Gamal Abdel Nasser on the Nationalization of the Suez Canal

Questions for Further Study

1. Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal was part of a series of international developments with which the nations involved had to contend. Summarize these developments and indicate the role that each played in the deepening crisis.

2. What role did the United States play in the events surrounding the nationalization of the Suez Canal? Why was the United States reluctant to become involved in the matter?

3. In your judgment, who was most at fault in fomenting the Suez Canal Crisis: Egypt, for closing the canal in the first place, or Britain and France, for their secret diplomacy and military response?

4. It seems as though the Suez Canal Crisis would have been the sort of matter that the United Nations could have and should have resolved. Eventually the United Nations sent a peacekeeping force, but that did not happen until after hostilities erupted. Why do you think this was so?

5. Nasser objected to the presence of the British and French in Egypt, regarding their presence as indicative of the Western colonial presence in the Middle East. Yet at the same time Nasser was willing to accept American financial support for construction of the Aswan Dam, and it was the withdrawal of that support that for him was “the straw that broke the camel's back” as tensions gathered. Do you see any inconsistency in Nasser's attitudes? Why or why not?