718. The Suez Crisis: Britain's Shattered Empire (Part 2)

What role did France, Russia, America and Israel play in the Suez Crisis of 1956? Did the Egyptian leader, President Gamal Abdel Nasser, respond to the foreign invasion with military force? And, how did the debacle unfold? Join Dominic and Tom as they embark upon the final, dramatic leg of the Suez Crisis, and explain the outcome of the scandal. Join The Rest Is History Club: Unlock the full experience of the show – with exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to every series and live show tickets, a members-only newsletter, discounted books from the show, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at the⁠⁠restishistory.com⁠⁠. To read our new newsletter, sign up at: ⁠⁠therestishistory.com/newsletters⁠⁠_______ Advertise with us: ⁠[email protected]⁠_______ Sign up to Revolut at revolut.com/trih and get £20 when you spend. 18+, end date 30/06/2027 and promotion T&C's apply. Revpoints T&C's apply. _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Video Editors: Jack Meek, Harry Swan + Adam Thornton Social Producer: Harry Balden Producers: Tabby Syrett & Aaliyah Akude Senior Producer: Callum Hill Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Dominic Sandbrook?

  This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Tom, as you know, I spend all my time working and in a dream world, I would clone a sort of Tom Holland who would do all the work for me. But sadly, technology has not advanced to that point. If it did, I wish there was a recruiting company that I could use to hire that clone for me.

• 0:23Tom Holland?

  Well, Dominic, you are in luck because if you are hiring, then ZipRecruiter is the great time saver. You can try it free at ziprecruiter.com/history. It shows you qualified candidates almost instantly. So save time with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day.

• 0:51Dominic Sandbrook?

  Try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/history. That's ziprecruiter.com/history. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter.

• 1:04Speaker 02

  Observe the North American dad. 50s, great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says, dang, that's a good offer. The highest form of approval. No haggling, no hassle. No one called him boss. He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply.

• 1:35Tom Holland?

  This episode is brought to you by Revolut. Standing still leaves no legacy. History is written by progress by revolution.

• 1:47Dominic Sandbrook?

  Fighting for independence, dismantling those broken systems, defying injustice. Every revolution begins with the refusal to accept the norm and demand for more.

• 1:59Tom Holland?

  And Revolut is founded on the same principle. Originally established to push back the frontiers of traditional banking, it puts the power back into your hands.

• 2:10Dominic Sandbrook?

  You can manage all of your money in one app. Plus, you can earn while you spend with the RevPoints reward system.

• 2:19Tom Holland?

  As a fully authorised UK bank, your money is FSCS protected.

• 2:25Dominic Sandbrook?

  Sign up to Revolut today at revolut.com/trih. That's all lowercase and you'll get £20 after the first time that you spend. 18 plus. End date and promotion Ts and Cs apply and RevPoints Ts and Cs apply.

• 2:55Tom Holland?

  Dear friend, it is a great grief to me that the events of the last few days have placed such a strain on the relations between our two countries. But I am convinced that if we had allowed things to drift, everything would have gone from bad to worse. Nasser would have become a kind of Muslim Mussolini and our friends in Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and even Iran would gradually have been brought down. His efforts would have spread westwards and Libya and all North Africa would have been

• 3:39Tom Holland?

  bought under his control. We in the French were convinced that we had to act at once to forestall a general conflagration throughout the Middle East. If you cannot approve, I would like you at least to understand the terrible decisions that we have had to make. I remember nothing like them since the days when we were comrades together in the war. History alone can judge whether we have made the right decision. But I do want to assure you that we have made it from a genuine sense of responsibility, not only to our country, but to all the world.

• 4:25Tom Holland?

  So that Dominic was a message from the British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden. And he was sending it to President Dwight D Eisenhower on the evening of the 4th of November, 1956. And that was a very authentic rendering because I went and listened to him, how he gave his TV address. And he wrote it immediately after a cabinet meeting in which he authorised a ground invasion of Egypt to seize the Suez Canal, which was going to begin the following morning. And it doesn't 100% go down well with the Americans, does it? And in fact, it ends up precipitating probably the major crisis in Anglo American relations since the Second World War, in which of course, both Eden and Eisenhower had been major players

• 5:09Tom Holland?

  and had known each other very well.

• 5:11Dominic Sandbrook?

  So you're dead right. The most conflicted moments in the history of Anglo American relations. And it also sets the scene for what a lot of people would describe as the greatest humiliation in sort of post-war British history, which is the final stage of the Suez Crisis. Now, last time we heard about the personal duel between Eden and Nasser. So Colonel Nasser, as Eden always calls him. And Nasser, his...

• 5:37Tom Holland?

  Magnificent pattness.

• 5:39Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah.

• 5:41Dominic Sandbrook?

  Nasser's decision on the 26th of July, 1956 to nationalise the Suez Canal, Eden's determination to use force, do we take it? And we ended with a secret visit by two French emissaries to checkers on the 14th of October. And they floated this scheme for Israel to launch a surprise attack on Egypt. And that would give France and possibly Britain, a pretext to intervene, seize the canal and to potentially bring down Nasser's regime. So picking up straight away, Eden didn't make a decision immediately. He told the French he would think about it. But his junior minister, Anthony Nutting, said that the Prime Minister could barely conceal his excitement.

• 6:22Dominic Sandbrook?

  So if we pick up two days later, the Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd has been in New York with talks to the UN. He thinks he's reached a decent compromise. The Egyptians will allow people to use the canal freely, but Lloyd is in for a shock. Now Lloyd is the fall guy for this whole story, so we should say a word about him. Lloyd was the son of a dentist from Cheshire. He won a scholarship to Fettis College, Tony Blair's alma mater. Went to Cambridge, he was a barrister. He was a staff officer at a General Montgomery and then he became a Tory MP. And he's very loyal, he's very good humoured. He's a sort of, he's a decent chap, Selwyn. He's a little bit golf club and a bit gauche.

• 7:03Tom Holland?

  Didn't his wife divorce him because he went to bed wearing a sweater or something?

• 7:07Dominic Sandbrook?

  There is some issue there and there was a question, there was later a question mark over his, which I don't, I mean, I'm just reporting, I don't have any inside knowledge. There was a question mark over his sexuality.

• 7:18Tom Holland?

  But he was the kind of chap who wore knitwear to bed.

• 7:20Dominic Sandbrook?

  I think something like Mamillan or somebody whose own love life was not exactly, you know, anything to write home about, said he was the kind of man who went to bed with a jumper on. Anyway. In 1951, Churchill offered Selwyn Lloyd a job as junior Foreign Office Minister. An absolutely terrific exchange. Lloyd said to Churchill, sir, there must be some mistake. I don't speak any foreign language, except in war, I've never visited any foreign country. I don't like foreigners. I've never spoken in a foreign affairs debate in the House. I've never listened to one. And Churchill said, young man, these all seem to me to be positive advantages. So he became Foreign Office Minister. Eden promoted him to Foreign Secretary when Eden became PM because basically Eden wanted to run his own foreign policy.

• 8:05Dominic Sandbrook?

  So now they're having lunch at number 10, 16th of October. Eden tells him about the French plan. And Lloyd, to his credit, says, this sounds very risky. I think it's very underhand. It could be illegal. It might not work. I don't think we should have anything to do with it. And Eden says, well, look here, I like this plan. Your UN deal is not going to work. I don't think the Egyptians can be trusted. This is all about Britain's national interests. And if we're going to move, we have to move now because winter is coming. So it's now or never. And so that means Lloyd has a choice to make. He can either go along with it or he can resign.

• 8:43Tom Holland?

  I mean, if he had resigned.

• 8:44Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah.

• 8:44Tom Holland?

  Would that have changed? I mean, he would, he could have blown the whole scheme out of the water, couldn't he?

• 8:48Dominic Sandbrook?

  But he would never have done that. He would absolutely never have done that. So he would have resigned and Eden would have found somebody else.

• 8:55Tom Holland?

  Okay. So it doesn't really make a difference.

• 8:57Dominic Sandbrook?

  So six days later, the 22nd of October, Lloyd gets to star in his very own John le Carré drama. He announces he's got a heavy cold and he cancels all his public engagements. He puts on as a clever disguise, a battered old raincoat. And then, as every single book about this incident says, he is bundled into a car driven by his private secretary. I actually think he probably just got into the car. But even in my own retelling of this, I described him as being bundled into the car.

• 9:30Tom Holland?

  And who's bundling him?

• 9:31Dominic Sandbrook?

  Well, this is the thing, I think he's just getting into the car. I think he just gets into the car. But I can't remember now whether I got the thing about him being bundled in, whether I made it up or I got it from somebody else. But I've now seen it repeated in other books. So presumably people are getting it from me. And there's just a general sense of like mysterious men in Macintoshes bundling Selwyn Lloyd into the back of this car.

• 9:50Tom Holland?

  A kind of faint vibe of slow horses.

