were very astonished and afraid we tried to calm them down and we asked them to continue work as if nothing has happened back in Alexandria NASA now reveals to the world what the employees of the Suez Canal Company have just discovered across Egypt there is pandemonium it was a bombshell of course absolute bombshell we listen to this thing nobody expected people were realizing in the state I celebrated with all Egyptians I reckon artists whistle Bihari Shari Kamata Hama Maria nudism it well again I'll put in my highly and the employees of the newly nationalized company do not join in the celebrations I remember that some of them said that you do not realize the impacts and the reactions from the West because they were cannot leave this international waterway in uncapable hangs in London Eden is enjoying post-dinner brandies with military and diplomatic top brass at number 10 when news of nasa's actions comes through he is furious we all know this is how fascist governments behave and we all remember only too well what the cost can be in giving in to fascism a former commanding officer of our battalion described it in his usual blunt way to me he said that the moment you mentioned the name Nasser Eden practically got down and chewed the carpet but in the United States initial reaction is less belligerent Eisenhower dispatches John Foster Dulles to London to calm aden down Dulles carries with him a letter from the president the letter said that other day circumstances within an American public opinion or their government support use of force in the Middle East but Eden has already made his decision the next morning Eisenhower had a cable from Eden stating explicitly that the government had decided that they were going to get rid of Nasser this was the only alternative there was a firm decision they weren't going to change it and that was that essentially the British and French reaction had to the Suez Crisis capsulated two principles about which we have heard quite a lot recently one was regime change vesko the other was a pre-emptive self-defense eden's justification for this is the belief that NASA is a Soviet puppet a direct threat to British interests lucky breaks intelligence has told him so but the intelligence is wrong in Moscow Nikita Khrushchev knows nothing of NASA's plans when he nationalized the canal it was a surprise for the Soviet Union also but he didn't take the permission or anything even once he had made this decision a few days before the announcement he didn't tell the Soviets and he didn't tell them for an obvious reason he knew what their reaction would be Moscow would tell him don't do it the West saw Moscow as the ginger man in the story is provoking Nasser to be more and more aggressive in fact Moscow was doing the opposite meanwhile in the newly nationalized canal the atmosphere is tense NASA knows that Eden does not expect the Egyptians will be able to run the canal critical to its running of the 300 pilots nearly all European who guide each ship from one end to the other though these pilots the traffic will will never start the canal will stop we noticed that after the summer leave is over some did not come back we also noticed that some are selling their cars their furniture in 14th of September a 12 o'clock they declared we stopped work seven weeks after nationalization the British prime minister has secretly instructed the pilots to abandon the canal it was now an exam in which if we fail then also the shoe scan and we would be lost egypt's hopes rest on the shoulders of the 26 year old trainee pilot ali Nasri who with only a fortnight's training has to take a ship through the canal my first vessel was gentlemen and the captain came and say and you are from the new palace I said yes and this is my first time I have to take a ship alone the potential for disaster is huge the canal is little over a hundred metres wide at points Ali Nasri fears a miscalculation could send his tanker into the banks blocking the whole canal and proving Eden right the feeling course possibility makes me losing some confidence I couldn't see the boys you see the green boys and red boys I couldn't see any but by time to encouraging of the master and they start to give orders slowly his ship moves off down the canal my orders I excluded immediately you keep the vessel in the middle straight so I start to feel happy relaxed I can see the way the vessel was moving so I start to feel easy easy Nasser ease progress is followed with bated breath on the banks of the canal I saw somebody in the road somebody calling Pilate Pilate yes I look by the plus I found him engineer yonas by himself his chairman standing in the road say good luck go ahead 14 hours later a ship piloted by an Egyptian has passed successfully through the canal once again there are celebrations in the streets it is beyond any imagination that give the confidence to the Egyptians that they can do what the whole world thought the day cannot but in London Eden is still determined to build a case for intervention removing the pilots is only his opening gambit now he decides