Suez Canal

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Suez Canal

When Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk of Egypt in 1954, he dreamed of uniting the Arab countries of the world under his rule. Additionally, he sought to bring industrialization and economic modernization to Egypt. The cornerstone of his plan was the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The dam would provide Nasser with a source of hydroelectric power, a means of irrigation, and most of all a source of national pride and recognition. Originally, The United States in cooperation with Great Britain and the World Bank agreed to help finance the construction of the $1.3 billion dam. However, when the United States withdrew from financing the dam, a chain of events was set off which eventually led to the Suez Crisis. Document 30, The Suez Crisis, 1956, from The Cold War: A History through Documents, illustrates this lineage by using excerpts from four sub-documents.

The first excerpt, "Withdrawal of U.S. Support for Aswan Dam Project", vaguely outlined the developments that the United States felt would hinder the construction of the dam. It diplomatically announced the United States' unwillingness to continue financing the Aswan Dam Project. Nowhere in this excerpt was there a reference made to Egypt's involvement with communist powers. While it was not directly stated, the United States severed finances for the project because Egypt had recognized the People's Republic of China in response to the United States continuing support of Israel. Nasser viewed Israel as the stumbling block that was preventing the realization of Pan-Arabism, along with continuing French and British presence in the region. In addition to recognizing China, Egypt was receiving arms from the Soviet Union through Czechoslovakia, a ...

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... of French and British forces—was viewed favorably by the Arab states. Indirectly, the United States had helped to bring an end to the Suez Crisis. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, had strategic interest in the welfare of Egypt. With Nasser gaining a great deal of respect among Arab nations for nationalizing the Suez Canal, building the Aswan High Dam, and the expulsion of British and French influence, his influence and clout in the region increased. The Soviet Union had hoped that his increased popularity would facilitate the spread of communism to other Arab nations, who were dominated by European powers prior to World War II. The underlying strategy in these excerpts is that neither side was letting on to the fact that the Middle East was a region of interest for both superpowers; rather, they hid their ambitions behind a pursuit of stability in the region.

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