• 9:52Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, very slow horses. Exactly. It's important spycraft and as we shall see, Lloyd loves a bit of this important spycraft. So they drive to RAF Hendon. He gets on a plane and he flies to an airbase just south of Paris. There, he and his private secretary are met by a French officer. The French officer bundles them into another car and they drive at high speed to the suburban town of Sevres, which is on the southwestern edge of Paris. And on the way, they're almost hit by a truck coming out of a side street. And if that truck had hit them, I mean, that really would have changed history. You know, the British would have had to explain what he was doing there. It would have been a massive story. Anyway, it didn't hit them. They arrive at this townhouse on a leafy Sev side street, a townhouse that used to

• 10:36Dominic Sandbrook?

  be a French Resistance headquarters in the war. Lloyd is still in his disguise, his raincoat. He's very shaken after the near crash and he's taken in and in that side of the house are the French Prime Minister Guy Mole and the Foreign Minister Christian Pinot. And, you know, I said it was resistance headquarters. They, like so many of the French in this story, are decorated resistance veterans. They're socialists. They're part of the French Socialist Party. And they explain the plan to Lloyd and then they say, do you know what, we've actually got the Israelis in the next room. And they take him into the next room and there are David Ben Gurion, the Israeli Prime Minister, Moshe Dianne with his eye patch, the Chief of Staff of the IDF, and Shimon Peres, the Head of the

• 11:19Dominic Sandbrook?

  Ministry of Defence, future Prime Minister himself.

• 11:22Tom Holland?

  Yeah, who's in Israeli politics forever, isn't he?

• 11:25Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, well, basically, everyone in Israel is in politics forever, aren't they?

• 11:28Tom Holland?

  But Shimon Peres is there forever, I think. I mean, he lasts until, whatever, kind of 2023 or something. Yeah, kind of incredibly old.

• 11:37Dominic Sandbrook?

  So when Lloyd, as this is wont, tries to break the ice with a Top Golf Club joke, he comes in, the first thing he says to them is, I ought to have had a false moustache. What, what, what? And there's just a dead silence in the room.

• 11:53Tom Holland?

  I'll get my coat.

• 11:54Dominic Sandbrook?

  So the Israelis, you know, who are much more battle hardened men than Selwyn Lloyds, they are, they're knackered. They've been travelling for 17 hours to get there. They're very tense. They're very, this is a serious business. And this British bloke turns out making terrible jokes in a, in a old Mac, which we about false moustaches. They find him patronizing, they find him boorish, and they find tactless. So Moshe Dianne's assistant wrote in his diary, he said Lloyd looked like a typical English diplomat with a shrill voice and a face that looked as if something stinking hangs permanently under his nose.

• 12:29Tom Holland?

  Dear.

• 12:30Dominic Sandbrook?

  So they talk all evening and then we're told they broke off so they could eat an enormous fish.

• 12:35Tom Holland?

  Where did they get that?

• 12:39Dominic Sandbrook?

  I mean, how enormous?

• 12:41Tom Holland?

  How big was this fish?

• 12:42Dominic Sandbrook?

  This, how many people are there? There's the French, there's Lloyd, probably his private secretary's going to eat something, and there's three Israelis. I mean, there's got to be a big fish to feed that many people. And they're probably like staff officers.

• 12:55Tom Holland?

  It's got to be massive.

• 12:57Dominic Sandbrook?

  So they eat this fish and then they nail down the plan by midnight or so. Big Israeli raid across the Sinai Desert. Within the first day, the Israelis reckon they'll be approaching the canal. At that point, after the first day, Britain and France will issue an ultimatum. They will say to protect canal traffic, both sides, Egypt and Israel, need to withdraw from the canal zone. The Israelis will agree, the Egyptians won't. And so Britain and France will begin airstrikes the next day, and then after airstrikes, they will proceed to a full invasion. Lloyd is very quiet during all this. For all his sort of mad joking, he never thought this was a good idea. And his private secretary said afterwards that he seemed very thoughtful throughout. But of course, he's in too deep already

• 13:40Dominic Sandbrook?

  just by going. And he knows that his boss, Anthony Eden, wants this. So Lloyd flies back to London after midnight. And the next day, he briefs the British Cabinet. So everybody in the Cabinet knew about this. He says, I've had secret conversations with the Israelis, but nothing's yet decided. But on the 24th, which is a Sunday, the British send the Foreign Office Mandarin Patrick Dean to Paris to seal the deal. They type up an agreement at INCEV. Israel will strike in five days' time on the night of the 29th of October. Britain and France will issue their ultimatum on the 30th. NASA will refuse. On the 31st, we'll begin the airstrikes and then the ground invasion. They sign the agreement, Ben Gurion,

• 14:24Dominic Sandbrook?

  Pinot, and Patrick Dean. And then the French sort of officials who are there hand out champagne and they drink this awkward and sheepish toast. Moshe Dianne, who has already sent orders to mobilize the IDF, said later, the British were the first to leave. And as they left, they were mumbling words of politeness tinged with humour and not quite comprehensible. So the sort of sheepish embarrassment.

• 14:50Tom Holland?

  Embarrassment.

• 14:51Dominic Sandbrook?

  Embarrassment, because this is an underhand business. So we come to the next day, Monday the 25th. So there are already, the clock is really ticking. There are less than 100 hours to go till this kicks off. Eden, who seems, everybody says, very excited, full of life, buoyant, you know, not a man at this point struggling with his health, formally puts the plan to the British Cabinet. He says, I know we may be accused of collusion with Israel, but I'm all for this. And he is backed up not just by Lloyd, who's his faithful kind of political factotum, but crucially by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Macmillan, who is a central character.

• 15:30Tom Holland?

  Thank God he's got Harold Macmillan on board.

• 15:33Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, well.

• 15:34Tom Holland?

  Crucial. I mean, he's such a leading figure, isn't he? And so loyal. And he'd never stab Eden in the back. So thank God for that.

• 15:42Dominic Sandbrook?

  Oh, dear. You don't trust Harold Macmillan? This is shocking. So Harold Macmillan, for people who are not familiar with British politics in the 50s, if you can imagine somebody who looks basically just like Anthony Eden, but much more crumpled.

• 15:57Tom Holland?

  Oyster eyes, you're obliged to describe him as having, aren't you?

• 15:59Dominic Sandbrook?

  He's got this kind of droopy oyster eyes and a very sad moustache. It's a, it's a sort of, it's a, it's your absolute textbook melancholy moustache. So we can't get in too deep into Harold Macmillan. I mean, he's a great character, actually, but, you know, he'll take over the podcast if we're not careful. His dad was a Scottish publisher. His mother was an heiress from Indiana in the Midwest. He went to Eton, he went to Balyor College, Oxford. He was incredibly heroic in the First World War. He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and he famously lay for 12 hours in a shell hole, reading Iscullus in the original Greek, which is admirable behaviour. So Harold Macmillan is a man who, Eden, remember, wouldn't tell people about his Military Cross. Harold Macmillan

• 16:42Dominic Sandbrook?

  is a man who constantly is sort of saying, oh, war wound, you know, kind of rubbing his arm or something in a sort of thoughtful way.

• 16:50Tom Holland?

  I mean, presumably, there's only one guy who's reporting on how Macmillan read Iscullus.

• 16:56Dominic Sandbrook?

  That's probably true. Yeah. When he was Prime Minister, he used to say, everybody should go to bed with a trollop, by which he meant Anthony Trollop. There's a lot of this kind of stuff.

• 17:03Tom Holland?

  He'd performatively retire at four o'clock in the afternoon, wouldn't he, to read it?

• 17:06Dominic Sandbrook?

  Exactly, exactly. So he is on the left, he's on the far left, actually, in the Tory Party. I mean, he's properly kind of left, almost left wing in the 30s. And then he becomes Churchill's liaison to Eisenhower in North Africa in the, in the war. And then he becomes Eden's Foreign Secretary, then his Chancellor. He's very feline, Harold Macmillan. He's devious. Everyone always says he's theatrical. He's got a little bit of a hint, I think, of another Balyor man, Boris Johnson about him. It seems an odd comparison because Macmillan is so much more impressive as a character. But there's a little bit of the performative showman about Macmillan. And he's untrustworthy. And Eden

• 17:46Dominic Sandbrook?

  never trusts him. Anyway, because of his heiress mother and because of his wartime experience in North Africa, Macmillan believes himself to be a great Uncle Sam whisperer. So he says to the Cabinet, I know the Americans, they're bound to go along with this. And people say, well, what about Eisenhower? Will Eisenhower not be offended that we've kept him in the dark?

• 18:08Tom Holland?

  Oh, no, no, dear boy. No, no, no, dear boy. I know Ike, he will lie doggo. That's what he says. So the thing is, this is unbelievably irresponsible and reckless from Macmillan.

• 18:21Dominic Sandbrook?