to overwhelm the inexperienced Egyptians by forcing a gigantic fleet of tankers through the canal now the British had planned a nice little scheme which would demonstrate to the world the Egyptians were incompetent at running the canal and they have lots of ships just poised already to go through the canal once the toilets are being withdrawn the nacelle of receiving say 20 services at portside you receive 30 to make it more difficult for any group to carry on as pirates exhausted the 36 Egyptian pilots and whatever foreign recruits they can muster work day and night to deny Eden his wish and to keep the canal running we were working continous President Nasser a deadtime was on the phone on the wireless hour-by-hour the Egyptians succeed in keeping the canal open despite Eden's best efforts at sabotage for a second time the Prime Minister has been foiled the whole world was not expecting at all that Egypt would succeed in this severe exam and some of the Western papers suggested that the Egyptians cultivate the Suez Canal area with potatoes instead of running the Suez Canal Eden is frustrated but NASA feels vindicated it is now almost three months since nationalization and the canal is still open for business it seems Eden's plans to overthrow NASA and wrestle back control of the canal have failed the world can see no reason for war then on the 14th of October two visitors from the French Ministry of Defense arrived to see a gloomy Prime Minister at his country retreat checkers the French had invented following scenario that Israel should attack Egypt thereupon Britain and France who had forces in the neighborhood should say we cannot allow this kind of war because it will interfere with the Suez Canal and therefore we are gay to intervene and hold the two countries apart I happened to be in Paris so the Minister of Defense called me in and it says he'd ever thought storming oval Sinai and that's how it started Eden is enthusiastic about this French plan not only will he be able to seize the canal he sees a way to bring about NASA's downfall you bomb Egypt you create panic within the country you link this to an invasion Israeli invasion and the new government will emerge and NASA will be no more as Eden is plotting in Britain the rest of the world is trying to broker a peace deal at the United Nations Eden has reluctantly sent his Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd to meet with the French in Egyptians of York - Lloyd surprised the talks are going well he desperately hoped that he would be able to make real progress in these talks and United Nations and was encouraged by the Egyptian Foreign Minister Fuzzy's willingness to talk over the subject but just as it seems progress is being made the atmosphere changes the attitude of Pino the French Foreign Minister was very ambiguous from the beginning he seemed to be prepared to get down to the real ago she ation but then halfway through he simply lose interest entirely and we wonder what was going on and why Eden anxious that no deal is struck in New York telephones Lloyd and orders him to abandon the talks immediately the Foreign Secretary feeling he might be close to a solution is exasperated Selman Lloyd probably thought that he was worthwhile continuing with these discussions might say like hands blick thought that he could do with a couple of more months of time to decide something very definite about the weapons of mass destruction but Eden Moulton heavy edan has another agenda and instructs lloyd and logan to travel in secret to a parisian suburb called sev to finalize the plot with the French and Israelis Lloyd was desperately disappointed but felt horribly og he had to do it but it turned his stomach to it and he hated it all the way through the document agreed on here known as the Sarah Protocol puts down in black and white the covert plan to invade Egypt and fool the world at the end copies of the protocol are presented for signatures Patrick Deane a Foreign Office official signs on behalf of the British but Eden does not expect his desire for war to be confirmed in writing we returned late that night and took documents to him in number 10 there is immediate reference oh my god had every specially designed when this document finally emerged 40 years later it confirmed how a British Prime Minister had deceived the world and deliberately engineered a war in the Middle East on October the 29th the Israelis land a parachute brigade deep in the Sinai as agreed at sev NASA is awoken at 4 a.m. and told the news you can tell that he was surprised and not surprised how we were predicting that there will be an action against Egypt but we have no information from Israel but the Israeli advance towards the canal is a fake designed purely to convince the world that the canal is threatened was about 40 kilometers from the canal or 45 kilometers but when you look at big maps then you can say ah the drop was not far from the canal that was enough to fulfill the needs of the British say the canal is that we didn't go into the motives and consideration of France and England