The New Imperialism

The Arabs and their Soviet confederates have been playing a game more dangerous than they realize with their off-and-on embargo tactic. Mr. Feuer recapitulates what has happened since Nasser seized the Suez Canal and speculates that a new imperialism may be in the works.

In July 1956, Egypt, led by President Nasser, seized the Suez Canal, beginning the sequence of events which have culminated in the oil embargoes and oligopolistic prices of 1973 and 1974. One man foresaw the inevitable consequences of allowing Nasser’s act, and that was Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of Great Britain. He pleaded with President Dwight Eisenhower that the fate of the Western European nations was at stake. The ultimate issue, wrote Eden on September 6, 1956, was the menace of “united oil resources under the control of a united Arabia led by Egypt and under Russian influence. When that moment comes Nasser can deny oil to Western Europe and we here shall all be at his mercy.” Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait, for all their misgivings, would finally follow Egypt’s lead, wrote Eden. Then, Egypt’s president, having defied the industrial nations and having violated his pledged word not to blockade Israel, would say: “Trust me and withhold oil from Western Europe. Within six months or a year, the continent of Europe will be on its knees before you.” Dwight Eisenhower was then in the midst of a presidential campaign against Adlai Stevenson. Reluctant to see a difficult issue raised, he bluntly told the British Prime Minister that American public opinion would not approve the use of force. He withdrew his previous benevolent neutrality toward the project for British-French recapture of the Suez Canal. The British and French invading the Suez region alone the next month were compelled by American disapproval to retreat. Now after 17 years Eden’s “scenario” is being fulfilled. Oil is the Achilles’ heel of the Western industrial system, and the Arabs with Soviet encouragement have been probing for its enervation. Did the British-French retreat from the Suez Canal mark the beginning of the decline of Western industrial civilization? Did the Americans by imposing on their allies a standard of ethics which neither Arabs nor Soviets observed commence the self-weakening of that unity essential to safeguard democratic industrial Western countries?

LF

About the Author

Lewis S. Feuer

The Arabs and their Soviet confederates have been playing a game more dangerous than they realize with their off-and-on embargo tactic. Mr. Feuer recapitulates what has happened since Nasser seized the Suez Canal and speculates that a new imperialism may be in the works.

In July 1956, Egypt, led by President Nasser, seized the Suez Canal, beginning the sequence of events which have culminated in the oil embargoes and oligopolistic prices of 1973 and 1974. One man foresaw the inevitable consequences of allowing Nasser’s act, and that was Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of Great Britain. He pleaded with President Dwight Eisenhower that the fate of the Western European nations was at stake. The ultimate issue, wrote Eden on September 6, 1956, was the menace of “united oil resources under the control of a united Arabia led by Egypt and under Russian influence. When that moment comes Nasser can deny oil to Western Europe and we here shall all be at his mercy.” Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait, for all their misgivings, would finally follow Egypt’s lead, wrote Eden. Then, Egypt’s president, having defied the industrial nations and having violated his pledged word not to blockade Israel, would say: “Trust me and withhold oil from Western Europe. Within six months or a year, the continent of Europe will be on its knees before you.” Dwight Eisenhower was then in the midst of a presidential campaign against Adlai Stevenson. Reluctant to see a difficult issue raised, he bluntly told the British Prime Minister that American public opinion would not approve the use of force. He withdrew his previous benevolent neutrality toward the project for British-French recapture of the Suez Canal. The British and French invading the Suez region alone the next month were compelled by American disapproval to retreat. Now after 17 years Eden’s “scenario” is being fulfilled. Oil is the Achilles’ heel of the Western industrial system, and the Arabs with Soviet encouragement have been probing for its enervation. Did the British-French retreat from the Suez Canal mark the beginning of the decline of Western industrial civilization? Did the Americans by imposing on their allies a standard of ethics which neither Arabs nor Soviets observed commence the self-weakening of that unity essential to safeguard democratic industrial Western countries?