  His Chancellor, and he of all people therefore should know that if the Americans don't go along with this, Britain is in a massive hole. Because we lose this last time, the British economy in the 50s suffers from a very specific weakness. Because of our defence commitments and because we're spending so much money on imports, basically because our own products are rubbish. So you're buying, when you buy your washing machine, great to get a washing machine on the show, when you buy your washing machine, you're buying some imported washing machine, not a British one. As a result of that, Britain's balance of payments is constantly in the red. And in the 50s, they, they love the balance of payments. They never stop talking about it. So as a result of this, when your balance of payments figures are bad, international sort of currency traders say, oh my God,

• 19:04Dominic Sandbrook?

  sell sterling, sterling's in crisis. So the value of the pound collapses and the Treasury periodically has to spend its gold and dollar reserves to buy sterling to push the value of the pound back up. And in August 1956, the Treasury said to Harold Macmillan, sterling is coming under mounting pressure. You know, we're going to have to spend a lot of our reserves in the next few months. So we have to be really cautious. And in September, his chief economic adviser, who knew that something was going on with Suez, specifically said to Macmillan, we must be aware of, and I quote, the vital necessity from the point of view of the currency and our economy of ensuring that we do not go it alone and we

• 19:45Dominic Sandbrook?

  have the maximum US support. Now, Macmillan hears this advice and he chooses to draw a very different lesson from it. He says to his colleagues, well, my, all my advisers are telling me that if we strike quickly and decisively at Suez, they will banish doubts about Britain and it will restore confidence in the pound. And so as a result of this, he's one of the most influential voices in favour of going to war. And even though a couple of Eden's ministers have doubts, the combination of Eden, Macmillan and Lloyd means that they're going to go for it. So the die is cast, Tom.

• 20:23Dominic Sandbrook?

  So three days go by, and then on the afternoon of the 29th of October, the Israelis launch Operation Kadesh, which is the first stage of the plan. So at three o'clock that afternoon, Israeli Mustang fighters launch attacks on Egyptian military positions in the Sinai. And two hours later, 400 Israeli paratroopers are dropped into the Mittal Pass, which is the key pass through the Sinai Mountains. And from there, once they've established themselves, the plan is they will be reinforced by more paratroopers led by Ariel Sharon, another future Israeli Prime Minister. And so it works.

• 21:04Dominic Sandbrook?

  And by nightfall, IDF tanks are joining them in the Sinai. Nasser, we haven't had him on the show yet because he's been at a birthday party. He's been at his son's birthday party, no less. So literally, there are people cutting cakes and playing party games when he gets a call. And when he gets the call, he struggles to make sense of what's being said because there's so much noise at this party.

• 21:29Tom Holland?

  So it's like George W. Bush being told about 9/11 at that school.

• 21:33Dominic Sandbrook?

  It's not dissimilar, exactly. And when he first hears the Israelis have landed paratroopers in the Sinai, he says, this cannot be serious. This must be a feint from them. They're probably going to attack Jordan. There's been a lot of tension between Israel and Jordan. Or they're going to attack Gaza, which in fact they do later do. They cannot seriously be invading Egypt. But he is wrong. By dawn the next morning, which is Tuesday, the 30th of October, the Israeli paratroopers are fully dug in at the Mittal Pass, which is 40 miles from the canal across the desert. So a couple of hours later, Eden's cabinet meets at number 10. Everything is going exactly according to plan.

• 22:15Dominic Sandbrook?

  They draft their ultimatum to both sides, to Egypt and Israel. They give them 12 hours to stop all military action and to withdraw 10 miles from the canal. Egypt, they say, must allow British and French forces to move temporarily into Port Said, into Ismaila and into Suez to guarantee freedom of transport through the canal by ships of all nations. And if they don't accept, the British and French will intervene in whatever strength may be necessary to secure compliance.

• 22:46Tom Holland?

  I mean, when you put it like that, it sounds so outrageous.

• 22:49Dominic Sandbrook?

  It's quite outrageous, isn't it?

• 22:51Tom Holland?

  I mean, who do they think they're kidding?

• 22:53Dominic Sandbrook?

  The world?

• 22:54Tom Holland?

  I guess.

• 22:55Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, I guess. They very much told themselves what they want to believe, haven't they? I mean, they cannot seriously think that people won't see through this. Well, actually, they do think, Eden does think people won't see through it. He's actually offended and outraged when people question his integrity. Anyway, at this meeting for the first time, and we're only hours into the whole business, and there is a hint of trouble. Mammelin is forced to say to his colleagues that already Britain's currency reserves are coming under pressure because instead of strengthening confidence in the pound, the crisis in the Middle East is weakening it. So the cabinet minutes record, we should do our utmost to reduce the offence to American public opinion because our reserves of gold and dollars were still falling at a dangerously rapid rate.

• 23:40Dominic Sandbrook?

  And so as a result of this, Eden writes to Eisenhower that morning and he says, listen, this ultimatum is not about harking back to the old colonial concepts. It's about strengthening the weakest point in the line against communism. So you see how the rationale keeps slightly shifting. Remember, Nasser was the new Mussolini at one point. Now it's about communism. Now we'll come back to Eisenhower. Eisenhower, spoiler alert, is going to be furious about having been double crossed. Anyway, that afternoon, Eden goes to the House of Commons, very packed, very excited. He reads out the ultimatum. Now, in Egypt, Nasser, when he hears about the ultimatum, he is stunned by this. He never saw this coming.

• 24:21Dominic Sandbrook?

  His intelligence chiefs had said to him, it's very unlikely the British would undertake military action against us because the British would destroy their own reputation in the Middle East and the entire Arab world if they got involved, especially with the Israelis. I mean, that would be mad from the British. Obviously, Nasser's first reaction is to reject the ultimatum. No way are we accepting this. But he also does two very smart things. I mean, Nasser is a canny operator. First of all, Nasser immediately appeals to the United Nations. He says, this is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter because it is not right to ask for a nation to disarm if it's facing a foreign invasion of its own sovereign territory, which is true, it's not.

• 25:06Dominic Sandbrook?

  And then the second thing, this is something that Eden did not expect. A lot of people would have thought, well, Nasser might appeal to Moscow for help. He doesn't. He appeals to Washington for help. He asks to see the American ambassador in Cairo. And he says, you and I both know that you probably expected me to go to the Russians, but I'm not. Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian Soviet premier, has offered me Soviet volunteers. I don't want them. I want you. I want your support, the Americans. I mean, that's so clever from Nasser. Now, meanwhile, in Cyprus, the RAF air crews are making their final preparations. And late on the afternoon of the 31st, they get the confirmation that everybody expected,

• 25:49Dominic Sandbrook?

  Nasser has rejected the British ultimatum, and so this is on. And so as night is falling, Canberra and Valiant bombers take off from Cyprus. And then a second wave of attack jets from three carriers off the Egyptian coast, their Eagle, Bulwark and Albion. And what follows is a total walkover. I mean, as we said before, the madness of claiming that Nasser was going to take over the Middle East when his army, his air force is destroyed within hours effectively.

• 26:19Tom Holland?

  I mean, if anyone's behaving like the Luftwaffe, and it pains me to say this, it's the RAF.

• 26:24Dominic Sandbrook?

  So they're hammering the Egyptian airfields and bases. They destroy scores of Nasser's fancy new Soviet made planes, which are just sitting there, sitting ducks on the tarmac. In fact, in purely military terms, this operation is going incredibly well. So the Israelis have cut through the Sinai and the Egyptian army is already falling back towards the Nile Delta. Nasser's officers are making contingency plans to evacuate Cairo. Maybe we'll have to carry on this struggle as sort of guerrilla warfare in the Delta. Meanwhile, the British and the French, within hours, have got total command of the skies. Within three days, they've destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force. They've destroyed 260 planes and they themselves have lost only three pilots.

• 27:09Tom Holland?

  So that basically has met the Israeli war aims, I guess.

• 27:12Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, they've basically neutralized Nasser as a threat.

• 27:15Tom Holland?

  They've got what they want.

• 27:16Dominic Sandbrook?

  Completely. So now the RAF bombers have moved on to Egypt's coastal defenses. They're clearing away for the troop landings. Nasser is watching all this in the roof of his villa in Heliopolis. And he can see the bombs falling on the outskirts of Cairo, on military bases outside Cairo, and this black smoke rising above the city. He goes into his military headquarters and his comrades in the free officers have gathered there. And there is a mood of panic. At one point, one of them actually says to Nasser, when are we going to surrender? I think you might have to make the ultimate sacrifice for your country and hand yourself over to the British to spare Egypt more punishment. You know, they're really worried about what's going to happen. But there's also good news for Nasser. So first of all, no question, all Egypt is behind him.

• 28:01Dominic Sandbrook?

  The British and French had hoped that people would rise up. They believed this stuff about, you know, he's a dictator. You know, the Egyptian people can't wait for us to intervene. This is very kind of 2003, or indeed the American attack on Iran, right? You know, the people cannot wait to rise up. But in Egypt's case, this doesn't happen at all. And because they don't knock out Cairo radio, Nasser can continue broadcasting to his people this message of national defiance. Now, in the first half, we said how he'd read My Early Life by Churchill. His rhetoric at this point, I mean, it's not just Churchillian. It's pure Churchill. We shall fight, not surrender. We shall fight from village to village, from place to place, and so on and so forth.

• 28:45Dominic Sandbrook?

  On Friday, the 2nd of November, an amazing scene. He's driven in an open topped car through the streets of Cairo to the Al-Azhar Mosque, 10th century mosque, for Friday prayers, huge crowds. And he gives a pure Churchill speech. I will remain in Cairo. I will fight alongside you. For every one of us among the armed forces and the people, our watchword will be, we will fight and we will never surrender. We will defend our country, our history and our future to the last drop of blood.

