Eisenhower 1956 Critical Analysis

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Eisenhower 1956:
The President’s Year of Crisis: Suez and the Brink of War
Eisenhower 1956 is the white-knuckle story of how President Dwight D. Eisenhower guided the United States through the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. The crisis climaxed in a tumultuous nine-day period fraught with peril just prior to the 1956 presidential election, with Great Britain, France, and Israel invading Egypt while the Soviet Union ruthlessly crushed rebellion in Hungary. In this book, Nichols focuses on one event on the world stage, the Suez Crisis of 1956. Nichols emphasizes two dominant themes behind Eisenhower’s thinking and planning. First, after witnessing and participating in World War II and its aftermath, Ike firmly held a tension-filled conviction. He …show more content…

That same day, he learned that the United Nations had negotiated a cease-fire in the Suez war—a result, in no small measure, of Eisenhower’s steadfast opposition to the war and his refusal to aid the allies. In the aftermath of the Suez crisis, the United States effectively replaced Great Britain as the guarantor of stability in the Middle East. More than a half century later, that commitment remains the underlying premise for American policy in the …show more content…

Nichols does an excellent job of explaining these complex matters, and he provides a detailed analysis of the role Eisenhower played in them. In recent years, Eisenhower’s leadership has been reappraised, and the image of a doddering, golf-obsessed president has rightly been set aside. Using diaries, correspondence and a wealth of other material, Nichols makes clear that Eisenhower provided shrewd leadership when it was most needed. Eisenhower 1956 was researched with scholarly thoroughness and written with journalistic flair. Nichols’ respect for Eisenhower is clear throughout the book, and he makes a good case that it is well

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