SUEZ CRISIS BRINGS PAINFUL REALIZATION U.S. HASN'T REAL POLICY ON MID-EAST OR EGYPT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000301040055-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2013
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: August 7, 1956
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

;TAT
Declassified in Part
r? ?
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/07: CIA-RDP74-00297R000301040055-7
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?
jor---- CHILDS'
Suez Crisis Brings Painful
Realization U.S. Hasn't Real
Policy on 1V1id-East or Egypt
lick of Direction in on-and-off Haggling
.Over sacking Nasser, Support of
Aswan Darn and Then Abrupt With-
drawal of Financial Aid.
. By MARQUIS W. CHILDS
*ashington Correspondent of the Post-Oispatch.
? ? (eeerrists less. Tem Pulitzer Publishing Co.)
:? WASHINGTON, Ana. 7
WHILE SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN FOSTER DULLE6
was' still in London 'confering with the French and the
British sin the Sues canal crisis it was determined that his
return should.be hailed as another triumph for brinkmanship or
the art of pulling lock from the brink of war.
Dulles's argument for restraint did have a calming effect
and he successfully pressed his case for a 24 -nation conference
on internationalizing the canal.
'But any sense. of triumph, as be built to the great benefit of
reflected In the Secretary's re- Egypt.
But abruptly, and with . el- ?
Iteration of the force of "moral most no Warning to officials of
principles" In his White House
talk, has long since faded. The
threat to the canal, which in
turn means the whole Wester
Stake in the Middle East, includ-
ing Eurasia's oil supply, has
brought the painful realization
that this country has, in fact,
had no Egyptian or Mid-East
policy in any constructive or
Positive sense of the word
policy.
It is important to recall the
set.uence of recent events. On
? Nov. 14, 14, Carnal Abdel Nas-
ser supplanted Gen. Mohammed
?.Naguils, Who had also been aim-
fp/ at military dittatorship In
Egypt. The private boast wide-
[y circulated in Ww?hington was
that this bloodless coup had
been engineered by tbe.C41114111
?fintolitgeltas? Agency" -and that
the bank, who were still dis-
cussing aspects of a bank lean,
Dulles withdrew the American
offer. One reason Is said to
have been pressure from Sena-
tors' from the South. anxious to
prevent more 'world competi-
tion from EgYptian cotton, who
stipulated that the Aswan dam
deal be called off in return for
their .support of the foreign-lid
bill. Whatever the motive, the
way in which the offer was
pulled back seemed deliberate-
ly designed to send Nasser off
on some new adventure.
Whatever any and all of his
critics say about Nasser is lege
than the truth. But from the"
viewpoint of Western policy
and the effort to maintain stim. end Wail to many 'of 41144. nou- ?
bill& in the Middle East to do. trals, this will sern to be 11 t
flounce Nasser as a demagogue Contest not Merely between
? Mager was "our num. .
is quite irrelevant. rid? and Western powers nor
Shortly afterward Henry A. It Is irrelevant to the masilvVeven ebttWeen
A
?
"eolorrial"' and ?
Byroade went as ltnited States and terrifying fact of presenOrnperial" nations but between
ambassador to Cairo, Those
who have . seer his first, dis-
patches say fist he reported
t lot that Nairn was "our man"
but that he "colld be our man."
There toilets-01.c' ? a long haggle
%over the pultibfe sale of Ameri-
can arms Egypt, with jhe
negotiations .tportedly break-
ing dowry ov.r Egyptian insist-
ence that 'eminent could be
made ohly tr, fhitish sterling.
? T14 C; its American-
.*-11ritish roupoasi 1.1 puild the
',WA Aswan vn the Nile.
This wee, ao far that Eugenall.
/Blatt hiii4 of tire International
' flank st iteennstruction.
dig-
'i etissed? tii e project with Nasser
,s oar; but ttsiv. Black be-
sPereetbs with nt grant
flarlaccifiPri in Part -
day Egypt. Ai the Population the haves and the have-nots.
Reference Bureau recen tty?For this reason, if for no Ober,
pointed out, Egypt's birth rats it his the most dangerous im-
is one of the highest in the pfleationa for the oil' supply on ?
world. At the same time tbe Which the economy of western
death rate, thanks to modern Europe depends. .
health techniques, has dropped Seen 'from this viewpoint It
40 per cent between 1945 tied mud appear that the West had
1952: ? na alternative but to try to
The boiling' upsurge of poi* work with Nasser to alleviate
lation-23.000.000 people , in a The fearful pressures of hunger
country in which 96 per cent of and population.
the land is desert, mixed with In IOW,* with its :heroic
the dynamite ofnationsUanruilile to.move forward ere-
spells revolution of one kind or no/ideally and industrially,
another. It may be chaos and there, twat bt sem* realization
breakdown, With the- Western of what the threat bf the hi-
powers trying forcibly to Maga. flamed Egyptian mass means
Lain order and the operation 01 Thi 'question now is whether
the canal, or It may her. A this is all in the tragic realm of
Communist impetasetrith peen. what might have been, or
ous overtones fo tha peat* of whether it mry still.be rissib&
frOm the ..'s.vr s'ern povrom to cheek the swift descent into
' 0f 970.0/ .0 -? ? ! non f warld.
the 0,4.14 mr? I
. To the other Arab countries,. he whirrnaal?
;11000,-
ADOQ.it r;h% t.. _ ? --
Sanitized CoPv Approved for Release 2013/08/07: CIA-RDP74-00297R000301040055-7