• 29:17Tom Holland?

  And is Eden coming out with this kind of stuff as well in Britain and uniting Britain behind him?

• 29:22Dominic Sandbrook?

  No.

• 29:23Tom Holland?

  You've got an Eden speech coming out, which you can do with your excellent Eden voice.

• 29:27Dominic Sandbrook?

  Oh, great. Well, Britain, you see, Egypt is united behind the war and Britain is very much not. So public opinion is basically 40, 40, 20. 40% are for it, 40% are dead against it, and 20% don't care. And over time, that shifts in the government's favour and Eden's favour, so 50, 30. But it's still divided. So most Tories back the war, but not all of them. We mentioned Lord Manbatten last time. Manbatten always thought it was a bad idea. And it was later said, I mean, it's impossible for anyone to know how true this is, that the Queen was not a fan of the operation. So Labour, Labour are much more divided. So basically, if you're a bien pensant du gouda.

• 30:12Dominic Sandbrook?

  Then you're dead against it.

• 30:14Tom Holland?

  Your favourite kind of person.

• 30:15Dominic Sandbrook?

  My very favourite kind of bien pensant person. If you're a well-meaning, you know, uh, high-minded person, you're dead against this. A lot of the big unions are against it, the churches are against it, students are against it. But a lot of more working class Labour voters are probably for it. So the future Labour Foreign Secretary, David Owen, was working on a building site in Plymouth before going to university. And he said, you know, he turned up with his kind of lefty views. And the other builders, who were all Labour voters, were, they thought, they thought it was brilliant. They couldn't get enough of it. Anyway, all this is, I think, quite a good preview of the arguments in Britain. First about the Falklands, but this kind of feels very Brexit to me, actually, all this sort of stuff.

• 31:00Dominic Sandbrook?

  Which leads me to the press coverage. So the Daily Telegraph, how good it is to hear the British lion's roar. And my absolute favourite, which was in the Daily Sketch. Let the crybabies howl, it's Great Britain again. See, the thing is, I would have loved to have been writing in my, uh, middle market newspaper days. I would have loved the Suez Crisis.

• 31:25Tom Holland?

  Well, it's kind of, as an anti-imperialist, I'm all in favour of the military occupation of Egypt.

• 31:32Dominic Sandbrook?

  Exactly.

• 31:33Tom Holland?

  And its annexation to the British Empire.

• 31:36Dominic Sandbrook?

  As a Remainer, I, I think we should drop a nuclear bomb on Brussels.

• 31:42Tom Holland?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 31:43Dominic Sandbrook?

  abroad, a lot of people have really let themselves down. That's very sad to say. A lot of people abroad are not, are not cheering the roar of the British lion. They are howling crybabies. So across the Arab world, massive demonstrations, offers of military support for Egypt, from Syria and so on. Masser, again, very canny, turns all of them down. He knows it's better for him to look like a helpless victim, really, in the eyes of the world. So people will feel sorry for him. The Saudis imposed an oil embargo on Britain and France. This is, this strikes me as so weird that nobody remembers this. There was an oil embargo against Britain and France, and in Britain, they had to introduce petrol rationing.

• 32:27Dominic Sandbrook?

  From December 1956 till May 1957, you had to have coupons to get petrol. And you were allowed 200 miles of petrol a month. You know how people go on about the oil three day week in the oil shock of 1973? No one ever remembers this. Now, A, it's 20 years or so earlier, but I wonder whether it's just that people didn't have as many cars. So it wasn't such a big deal.

• 32:49Tom Holland?

  Children were walking six miles to get to school and were happy to do it.

• 32:53Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah.

• 32:53Tom Holland?

  Great days.

• 32:54Dominic Sandbrook?

  Great days. Now, Eden expected, of course, the Arab world will kick off. He didn't expect that the Commonwealth would let him down. So the governments of Australia and New Zealand were publicly supportive, but in private, they made it very clear they were horrified that Britain had not been honest with them. And above all, I know we've got a lot of Canadian listeners. And little by little, more and more Canadian history is finding its way onto the show. It's the new Welsh history, really. So the Canadian Prime Minister, are you familiar with Louis Saint Laurent?

• 33:21Tom Holland?

  Is he a Quebecois?

• 33:23Dominic Sandbrook?

  He was a Quebecois, yeah. He was outraged by this. He sent Eden a private message. I deeply regret the course you're taking. He said, you've undermined the United Nations. You have cloaked with a smokescreen the brutal international crimes of the Soviets in Hungary.

• 33:38Tom Holland?

  I mean, he's not wrong, is he?

• 33:40Dominic Sandbrook?

  He's not wrong. As this is happening, it is absolutely kicking off in Hungary. There is tanks on the streets of Budapest. And the two stories are fighting for attention on the front pages.

• 33:53Tom Holland?

  Yeah, and so the British and French are essentially kneecapping the moral response of the West to the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolution.

• 34:04Dominic Sandbrook?

  Completely, completely, they are, absolutely. Which brings us very neatly to the Americans. So Eisenhower was flying to an election rally in Richmond, Virginia, when he got news of the invasion. He could not believe it. He was absolutely furious. He did not lie doggo, as Harold Macmillan said he would. Eisenhower said to his Secretary of State, Dulles, you tell him we're going to apply sanctions, we're going to the United Nations, we're going to do everything that there is to stop this thing. Now, this was when he knew the Israelis were attacking Egypt. He didn't even know the British were involved at this stage. Next day, he found out and he just, it blew his mind. He said, nothing justifies them double crossing us. Of course, he's got a huge dilemma now.

• 34:49Dominic Sandbrook?

  Election Day in America is the 6th of November. It looks like he's going to win, but you can't be sure. Opinion polling is a sort of relatively primitive science in the 1950s. Eisenhower is campaigning as the candidate of peace and prosperity. Britain and France, on the other hand, are his closest allies in Europe. They're key players in NATO. To abandon them would be a big step. And yet, if he backs them, he drives the whole Arab world, the whole of the Middle East, into the arms of the Soviet Union. And that would basically mean, you know, all that oil, all that strategic position, you know, is part of the communist world. So what is he going to do? Now, really interestingly, Eisenhower said afterwards,

• 35:32Dominic Sandbrook?

  if Britain and France had got this done within like a day or two days and presented him with a fait accompli, he'd have probably gone along with it. This is Eisenhower in 1964. Had they done it quickly, we would have accepted it, there would have been no great crisis. But, you know, I made the comparison with Austria-Hungary in 1914. Being really slow is a bad mistake. This whole thing is so protracted. So for the reasons of optics, the British, the British decided their fleet wouldn't sail from Malta until after they'd issued the ultimatum. Of course, because they don't want to look as like they're preparing for war before the ultimatum is, is rejected.

• 36:12Dominic Sandbrook?

  But what that meant is even after they wiped out NASA's air force, they still couldn't land troops until the 5th of November. And so there's loads of time for international opposition to mount, especially at the United Nations. And what they never anticipated was that the Americans would be leading a lot of that opposition. So on the 30th of October, as early as 30th of October, the US ambassador introduces a resolution in the Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and for no external powers to get involved between Egypt and Israel. That's a huge problem for Britain and France. They have to veto this resolution and they have the embarrassment

• 36:52Dominic Sandbrook?

  that they have vetoed a resolution that both the Americans and the Soviet Union have supported.

• 37:00Dominic Sandbrook?

  Two days later, John Foster Dulles personally introduces a ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly of the United Nations. And this is excruciating for Britain and France because Dulles says in front of the world, Britain and France are our oldest allies, but on this occasion, they're totally out of order and we don't support them. And the result for Britain and France is a total humiliation. So the only countries that vote against Dulles's resolution are Britain, France, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. So effectively, I mean, fair blades to the Australians and the New Zealanders. But effectively, Britain, France and Israel are alone. They've been ostracised in the eyes of the world.

• 37:44Dominic Sandbrook?

  So this is what's happening in New York. And at home, it's all kicking off as well. So Hugh Gateskill, who would seem like he might support military action a couple of months ago, on the 1st of November, he brings a vote of censure against the government, which is a very punchy thing to do in wartime. He says to Eden in the Commons, everybody knows you've colluded in this, you can't fool people. This, you've obviously been conspiring with the French and Israelis. You're destroying the Commonwealth, destroying the alliance with the Americans. All this, this massive pandemonium in the House of Commons. Labour MPs are shouting at Eden, saying he's a liar. Tories are shouting at Gateskill, they're saying he's a traitor, that he's a coward who never wore a uniform in the Second World War. And so he has no right to criticise other people.

• 38:29Dominic Sandbrook?

  The Speaker actually has to suspend the sitting because MPs are so close to coming to blows. This is before the days of broadcasting, so the public never get to see it. And all this is piling pressure on Eden, because of course Eden's self-image, he sees himself as the perfect gentleman. You know, he always does the right thing, perfect manners, all that, lovely moustache. And so when he does go on TV on the 3rd of November, it's a very, very earnest, defensive sort of, um, almost apologetic performance. There's no hint of the let the crybabies howl spirit. It's, it's quite diverse. Tom, would you like to give us your answer to Eden again?