because our aims were clear the Israeli forces concentrate instead on destroying the Egyptian army in Sinai which they have long seen as a threat to Israel's security the attack takes NASA's commanders by surprise they are quickly overwhelmed and forced to retreat the following day Britain and France issue their ultimatum as planned at sev Israel and Egypt are to cease fighting or the two Western powers will intervene Eden knows this is an ultimatum that NASA cannot accept on the evening of the 30th of October the ultimatum expires shortly afterwards NASA his planes in the skies above Cairo the Indonesian embassy and there was the air warning and then came the blackout I listened and there was the jet airplanes and I said to the Indonesian ambassador this RPG now NASA realizes just how much Eden is prepared to gamble I haven't thought at all that Britain would do any attack against us because it was clear that any attack against us would affect the pitch position all over the Arab countries and would mean the end of the rich relations and influence in the Middle East as the bombs fall a frightened Egyptian population rushed to join civilian militias most of us the young people decided that we're going to defend the country we really didn't know what we're going to do because our training was very cursory it included one clip of live ammunition when we joined first thing they did was they gave us those cases of Kalashnikov rifles right out out of the boxes with grease and they said ok here is your rifle you know this makeshift civilian army now waits for the arrival of British paratroopers you hear a lot of fire people firing rifles and firing in the air we didn't know what was you know everybody is a parachutist you know any noise you think somebody had just come from sky so it was a very very tense moment and we were scared but Cairo where talat Boudreau II and other volunteers are waiting is not the target for the british paratroopers alt port Sayid at the mouth of the canal is where Britain will begin the reconquest of Egypt after five days of aerial bombardment 668 british paratroopers land in portside the city quickly finds itself under occupation but its population is determined not to give Eden the easy victory he has anticipated we need a number and then they landed in English oversight the British landed in portside and so of course we wanted to wipe them out daddy all the people have arms and guns and machine guns they should are the aeroplanes and every Gyptian people are ready to sacrifice himself in order to defend his country as the resistance mobilizes the British Prime Minister is insisting to the world that his actions are right legal and morally sound all my life I've been a man of peace working for peace striving for peace negotiating and I'm still the same with the same conviction the same diversion to people but I'm utterly convinced that the action we have taken is right as Eden is speaking portside is burning we share any nerve here there were two streets Abbas Street Anna body Street these were mainly slums of wooden huts woodruf so they shot powder at these homes and they were all set ablaze one could see so many homes burned from the start to the end of the street these homes were all burned it was I Atlanta I saw corpses down the streets that nobody could worry and they brought small wagons usually used to sell vegetables and put six or seven corpses on every wagon to take them to the graveyard in order to be buried there and I saw two corpses which were flattened to the ground altogether they were crushed by tanks the war is barely a week old hundreds of Egyptian civilians have already been killed in the bombing campaign and more died in the street fighting that follows it is at this point that Eden hopes a terrified Egyptian population will rise up to overthrow NASA they do not understand what is it is they were completely wrong the Egyptians were all of them were were one heart behind NASA when they feel a foreign threat the people come together that is what happened exactly the Egyptian Armed Forces may be hopelessly outgunned but NASA and his government remain in Cairo plans are made to begin a guerrilla war should the army be overwhelmed a popular army to fight in the tunnels in these trees in the countryside in the port we were hiding arms all over the villages everywhere in Egypt so that even if it if the troops they came to invade Egypt we will fight we will resist and to prevent the British taking the canal Nassau orders ships to be sunk and the canal blocked Eden's invasion has succeeded in obstructing the very waterway he is trying to save and that isn't the Prime Minister's only miscalculation the suez crisis suddenly increases the temperature of the Cold War burning buildings and bitter street fighting signal the release of long 2,000 kilometers away in Budapest the Soviet Union's Empire in Europe is threatened by a popular uprising a red star has been ripped the hated symbol of communism is effaced were ever found Nikita Khrushchev sees his ally NASA coming under attack in Cairo and realizes that