1 AUGUST
THE TIMES – NASSER MUST BE STOPPED OR OTHERS WILL ALSO DEFY US.
[ 1 August 1956 }
On this day in 1956 The Times ran a leader insisting that even if Egyptian president Nasser might be legally justified in taking back the Suez canal, his action must be opposed because it was a dangerous precedent which might lead other countries in the region to act in their own interests, thereby threatening British and Western hegemony.
“If Nasser is allowed to get away with his coup,” declared the newspaper, “all the British and other Western interests in the Middle East will crumble. Quibbling whether or not [Nasser] was ‘legally entitled’ to make the grab will delight the finicky and comfort the faint hearted but entirely misses the issues.”[1]
FOOTNOTES
- The Times, 1 August 1956 quoted in Scott Lucas (Editor)(1996), “Britain and Suez: The Lion’s Last Roar,” Manchester University Press, Manchester and London, p53.