• 39:12Tom Holland?

  All my life, I have been a man of peace, working for peace, striving for peace, negotiating for peace. And I am still the same man with the same convictions. But I am utterly convinced that the action we have taken is right.

• 39:33Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah. He says, the only reason we're going in, and this is so disingenuous, is because the United Nations couldn't organise it in time. If the United Nations will take over the police action, we shall welcome it. Now, he's obviously thinking the UN will never get their act together. We'll be able to get this done and dusted before the UN can do anything. We shall see about this. It's pretty obvious now that he is, Eden is really shocked and he's coming in the great personal sort of, had physical strain. The next day, which is Sunday the 4th of November, The Observer, which was the sort of voice of liberal metropolitan educated Britain. The Observer ran an editorial which would have been unimaginable in the Second World War.

• 40:19Dominic Sandbrook?

  It says the British and French governments have behaved like gangsters. They've shown total folly and crookedness and Eden has got to go. That afternoon ministers arrive for their, an emergency cabinet meeting and they can hear Eden upstairs. He's pacing up and down his study and he is talking presumably to himself, just talking incessantly. And then he comes downstairs and they're all shocked how sort of drawn and tired he looks. Obviously he's not been sleeping. And while they're meeting, there's an anti-war demonstration taking place in Trafalgar Square, being addressed by an iron Bevan, the great kind of Labour firebrand. And they can hear the crowd kind of cheering and booing and chanting Eden must go.

• 41:04Dominic Sandbrook?

  And all of this kind of thing while they're in the cabinet meeting. Now Eden has just had some very bad news in the UN. He shares this with his cabinet. The Canadians have just introduced a resolution calling from a UN peacekeeping force. The Americans have backed it and it has passed. Now, this is a huge problem for Eden. Eden had made that hollow offer. Yeah, we'd love it if the UN came in. He didn't think they would and he thought it would take ages to organise. And now it's going to happen and it's been organised by the Canadians and the Americans. So it would look really bad for him to oppose it. And he now has a massive dilemma because basically this is the cabinet meeting to press the button to launch the invasion. So he's got a dilemma.

• 41:48Dominic Sandbrook?

  Does he launch the invasion or does he not? He says to his colleagues, well, I think we should, we've got to go through with it now. We could maybe sell this to the world as the first stage of a UN peacekeeping effort. If we attack Egypt first. Lloyd and Macmillan both support him. But now for the first time, there's a proper split in the British cabinet. So four ministers say, actually, we should probably postpone this. And two of them say, this is actually turning into disaster. Let's call the whole thing off. So they take a break. It's very tense. And then the news comes that Israel has refused to accept a ceasefire. So Israel has kind of bailed them out. It's going to be very hard for the UN to send in peacekeepers if Israel are not abiding to the ceasefire.

• 42:31Dominic Sandbrook?

  So they like, brilliant, we can use this as a pretext to go in. And they're cheering and laughing and banging the table in relief. And they say, come on, let's do this. So that evening Eden writes another message to Eisenhower and that's the message you read in the introduction. Casting Nasser as a Muslim Mussolini and all this stuff. And he ends with that note, asking Eisenhower to remember when we were comrades together in the war. History alone can judge whether we have made the right decision. But Tom, will it? We're about to find out because at dawn, the next morning, the British and French are going to launch their peacekeeping defence of world security.

• 43:13Dominic Sandbrook?

  Or to put it another way, they're going to invade Egypt in a nakedly colonial operation. And we will find out what happens after the break.

• 43:32Speaker 03

  Hi everyone, it's Catty Kay here from The Rest is Politics US. The midterms are almost here. It's the biggest political moment of the year and Anthony Scaramucci and I will be right there with you, making sense of every twist and turn as the results come in.

• 43:46Speaker 04

  Yo, that's right, we're going to be live on YouTube covering the midterms as we get the results. Will Donald Trump be a lame duck for the next two years? Or walk away with a mandate to do whatever he wants? We're about to find out.

• 44:01Speaker 03

  So join us from midnight to 3am Eastern Time on November the 4th. We'll be live reacting to all of the results as they come in. That's 5am to 8am if you're listening in the UK.

• 44:12Speaker 04

  So make sure you're subscribed to The Rest is Politics US on YouTube and turn on notifications, please. You won't want to miss this.

• 44:23Speaker 05

  Stay cosy and look cool with up to 60% off cold weather gear at Nordstrom Rack. Save on cashmere, outerwear, boots and more from brands like Ugg, Vans, Kohan and Hunter. Join the Nordy Club for free to unlock exclusive discounts, shop clearance and new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favourite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack.

• 44:51Speaker 02

  When it comes to my policy, Farmers gives it to me straight. So there's no surprises.

• 44:56Speaker 06

  It's your coverage, you should never be confused.

• 44:59Speaker 02

  You hear that? An insurance provider with a conscience.

• 45:02Speaker 06

  We're a choir, but yes, we have that too.

• 45:05Speaker 02

  Straightforward coverage you can literally understand. That's what you get when.

• 45:10Speaker 06

  You have Farmers.

• 45:14Speaker 04

  Learn more at Farmers.com. Underwritten by Farmers Truck or Fire Insurance Exchanges or Affiliate. Products not available in every state.

• 45:24Dominic Sandbrook?

  Hello everyone and welcome back to The Rest is History where it is 5am on Monday, the 5th of November, 1956. And dawn is breaking on the coast of Egypt. And as it does so, some 700 British paratroopers are descending onto the El Gamil airfield, which is west of Port Said. And they come under immediate machine gun fire from the, the Egyptian defenders who are camped out in a nearby cemetery. But they dig in and they call in airstrikes. And by evening, they have killed 30 Egyptian defenders and fought their way into the cemetery. And essentially it's looking good for them and for the French, right as well. Yeah, very good. So they fought their way across this airfield.

• 46:09Dominic Sandbrook?

  Meanwhile, the French, their paratroopers have landed south of Port Said. They capture the main road, they capture a water plant, they capture a railway bridge. The French are, you know, they're pretty hard. They've been hardened in Algeria and they, reports said later, they machine gunned every living thing in their path as they advanced. So by nightfall, the British and French have lost only 32 men and the Egyptians have already lost about 2000. And meanwhile, that day, the 5th of November, Eisenhower has had a message from the Kremlin. Now, the Kremlin themselves dealing with two massive things. So one of them is Egypt and the other of course is Hungary, which we'll talk about next week. Nikita Khrushchev basically is threatening to get stuck in himself.

• 46:53Dominic Sandbrook?

  He's actually suggested to the Americans, why don't we both go in? What could go wrong? And joint American Soviet peacekeepers. And this is of course, I mean Eisenhower, you know, the blood drains from his face when he hears this. He says to his aides, if those fellows start something, we may have to hit them if necessary with everything in the bucket. I mean effectively meaning nuclear war. So Eisenhower puts the US Sixth Fleet, which is in the Mediterranean on full alert. And he orders the US Navy to prepare to implement its emergency war plans. I mean, this is a serious business now. The next morning, Tuesday, the 6th, the British and French resume the attack. The fleet hammering the Egyptian coastal defences. And then they begin to land hundreds of Royal Marines.

• 47:37Dominic Sandbrook?

  So 40 and 42 commando in amphibious landing vehicles and 45 commando in the world's first major helicopter assault. I didn't know this. So that's a British first. British first, yeah. We recently had the first use of Carkey, didn't we? In the Abyssinian Expedition. And yet again, Britain is leading the world. So that's nice. So it's going, it goes really smoothly. The Marines are really up for it. They've been waiting for weeks. It was one said later, we were in great heart, we were very fit, we were well equipped and confident. They move into Port Said. It's incredibly chaotic scene. There's machine gun fire, there's mortars, there's helicopters and planes buzzing overhead.

• 48:19Dominic Sandbrook?

  The Egyptians are fighting back, the city's on fire, smoke everywhere. The civilians are hiding in their buildings. But by mid afternoon, the British troops have moved into the city centre. They've got the main roads, they've got the main buildings. And by nightfall, the gunfire is dying down. So, you know, within hours, they've achieved one of their key objectives. Meanwhile, two Para and the Sixth Royal Tank Regiment have moved off south from Port Said, down the canal. So if you imagine these long kind of roads heading south into the desert. Because their job is to get as far as they can, secure as much of the canal as you can, as quickly as you can. And they are trundling along in their tanks.

• 49:03Dominic Sandbrook?

  They're totally unchallenged by Egyptian resistance. They're drinking whiskey, you know, to sort of fortify themselves against the night air. They actually cannot believe how well this is going.

• 49:14Dominic Sandbrook?

  And they're about 23 miles south of Port Said, when suddenly the lead tanks grind to a halt and the whole column stops. They cannot understand why and they ask and their commander says, we've just had word from headquarters, the Americans have stopped the advance. So what has happened? The answer is that under economic pressure, Anthony Eden and above all Harold Macmillan have cracked. So as late as the Sunday, which is two days earlier, Macmillan was still very gung ho. And he was still insisting, you know, when we've won this, that will turn around the fortunes of the pound.