Soviet prestige appears to be crumbling on two continents he feels that the West is taking advantage of him when he is down that the British and the French are watching his troubles in Eastern Europe and see that they have an opportunity to deal with one of his allies now because he is distracted his reaction was the reaction of a political leader who is fearful surprised and angry at the same time Chris chief uses the city of Budapest to send a bloody message to the West as recent research is uncovered we have the Politburo minutes and it makes clear what's going on here he wants to send a signal them that no Soviet Union is as powerful as ever you cannot mess with me either in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe then Chris Jeff ups the stakes lacking conventional forces in the Middle East to help Egypt against the British and French he threatens the West with the doomsday option he said to the world that don't be surprised if the consequence of your actions is that nuclear weapons will fall on London in Paris this is the first time they had ever made a nuclear threat suddenly it looks like Eden's adventure in Egypt is going to end in Armageddon somebody had a radio and we heard on that that the Russians were threatening to drop bombs on London and the Chinese might be about to join in - and that moment I did think this is really going to be the third world war the threat of nuclear war concentrates mines in Washington where President Eisenhower is already furious with the prime minister United States was not consulted in any way about any phase of these actions nor were we informed of them in advance he was so angry with the British I mean it was really angry with with the British they had gone around his back and colluded with these other guys in front of the world the American Secretary of State condemns his country's oldest ally I doubt that any delegate ever spoke from this forum with his heavy heart as I have brought here tonight Eden had the awful realization that he had totally misjudged the American aspect of the affair Eden's plans are unraveling fast he has not anticipated this level of hostility from the Americans nor from his own people he is sincere in what you're saying and is too stupid to be a prime minister there was demonstrations in London as big as demonstrations in Egypt and there is only one way in which they can even begin to restore that tarnished reputation and that is together the world sees photographs which showing grisly detail the effects of the war on the Egyptian people as opposition across the world mounts morale in portside soars people around the world we're baking you in the West we had the public opinion with Egyptians and Eden realizes he has fatally miscalculated the reaction of the Egyptian population to invasion if you ask me were they afraid yes we were all afraid because nobody likes to die we used to live a daily natural life but with little commodities limited food but people could stay and on cafes listen to the radio encouraging they were to resist very special atmosphere NASA refuses to go into hiding he determines instead to rally his people after Friday prayers at Kairos ancient al-azhar mosque and hairy min be levied women sorry ADA per year it's an authority in whatever city so no party what a night it's an important factor benefit of election in every iteration benefit was seven in London Eden is feeling the strain he has failed to win the hearts and minds of the Egyptian people Nasser is more popular than ever and now comes the decisive blow Britain's currency reserves have been hemorrhaging since the bombing campaign began as dealers all over the world dumped sterling in those days Britain bought the banker of the stir the area Britain saw immediate danger of at the bottom 40 out of that when Eden appeals to the Americans for financial help President Eisenhower makes sure there will be no room for misunderstanding this time Eisenhower was quite firm he said as soon as you agree to get out and really are get not will help you but not a minute before on the 6th of November after nine days of war Eden has no choice with British troops having advanced little over 10 miles down the canal the Prime Minister reluctantly calls a ceasefire if United Nations will take over this police action we shall welcome indeed we propose that cause to them the arrival of United Nations contingents at Port Sayid causes a sensation that nearly develops into a riot by excitable Egyptians come on I can fr ha of course I was jumping with joy then when the last British soldier left we used to say go to hell plans are made for United Nations troops to replace the British and French on the ground the ceasefire is a humiliating climb down for Eden and his commanders I have to say that most of the officers in the regiment took it as a mortal blow I think it was very very hard on the professional soldiers who had gone into this enterprise in good faith thought that this was going to be the final war the British land and suddenly found that it was just a sort of mini little squeak that had