V o L u m e I : a d

The year 1956 saw two watershed events of the Cold War occur simulta-

neously: the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution. To try to meet a per-

ceived growing threat by the Soviet Union in the Middle East, the United

States had promoted the formation of the Baghdad Pact in 1955. Iraq and

Turkey were the original signatories, soon followed by Britain, Pakistan, and

Iran. Many in the Arab world, especially the Egyptian leader Nasser, saw this

treaty as nothing less than an attempt by the West to reassert its old colonial

control over the Middle East.

In 1956 Nasser sought funding for a long-advocated project—construction

of a high dam at Aswan on the upper Nile. The Egyptian leader saw this as a

means of improving the Egyptian standard of living and strengthening his

standing in the Middle East. At the same time, however, Nasser sought to

secure new weapons that would place the Egyptian military on a par with that

of Israel. Dulles promised U.S. assistance for the dam but refused the Egypt-

ian request for advanced weaponry, and Egypt turned to the Soviet bloc for

the new weapons. This along with Nasser’s diplomatic recognition of the PRC

incensed Dulles, who then withdrew the offer to assist in financing the dam.

34

Course of the Cold War (1950–1991)

Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, French Premier Edgar Jean Faure, and British

Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, shown here during the 1955 Geneva Conference in the garden of the Palace of

Nations on 20 July 1955. (Library of Congress)

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To pay for the dam, Nasser therefore nationalized the Suez Canal, a step that

he had already been contemplating.

Nasser’s actions led to the formation of a coalition of Britain, France, and

Israel against him. The British government had the largest stake in the Suez

Canal Company and in its operations, and Prime Minister Eden developed

an almost pathological hatred of Nasser and was determined to topple the

Egyptian leader. The French believed that Egypt was actively supporting

the Algerian rebels, while the Israelis were angry over Nasser’s decision to

blockade the Gulf of Aqaba (Israel’s entry into the Indian Ocean) as well as

Egyptian sponsorship of fedayeen (Arab commando) raids against the Jewish

state. Leaders of the three powers therefore concluded an agreement

whereby Israel would invade the Sinai and give Britain and France an excuse

to intervene militarily to “protect” the canal.

The Israelis moved at the end of October, and the French and British

governments demanded the right to occupy the canal zone. When the Egypt-

ian government rejected the ultimatum, on 5 November 1956 French and

British forces striking from Cyprus invaded and occupied Port Said at the

Mediterranean end of the canal.

Both the Soviet Union and the United States demanded that the British,

French, and Israelis withdraw from Egyptian territory. While the Soviet Union

threatened to send “volunteers,” it was the position of the United States that

was critical. President Eisenhower, livid that Eden had not informed him

beforehand, put heavy economic pressure on Britain, obliging the allied forces

to withdraw.

The Suez Crisis was a major event in the Cold War. Israel and Egypt

were the chief winners. The blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba was ended, and

UN observers were brought in to police the frontier between Egypt and

Israeli. Nasser found himself a hero in the Arab world; his prestige soared

on the retreat of the British and French. The Soviet Union and the UN also

benefited. Britain was the chief loser. The Suez Crisis marked the effective

end of Britain as a world power. And it shattered the solidarity of the major

Western powers. Unfortunately for the West, the crisis came at the worst pos-

sible time, diverting attention from the concurrent Soviet action against the

Hungarian Revolution.

The Hungarian Revolution of late October and early November 1956

was one of the most dramatic events of the Cold War, although it was not the

first sign of restiveness within the Soviet bloc. In June 1953, after the death

of Stalin, worker unrest led to rioting in East Berlin and across the Soviet

Occupied Zone, which was crushed only by Soviet tanks. Khrushchev’s

moves toward de-Stalinization in early 1956, particularly his “secret speech”

revealing the dictator’s crimes, led to unrest in Poland in June 1956. There

were demonstrations in Poznana, with industrial workers demanding redress

of grievances. Order was restored only by deploying large numbers of secu-

rity police.

Similar protests in Hungary that October became revolution, however.

Encouraged by events in Poznana and by the limited reforms subsequently

introduced in Poland, student demonstrators in Budapest protested the wide

Course of the Cold War (1950–1991)

35

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gulf between the stated goals of the communist regime and the reality of its

rule. This demonstration led to widespread demands for democratic reform,

an end to the hated security police and censorship, and Hungary’s with-

drawal from the Warsaw Pact. Hungarian Premier Imre Nagy, brought to

power in an effort to accommodate the reformists, found himself swept along

by a revolutionary tide. He announced a host of changes that included free

elections, an end to press censorship, and reform of the hated security police.

The Soviets had already decided to intervene before Nagy’s demands

rose to include a Soviet troop withdrawal and the announcement that Hun-

gary would withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. The Kremlin found Nagy’s com-

mitment to democratic reforms unacceptable. If the situation in Hungary

was allowed to stand, Soviet leaders feared that the movement would surely

spread to other satellites.

On 4 November 1956, Khrushchev sent 200,000 Soviet troops and 2,000

tanks into Hungary. Nagy called for resistance, and the Hungarians fought

as best they could. Over the next several weeks thousands of people died;

200,000 Hungarians fled to neighboring Austria.

There was near universal condemnation of the Soviet action, but no

action was taken, in part because the Soviet move was made while the West-

ern powers were embroiled in the Suez Crisis. There was much criticism of

the United States among Hungarians and a corresponding loss of faith

regarding both Dulles’s frequent talk of “rolling back communism” and prior

pledges of U.S. assistance toward this end. The lesson of the Hungarian

Revolution for the peoples of the Soviet bloc was that the Kremlin could do

as it pleased within its existing sphere of influence.

The Cold War appeared to spread in the late 1950s with increasing

Soviet challenges in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, especially in its sup-

port for so-called “wars of liberation.” In an effort to reassert U.S. influence

in the Middle East, the American president announced the Eisenhower Doc-

trine in early 1957. It pledged the United States to support the independence

of Middle Eastern countries against the threat of communism. Washington

intended this to underline the importance of the Baghdad Pact, to which the

United States was not a signatory. The Eisenhower administration also con-

tinued to send significant economic and military aid to the Diem govern-

ment of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, South Vietnam).

The Soviet challenge also spread to space, as Khrushchev was keenly

interested in his nation’s space program. On 17 August 1957 the Soviets fired

the first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)—the United States did not

fire its first ICBM until the next year—and on 4 October 1957 the Soviets

launched the first satellite into Earth’s orbit. Sputnik 1 was especially embar-

rassing to the United States, as it was seen as a sign of Soviet scientific

prowess, and became more so when in December a much smaller U.S. rocket

exploded on the launch pad. The United States did not place its first satellite

into orbit until January 1958, and it was still far smaller than those launched

by the Soviets. Sputnik 1 also marked the start of the Space Race between the

two superpowers.

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Course of the Cold War (1950–1991)

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