• 49:56Dominic Sandbrook?

  But the pressure has been mounting, so the Saudis have announced their oil embargo, the Syrians have cut off a crucial pipeline. And all the time, the Treasury is spending more and more money, $100 million in reserves to try to protect the value of the pound. But by the night of the fifth, Macmillan's officials have persuaded him, this cannot continue. The pound is going to tank, we're going to run out of reserves. You actually need to pick up the phone and talk to the Americans and get credit from them, short term credit, and get their approval for a loan from the International Monetary Fund to allow us to support the value of our currency. So the next morning, the sixth, while, you know, the fighting is going on in Egypt, two things happen.

• 50:42Dominic Sandbrook?

  First of all, Macmillan rings Washington and he speaks to the US Treasury Secretary. And he says, you know, my dear fellow, will you back a loan from the IMF? And the US Treasury Secretary says, sure, I will. If you'll agree to a ceasefire at Suez before midnight, you've got till midnight to agree to a ceasefire. Now, that's the other thing. Eden is on the phone to New York, to Britain's ambassador to the United Nations. And the ambassador says, I've got really bad news for you. The Americans are preparing a resolution to impose oil sanctions on Britain and France if we don't stop fighting. And when they hear that, they think, oh my God, this is falling apart. Macmillan supposedly, when he heard the news from the United Nations, he threw his arms

• 51:26Dominic Sandbrook?

  in the air and he said, oil sanctions, that finishes it. So at 9:45 that morning, they went into Cabinet and Eden outlined the situation to his colleagues. And then Selwyn Lloyd, who had been, you know, so faithful for so long, said to the others, look, if we don't stop now, we're going to blurt the alliance with America forever. You know, this is, this is, it's now or never. And then of all people, the most shameless person in British politics, Harold Macmillan, who had been all for it a few days earlier, this is going to revive our national fortunes. He says, well, of course we have to stop. He says, if we don't have this loan from the IMF, we're going to have to devalue the pound and basically blow up our own economy.

• 52:07Dominic Sandbrook?

  And so as quickly and as simply as that, the whole thing falls apart and it's all over. They announce a ceasefire for five o'clock British time, which is night time in Egypt.

• 52:20Dominic Sandbrook?

  Eden goes to the House of Commons and he, he tries to put a brave face on it. He says, our operation has been a triumphant success.

• 52:28Tom Holland?

  Comical ally.

• 52:30Dominic Sandbrook?

  Thanks to our brave boys, the two sides, Egypt and Israel, have stopped fighting. The UN are following our lead and so on and so forth. But everybody knows this is a sham. There was a journalist watching from the gallery who said, Eden looked like a broken man. His hands twitched at his horn rimmed spectacles. The face was grey, except for a black rimmed cavern surrounded the dying embers of his eyes. The whole personality seemed completely withdrawn. But unfortunately for Eden, his ordeal, his punishment is not over yet. So he asks, can British troops stay in the canal zone and be part of the UN peacekeeping force? Because it would be very embarrassing for them to have to slink back home, having gone in and now come out again.

• 53:12Dominic Sandbrook?

  And Eisenhower says, no, you have to withdraw immediately, all your troops. If you don't, we will veto the IMF loan. In fact, if you don't, we will start selling our own reserves of sterling and that will trigger an immediate devaluation of the British pound. And when Macmillan hears this, he says to Eden, well, we absolutely have to give in. If we don't get American support, the pound will cease to be an international currency. I mean, really, Macmillan's always very apocalyptic. So there's a bit of dithering over the next couple of weeks, but on the third of December, Selwyn Lloyd goes to the House of Commons. He says, the operation has gone actually so well that every last British soldier is now being brought back home.

• 53:55Dominic Sandbrook?

  And it is a crushing humiliation for the Tories. And it's made worse because this Labour opposite number, Nairan Bevan, played it absolutely brilliantly. Bevan was given to these long rants and he could have done a long rant, but he gave a very brief reply. And then he said, given the obvious embarrassment of the government, I feel I would be a bully if I proceeded any further. And then he just kind of sits down and it's just utterly crushing for Lloyd. Not for Eden though, because Eden by this stage is not around. He's left the country.

• 54:28Tom Holland?

  He's gone on a holiday, hasn't he?

• 54:31Dominic Sandbrook?

  He's effectively gone on holiday. So basically, everything you ever read about this, or a lot of what you read, says Eden at this point is massive, is just off his face on painkillers and amphetamines. He's addicted to benzodrine. And I think this is just not true. So his official biographer, Dr Thorpe, is the only person who's seen his medical records, which are at Birmingham University, and has looked at them and said, this is just rubbish. He was prescribed sleeping pills later, but he wasn't taking them at this point. What is true is that he is very haggard, he's very depressed, he's got this kind of permanent fever and he can't sleep. And on the 19th of November, Eden's doctors said to him, if you don't get some rest, you're going to kill yourself.

• 55:17Dominic Sandbrook?

  So four days later, the government announced that Eden was taking a break. He was going to leave Macmillan and Rab Butler to run the government while he was away. And of all things, he had accepted an offer from Ian Fleming to go on holiday to Ian Fleming's house, GoldenEye in Jamaica. The name of the house, obviously inspiring the Pierce Brosnan Bond film. So the optics of this, I mean, you know, it's a pre-spin age, but you could not imagine worse optics, that basically the Prime Minister's gone off to the house of the bloke who writes the James Bond books, sunning himself in Jamaica, while our troops are still being

• 56:02Dominic Sandbrook?

  brought home from Port Said. I mean, it looks terrible. So the Daily Mirror ran a brilliant competition. You know, you send in your suggestions on how to get our brave boys home and the prize is a three week holiday for two in Jamaica. And the other amusing contribution was from Churchill's son Randolph. Randolph Churchill, who's a terrible person, he hated Eden with a passion. I think he was jealous of him, frankly. And he wrote an article in The Guardian comparing Eden with Hitler. And he said, the difference between them, the difference between them is when the Germans were trapped at Stalingrad, even Hitler drew the line at wintering in Jamaica.

• 56:43Tom Holland?

  I've got to say, that's a banger.

• 56:45Dominic Sandbrook?

  It is a good line. So Eden should undoubtedly have resigned then. He didn't. He wanted to fight on. He came back to, to London on the 14th of December. He's very tanned because he's been enjoying the Jamaican sunshine.

• 56:59Tom Holland?

  Crisis, what crisis?

• 57:01Dominic Sandbrook?

  He read a very bland statement. I'm glad to be home, whatever. His first draft of this statement, which was sort of unrepentant defence of the operation attacking Cairo, Washington and Moscow, had been vetoed by his Cabinet colleagues who said, this is, this is mad. And there was an excellent headline in one paper, Prime Minister visits Britain.

• 57:22Tom Holland?

  Yeah, that's great as well.

• 57:23Dominic Sandbrook?

  So Eden made one last appearance in the House of Commons just before Christmas and it was a very sad, in fact, a dreadful appearance. It was a debate about, you know, the situation in the Middle East. He is directly challenged about whether he conspired with Israel and France. And he does the one thing that you can never do, you know, that's a resigning offence in British politics. He tells an outright lie on the floor of the Commons. He says, there were no plans to get together to attack Egypt. There was no foreknowledge that Israel would attack Egypt. And when does the truth come out? Um, it's alleged when Nutting writes his, Nutting writes a memoir a few years later. I think it's kind of common knowledge within years, within just a few years.

• 58:08Dominic Sandbrook?

  I mean, frankly, everybody knows it's the case at this point, you know, people are not idiots. So those are the last words that Eden never said in the House of Commons. It's a pretty terrible way for his parliamentary career to end. Because just after Christmas, his doctors, he sees his doctors and his doctors say to him, if you carry on as Prime Minister, it will kill you. You know, you're not sleeping, you've got this fever, you, you just need a proper break and going to GoldenEye for a couple of weeks will not cut it. Later, there are loads of conspiracy theories, the Americans had forced him out because of the Suez crisis and so on. I don't think that's true. I think the medical explanation is actually perfectly true. His wife, Clarissa, said later, he left because he just wanted to stay alive.

• 58:51Dominic Sandbrook?

  So on the 9th of January, he told the Cabinet that he was off, he went to see the Queen straight away. And then he went on another holiday. And this holiday was a cruise to New Zealand, so a massive cruise. And the mad fact about this, he became on this cruise, great friends with the guy who was his cabin steward. And the guy who was his cabin steward was the future Labour Deputy Prime Minister.

• 59:16Tom Holland?

  Oh, John Prescott.

• 59:17Dominic Sandbrook?

  John Prescott.

• 59:18Tom Holland?

  And they got on well.

• 59:19Dominic Sandbrook?

  They got on very well, apparently. I saw an interview with John Prescott, John Prescott, they said, what did you say to him? What did you call him? I called him sir. What did you used to say to him? I used to say, a cup of tea, sir, or whatever.

• 59:30Tom Holland?

  So they didn't discuss Persian poetry or anything?

• 59:32Dominic Sandbrook?