achieved nothing for the Prime Minister the pressure of failure is unbearable with Britain facing a winter fuel crisis because of the closure of the canal he leaves the country for Jamaica his health and career crumbling to engineer the moment of departure may we ask you a little feeling verging on feeling is done deeply sorry to leave the camp at least five weeks later he is back but not for long edan never returned to frontline politics and his reputation never recovered from taking Britain to war in the Middle East under false pretenses Britain's reputation was equally damaged but it was a total utter disaster and it took us 20 years to recover our rightful position as someone who was not the lord and master in that area but a friend to those states which had emerged after many centuries when we in the French had ruled the roost in Egypt the Suez Crisis was the making of NASA the 23rd of December 1956 don't mutiny it was the first day after the liberation of both time and the whole city was out to celebrate Victory Day at that time he was you know he was good I have to take President Nasser is a historic hero in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis NASA was fated all over the Arab world here at last was a leader who could stand up to the West and win and the Arabs at that time started to realize that Nasser was the hero we who was sent by God to retrieve the Arabs from many years of subordination Gaza in a sense was a big winner but with a win which set him up to be an awfully big loser because NASA eventually came to believe his own propaganda he had won a great battle a little over ten years later NASA decides that he is strong enough to settle old scores with the Israeli invaders of 1956 in 1967 he said last time we were fighting Israel Britain and France we won then this time ether al is alone it is an appalling misjudgment in the Sinai desert in the wake of Egypt's catastrophic retreat lionesses wreak tax the whole world hopes that from great victory and utter defeat wisdom will emerge and bring lasting peace to this part of the world but instead of peace coming to the Middle East the unresolved issues of the 1967 war the West Bank and Gaza Strip still poisoned the region today the end of the suez crisis was also the moment a new power decided to take center stage in the Middle East within weeks of the end of the war President Eisenhower convinced that the British and French could no longer be trusted to protect Western interests in the region announces a fateful change in American policy he concludes that what the Middle East needs is more American involvement not less the Eisenhower Doctrine said we're going to safeguard any country which is threatened by communism within the Middle East that's the old idea of you're either with us in Washington or with us in Moscow and that cuts out a third way for Arab nationalism the very factors which led the Americans to keep their distance from Britain in moving too aggressively as Nasser 1956 they lose sight of those the occasion has come for us to show our deep respect for the rights and independence of every nation however great however small we seek not violence but peace it is a policy which echoes from Suez to today states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil I will not wait on events while dangers gather the United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons this is not the time to falter this is the time for this house to give a lead to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk fact of the matter is that Iraq could turn out in the long run to be a Suez 50 years later but whereas that will take years to find out with Iraq with Suez we found it out within a matter of weeks ordinary Egyptians have drawn their own lessons from the Suez Crisis there is a great difference between resistance and terrorism I was a patriot defending my country the spirit of resistance is deeply rooted in our country and in the area when the US and Britain went into Iraq with the idea of being accepted with open arms and so on that was a very stupid idea I mean where did he ever come up with that idea I don't know they could have looked at history books they could have looked at the source crisis you know which is after all it's only 50 years ago and they could have learned that this will never happen it will never happen you know people will defend their country they would defend their land I am a human being I have dignity I don't accept any foreigner to dominate me or else I am a slave right or wrong and on Sunday it's Suez night on BBC Parliament tonight brand-new BBC for creepy drama The Haunted Airmen is next

Info

Channel: mohomran

Views: 777,838

Rating: 4.6740394 out of 5

Keywords: BBC, Suez, Crisis, Nasser, Eden, 1956, Colonialism, Canal, Nationalisation, Egypt, History

Id: ETOUALw2EIs

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 58min 59sec (3539 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 22 2012

Reddit Comments

And Israel as France, FYI.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Oct 01 2014 🗫︎ replies