  They didn't discuss Persian poetry. Do you remember how John Prescott in 2001 punched that bloke?

• 59:37Tom Holland?

  Yes, the bloke with the mullet.

• 59:39Dominic Sandbrook?

  The bloke with the mullet.

• 59:40Tom Holland?

  Who threw an egg at him.

• 59:41Dominic Sandbrook?

  Threw an egg at him and he punched him in the face. Antony Blair said, what can you do? John is John. And it wasn't such a big story after all for the Deputy Prime Minister to punch someone in the face. They had boxing matches on this boat and Prescott would take part in them and Eden would present, you know, here's the former Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, and he would present a bottle of beer to the winner of the boxing match and it was John Prescott. Prescott was the prize pugilist.

• 1:00:06Tom Holland?

  I bet the bloke who threw the egg wished he'd known that.

• 1:00:09Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, of course.

• 1:00:10Tom Holland?

  The bloke with the egg was taking on a man who'd been decorated by Sir Anthony Eden for his boxing.

• 1:00:14Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, insane. So after that, Eden didn't die, well, he did die eventually, but he didn't die straight away. He, he vanished from politics pretty much completely. The break worked. He retired.

• 1:00:26Tom Holland?

  To Alvedistan.

• 1:00:27Dominic Sandbrook?

  Exactly.

• 1:00:28Tom Holland?

  Where he was looked after by Dr Brown.

• 1:00:30Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, and he lived, he, well, he was looked after by Dr Brown until 1977, when he died at the age of 79.

• 1:00:38Tom Holland?

  His tomb is in the churchyard at Alvedistan.

• 1:00:40Dominic Sandbrook?

  Is it really?

• 1:00:41Tom Holland?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:42Dominic Sandbrook?

  So the good news for him is, you know, it saved his health. The bad news is he's generally considered the worst Prime Minister of the 20th century because of this catastrophic error. And I think there's something quite sad about his story. I feel sorry for Sir Anthony Eden. I think he, he was a prisoner of circumstance to some degree. I think, you know, he's, he's, he's trapped by the pressures of a declining empire. He's also trapped, I think, by his own past.

• 1:01:04Tom Holland?

  As an anti-apaiser.

• 1:01:05Dominic Sandbrook?

  As an anti-apaiser, somebody who'd resisted the dictators.

• 1:01:09Tom Holland?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:09Dominic Sandbrook?

  And also I think he's obviously in terrible health. You know, he's had these three operations.

• 1:01:13Tom Holland?

  Do you think that in the war, I mean, the, the habit of using military force just becomes something that you take for granted?

• 1:01:19Dominic Sandbrook?

  Possibly. And an assumption that the, of the ally, of the, taking the special relationship as it were for granted.

• 1:01:24Tom Holland?

  Yeah, if it needs to be, you can send in the, send in the troops or whatever.

• 1:01:28Dominic Sandbrook?

  It's a shame for him because he should be remembered for his excellent moustache and his Persian poetry in his suits.

• 1:01:35Tom Holland?

  Well, in my heart, he always is.

• 1:01:37Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah. But I think for a lot of people, he's regarded as the personification of British decline, which is sad.

• 1:01:42Tom Holland?

  He, he appeared in Le Chagrin et la Pitié, that incredible documentary.

• 1:01:48Dominic Sandbrook?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:01:49Tom Holland?

  About the, about the resistance or the lack of the resistance. And he was filmed in his garden at Alvedistan, speaking in glorious conversational French, the absolute image of a suave, relaxed ex-prime minister.

• 1:02:03Dominic Sandbrook?

  If he's going to be rehabilitated, the rest is history, it's going to be part of it. Now, on the rehabilitation, you sometimes see the argument that he should have just carried on. So this is what, first of all, Churchill said. Churchill said, "I'm not sure I should have dared to start, but I'm sure I should not have dared to stop." But obviously Churchill has on his copybook an absolutely ludicrous Mediterranean failure, which is Gallipoli, in which he didn't stop and he should have stopped. So there's that. And then also Clement Attlee said the same thing, actually. "If you've broken the eggs, you should make the omelette," said Attlee. Always a little bit more terse than Churchill, but basically saying the same thing. But I think this is mad on two levels.

• 1:02:46Dominic Sandbrook?

  And I'll just explain why people are interested in Suez Crisis what-ifs. Imagine that Britain had gone through with it and had continued, Britain and France. They'd have destroyed the British economy. They'd have tanked people's living standards. They'd destroyed forever the alliance with the Americans. And in return, they'd have got the Suez Canal.

• 1:03:05Tom Holland?

  Yeah, which was, which they got out of two years before.

• 1:03:08Dominic Sandbrook?

  Right.

• 1:03:09Tom Holland?

  Because it was so awful.

• 1:03:11Dominic Sandbrook?

  I mean, it's probably the best canal.

• 1:03:16Dominic Sandbrook?

  But who cares?

• 1:03:17Tom Holland?

  Well, the Panama Canal.

• 1:03:18Dominic Sandbrook?

  I mean, Panama Canal is a good canal. I'm not, I'm not knocking the Panama Canal for the Penny Manian listeners, but I think I'd rather have the Suez Canal. I think the Suez Canal is brilliant.

• 1:03:25Tom Holland?

  Have the Kennet and Avon Canal.

• 1:03:27Dominic Sandbrook?

  Right, exactly. The flipping Manchester to Stockport Canal or some early pioneering.

• 1:03:33Tom Holland?

  There are some great canals around and I think some of them are easier to get hold of.

• 1:03:36Dominic Sandbrook?

  Well, we own a lot of them already, surely. We lead the world in canals. Why don't we need another one? What always blows my mind about Suez, what was, what did they ever think the end game would look like? So as you said, if they just retake the canal.

• 1:03:51Tom Holland?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:51Dominic Sandbrook?

  Then they're back where they were two years ago. They've got this massive canal, massive military base and everyone attacking them.

• 1:03:56Tom Holland?

  I suppose they have the, it was Lord Cromer, wasn't it? Who, who was, I mean, he wasn't officially running Egypt, but he was basically.

• 1:04:03Dominic Sandbrook?

  Sir Evelyn Behring.

• 1:04:04Tom Holland?

  Yeah, that they send in a Lord Cromer figure who will knock heads together and make sure that everything's shipshape.

• 1:04:11Dominic Sandbrook?

  So that raises the other possibility, right? To do that though, what you have to do, you have to get, you have to go with, along with the French idea and get rid of Nasser. That's what the French want to do. The French plan appears to be, when you think it through, they're going to lay siege to Cairo.

• 1:04:26Tom Holland?

  Occupy Cairo. They're already having a crack at the Algerians. Let's have a crack at the Egyptians as well.

• 1:04:33Dominic Sandbrook?

  The French can't even win Algeria. They can't even win in Algeria, which is part of France. How could they possibly believe that they could conquer Cairo and Alexandria and subdue Egypt?

• 1:04:46Tom Holland?

  I can only imagine that it's kind of imperialist muscle memory.

• 1:04:49Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:50Tom Holland?

  Because it's within what, I mean, it's, they were administering Egypt in the, in the Second World War.

• 1:04:56Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:56Tom Holland?

  They won the Battle of Al-Ahman there. They were a great military power and they assumed that even though they knew that wasn't the case, in their gut, they still felt that it was. I, it's the only thing I can imagine would explain it. Because I agree, it is mad.

• 1:05:14Dominic Sandbrook?

  I mean, the French have absolutely no excuse because they've just lost Vietnam. They're, they're in the middle of losing in Algeria and they're like, well, the obvious thing to do is invade an even bigger country.

• 1:05:25Tom Holland?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:25Dominic Sandbrook?

  And take that as well. So Eden made a fool of himself and off he goes. He should have taken on the chin. That's what I think he should have done. I understand why he didn't because he felt weak, but he should have done.

• 1:05:35Tom Holland?

  Dominic, are there, am I not right that there have been journalists and columnists since Trump launched his war against Iran?

• 1:05:45Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:45Tom Holland?

  Who have said, actually Eisenhower made a terrible mistake and he should have backed Britain and France and everything would be much better if he, they had done.

• 1:05:53Dominic Sandbrook?

  I don't understand that argument at all.

• 1:05:55Tom Holland?

  I suppose the argument is that the Americans kneecapped British and French ability to protect power in the Middle East. And if they hadn't done that, then everything would be tickety-boo.

• 1:06:09Dominic Sandbrook?

  I just think that's wrong. I think British and French power in the Middle East was ebbing anyway. And the idea that by attacking Egypt and taking it over, you would somehow become more respected and loved across the Arab world, I think is, it's a definite.

• 1:06:20Tom Holland?

  I hear you. I hear you.

• 1:06:21Dominic Sandbrook?

  So anyway, the person who succeeds Anthony Eden is of course the other big Suez culprit, Harold Macmillan. He'd basically had a shocker at Suez. He'd completely misread Eisenhower. He'd misread the economy. He was the first to scuttle when it all went wrong. But the Tories pick him because they think he can rebuild the American relationship and because he's such a showman. They sort of pick him in the same spirit in which they picked Boris Johnson in 2019. And it actually worked because he did win the next election for them.

• 1:06:48Tom Holland?

  And Britain never had it so good.

• 1:06:50Dominic Sandbrook?

  Britain never had it so good, exactly. As for the other, everybody else, Nasser obviously makes him a massive hero, untouchable, sort of personification of Pan-Arab nationalism, big hero across the Middle East. He died of a heart attack, aged 52 in 1970. He was a massive smoker and I think he had diabetes. Eisenhower won his landslide and actually as Britain withdraws from the Middle East, Eisenhower does succeed to some extent. So that he issued the Eisenhower Doctrine, which was that any Middle Eastern country threatened by communism could ask for American aid. Israel, Israel, you could argue, are some of the big winners of the Suez Crisis.

• 1:07:35Tom Holland?

  Yeah, they got what they wanted. They destroyed all the Egyptian planes.

• 1:07:37Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, they destroyed some, the Egyptian military. They basically got 10 years apiece and they can build up their military for the next round against Nasser, which is the six-day war in 1967. Now, finally, I think the French, the French were furious with Britain for calling off the operation. The French are still insisting that, you know, just a couple more days and we'll be at the gates of Cairo.

• 1:08:02Dominic Sandbrook?

  And so the French draw two conclusions. Number one, we need our own military capability to defend French interests. And so that maybe means outside NATO. And of course, De Gaulle pulls them out of the NATO Joint Command in 1966. And then the other thing, the French say, well, we can't trust Britain. Britain will always put the Americans before us. And as a result of that, the French end up sort of moving away from Britain and moving closer to West Germany. So Konrad Adenauer said to Guimondé after Suez, "Europe will be your revenge." And by which he means your revenge on the British for betraying you at Suez. So just a couple more thoughts before we finish.

• 1:08:45Dominic Sandbrook?

  The two things you often hear about Suez are, number one, it ends the British Empire. Number two, it's a massive national humiliation and very traumatic for Britain. And I think both of these are totally and utterly wrong. So first of all, it definitely is bad for Britain's image. So Eisenhower said to his speechwriter, "I've never seen a great power make such a complete mess and botch of things. There's nobody in a war I'd rather have fighting alongside me than the British. But this thing, my God." But I think actually in practical terms, this does not, it might be bad for Britain's image, but it doesn't end the British Empire at all. It's not a cause of Britain's retreat, it's a symptom of it. So, you know, India's gone, Africa is going.

• 1:09:30Dominic Sandbrook?

  If I can quote a top historian, Tom, of 1950s Britain. British imperial power had been ebbing for decades. Suez simply demonstrated it powerfully and incontrovertibly to the world.

• 1:09:41Tom Holland?

  That's from Never Had It So Good.

• 1:09:42Dominic Sandbrook?

  That's from myself. Yeah, I'm quoting myself, which is nice. Both Selwyn Lloyd and Eden after the operation, both said Suez didn't change Britain's power. Like, our powers are on the way out anyway.

• 1:09:55Tom Holland?

  So why were they doing it? Mad.

• 1:09:57Dominic Sandbrook?

  As a sort of desperate last flail to try and get their power back, I think. Now, do you want a bit of Sandbrook Bingo? Surely you do.

• 1:10:04Tom Holland?

  Yes, I would love some, and ideally if it involves washing machines.

• 1:10:08Dominic Sandbrook?

  It does. So people sometimes say Suez was a massive national trauma, national humiliation. I think that is absolute bilge. So there's an imperial historian called Ronald Hyam. I'm not dissing Ronald Hyam, he may be a brilliant person. He wrote, "Suez completely shattered the automatic trust and confidence of younger generations in the good faith and honesty of their governments." I just think that's just not true.

• 1:10:31Tom Holland?

  Can I read what you said?

• 1:10:32Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:33Tom Holland?

  This might be true of some polo neck people.

• 1:10:38Tom Holland?

  Polo neck people, the worst kind of people.

• 1:10:42Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, yeah, but, but.

• 1:10:44Tom Holland?

  Scum.

• 1:10:46Dominic Sandbrook?

  Wouldn't say scum, I would just say polo neck people are not real people, what can I say?

• 1:10:51Tom Holland?

  Okay, this is Sandbrook Bingo.

• 1:10:53Dominic Sandbrook?

  Yeah, so a minority of people are dressed in polo necks and they think Suez is terrible and they're very stressed about it for years to come. Most people, they think about Suez while it's in the news, then when it's out of the news, they don't care because you know what they're doing.

• 1:11:05Tom Holland?

  I do. They're buying washing machines.

• 1:11:08Dominic Sandbrook?

  They are buying washing machines.

• 1:11:10Tom Holland?

  And this is their energies.

• 1:11:12Dominic Sandbrook?

  Massively transformative. Well, the washing machine, as you know, is what caused women's liberation in the 1960s and 1970s.

• 1:11:18Tom Holland?

  Yes, I do.

• 1:11:19Dominic Sandbrook?

  So because they're buying washing machines and new TVs, that's brilliant. They look back on, when people say, what did you think in 1956? They think, they say, washing machines, Elvis Presley, muffin the mule. Was there something in the Middle East? I can't remember. That, I think, is what most people think of it. And the proof of that, because people will be saying, this is just vibes from Sandbrook, he doesn't know what he's talking about. They're wrong, I have proof. The proof of that is that in October 1959, when Harold Macmillan, Selwyn Lloyd and all the guilty men of Suez go to the country, you know, standing for reelection, Suez is not an issue at all and they win 100 seat majority. So the British people look at them and they say, you did make a massive haulix in the Middle East, on the other hand, I have a new washing machine.

• 1:12:06Tom Holland?

  So are you saying that this entire two episode series has basically been a waste of time because it has no impact at all?

• 1:12:12Dominic Sandbrook?

  No, I think the big impact is on Britain's relationship with America. Because actually, there's a little bit of anti-Americanism after Suez. So Tory MPs signed a resolution condemning the Americans for endangering the Atlantic Alliance, but that doesn't really go anywhere, it's a red herring. Actually, the important thing is that in the corridors of power, Britain people said, this must never, ever happen again. An internal Foreign Office report on Suez, "It was the action of the United States which really defeated us. The situation with the United States must at all costs be prevented from arising again." And so for Harold Macmillan, I think for Harold Wilson, his successor, and for subsequent British prime ministers, sucking up to the Americans and staying as

• 1:12:55Dominic Sandbrook?

  close to them as possible becomes a guiding principle of Britain's attitude to the world.

• 1:13:01Tom Holland?

  I mean, even for Keir Starmer was doing it. Even, even Burnham had to go and squirm on the seat next to Trump.

• 1:13:08Dominic Sandbrook?

  Exactly. Now, you could say, this is just real politik, it's just an acknowledgement of where power lies in the world. Or you could say it's the kind of knee jerks of servants to Washington and we could pursue a more independent policy if we wanted to. The net result of it, of course, is that it makes it much more difficult for British politicians to throw themselves wholeheartedly into the European project. Their sort of emotional energies are divided and they're putting so much effort into the American relationship. Macmillan, shameless, devious, but always far sighted, wrote to Selwyn Lloyd in 1959, "One of the basic reasons why we cannot integrate with Europe is our desire to maintain a special relationship with the United States."

• 1:13:51Tom Holland?

  And yet, he keeps applying for membership of the common market, doesn't he? And keeps getting vetoed by his old mucker, Charles de Gaulle, with whom he'd been the liaison officer in North Africa. Ne plaire pas, my lord.

• 1:14:08Dominic Sandbrook?

  Exactly. Which brings us to Charles de Gaulle, the man who, you know, your great hero. So, Charles de Gaulle was out of office in France in 1956. He never said anything publicly about Suez at all. But he did make one remark in private to a confidant that summer, before the military action even started, which tells you everything you need to know about Charles de Gaulle. He said, "The English will accept a compromise which will allow them to save face. The Americans will not act and you will see that once again it is us, the French, who will carry the cost of the operation. But what can one do? De Gaulle was not there." And that sums him up perfectly. So, Tom, that's the Suez crisis.

• 1:14:54Dominic Sandbrook?

  But there is one thing we haven't brought out and do you want to tell everybody what that is?

• 1:14:58Tom Holland?

  Well, I think we have actually, I mean, we've certainly alluded to it and that is the fact that while the Suez crisis is breaking, so also is another crisis. And that is the incredibly dramatic and tragic story of the Hungarian Revolution against Soviet occupation and its suppression by the Red Army, which is going on while the British and French are kind of landing at Suez. To give a specific example, Sunday, the 4th of November, the day that Eden's cabinet votes to go ahead with the Grand Invasion of Egypt, that is the very same day that Soviet tanks are launching an all out assault on Budapest to crush the revolution. And that, Dominic, is the story that you will be telling next week.

• 1:15:43Tom Holland?

  You will be unfurling your mastery of tongues. The incredible array of weird consonants all jumbled up together will be unfurled by you. So that's something for everyone to look forward to. And Rest is History Club members can hear it right away. So to join them, go to therestishistory.com. But for now, Dominic, Suez crisis is over, Anthony Eden has retired to Alvedistan. Thank you and goodbye.

• 1:16:10Dominic Sandbrook?

  Goodbye.