"I was astonished when somebody showed me some document written by an acquaintance of mine in MI6. I wouldn't have recognised it at all as being anything like British policy, but it was set out as being so. These secret people, you see, they get so above themselves, if I might say so."
Evelyn Shuckburgh, Assistant Under Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs at the Foreign Office in 1956
Suez - The Missing Dimension
Archive Hour Interview Broadcast, BBC Radio 4, 28 October 2006
| BBC RADIO 4 - ARCHIVE HOUR Suez - The Missing Dimension Saturday 28 October 2006 20:02-21:00 (Radio 4 FM) 'Suez - The Missing Dimension' http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archivehour/pip/pvali/ Note: this documentary was
downloadable as an RealAudio file for one week following broadcast at Unofficial Transcript Of Excerpts From BBC
Broadcast Presenter: Professor Scott Lucas
Presenter: On 26 July 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, owned and operated by British and French companies for almost a century. For Britain's Prime Minister Anthony Eden, it was an action that couldn't be tolerated. Eden: "We all know this is how fascist governments behave, and we all remember only too well what the cost can be in giving in to fascism. We cannot agree that an act of plunder, which threatens the livelihood of many nations should be allowed to succeed, and we must make sure that the life of the great trading nations of the world cannot in the future be strangled at any moment by some interruption to the free passage of the canal." Presenter: Three months later after Israel forces invaded Egypt's Sinai peninsula Britain and France bombed Egyptian positions. The operation would end catastrophically for the Eden government. Under pressure from the United States and the United Nations it was forced to cease fire less than 48 hours after landing paratroops in the Suez canal zone. Nasser survived, but it was Eden who fell from power to be succeeded by Harold Macmillan in January 1957... More than thirty years later I interviewed many of the key British participants involved in the Suez crisis - men from the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence, Members of Parliament. Those interviews have never been aired, and some have only recently been declassified. Because the tapes are not of broadcast quality actors have revoiced their words...... This is the standard narrative of Suez: - an arena for the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the emergence of the modern Middle East; a drama featuring an unprecedented collusion between Britain, France, and Israel; and a tragedy in which America's Eisenhower administration would turn against its British ally. Yet fifty years later, there is an even more dramatic tale to be told - a tale of intrigue by Britain's intelligence services to bring about regime change in Egypt. This is what Evelyn Shuckburgh, assistant Under Secretary of State in 1956, confided to me more than thirty years later. Shuckburgh: "You find that people in MI6 were conducting quite separate policies from the Americans, the CIA, quite regardless of what the Foreign Office view was. But I didn't know that existed at the time. I was astonished when somebody showed me some document written by an acquaintance of mine in MI6. I wouldn't have recognised it at all as being anything like British policy, but it was set out as being so. These secret people, you see, they get so above themselves, if I might say so." Presenter: This is also the tale of how one man, Julian Amery, Conservative Member of Parliament, intelligence officer from World War II, and son-in-law of Harold Macmillan, fostered that intrigue - how his meetings with rebellious Tory back-benchers, shadowy Egyptian dissidents, and even King Zog of Albania, led to the disastrous plan that marked the downfall of the British Empire. We begin at the start of 1956 when Amery was a member of the Suez Group, a collection of Conservative MPs who had vehemently opposed the withdrawal of British Troops from the Suez Canal base two years earlier. More than three decades later Amery spoke to me passionately about the group's aspirations... Anthony Eden had been Foreign Secretary when the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1954 was signed. After a long wait he finally succeeded Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in April 1955. Less than a year into his premiership, however, he was in political trouble. The economy was sluggish, and abroad British forces faced an insurgency in Cyprus lead by Archbishop Makarios. Even more importantly, Egypt's president Nasser had refused to join Britain in a new alliance in the Middle East..... William Lakeland was political officer in the American Embassy in Cairo from 1952 until 1955. In a new interview for this documentary he offered his first hand knowledge of Nasser and his ambitions in Egypt. Lakeland: "The national revolution to us looked generally like a good thing. It seemed to be a way of breaking out of the old power-centred mode, and most of the ideas that Nasser expressed, at least to me or that I became aware of, sounded quite reasonable. Of course, the thing that really motivated him was what he felt was the need to break the old treaty obligations that he had, with the British particularly, of course, because he felt that was a form of infringement on Egyptian sovereignty and a lack of complete independence under that system."... Presenter: Nasser had refused to agree to the Baghdad pact, London's attempt to link Arab states with Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran, in a regional defence arrangement. And he had followed this by accepting arms supplies from the Soviet block .... Shuckbrow: "Eden was up against people who didn't see any need for us to give anything away, anywhere. People like Julian Amery. They were little Empire people. They even thought we should be extending the area of pink on the African map.".... Presenter: Soon after the fateful commons debate [on General Glubb, 7 March 1956] the Prime Minister removed Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus, but agitated, he was offering even more drastic remedies for his Egyptian problem. Anthony Nutting a young Foreign Office minister in 1956 offered an extraordinary revelation about Eden in an interview thirty years later. Anthony Nutting: "I was horrified to get a telephone call over an open line to [unclear - Savoy?] hotel in which Anthony Eden said, 'What's all this poppycock you've sent me about isolating and quarantining Nasser. Can't you understand - and if you can't understand it will you come to the Cabinet and explain why - that I want Nasser', and he actually used the word 'murdered'." Presenter: At the official level Eden's immediate response was refined both by Whitehall planning, lead by the Foreign Office, and by discussions with the US government. By the end of March the Eden and Eisenhower administrations had agreed a plan, 'Operation Omega' - isolating Nasser through propaganda, economic sanctions, and support of countries such as Turkey and Iraq. This is what President Eisenhower wrote in his diary at the end of March 1956: Eisenhower [diary]: "I have authorised the State Department to work on Omega. A fundamental factor in the problem is the growing ambition of Nasser, the sense of power he has gained out of his associations with the Soviets - his belief that he can emerge as a true leader of the entire Arab world. I hope that we can begin to build up some other individual as a prospective leader of the Arab world. My own choice of such a rival is King Saud of Saudi Arabia." Presenter: Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 wanted to go much, much, further. Under the American Freedom of Information Act I've obtained a CIA memorandum from April 1st 1956. Presented for the first time in a documentary, it records two days of meetings between MI6 Deputy Director, George Young, and his CIA counterparts. In this record, personally approved by Young, he instructs the Americans about Nasser's menace as a Soviet ally: CIA Memorandum: "Following emerged as MI6 position. Nasser's aims are the total destruction of Israel, Egyptian domination of all Arab governments, and elimination of all western positions in the Arab area. In order to realise his ambitions Nasser has accepted full scale collaboration with the Soviets. Nasser has now taken the initiative for the extension of Soviet influence in Syria, Libya, and French North Africa. Nasser must therefore be regarded as out-and-out Soviet instrument. MI6 asserted that it is now British government view that western interests in the Middle East, particularly oil, must be preserved from Egyptian-Soviet threat at all costs." Presenter: To deal with this imminent threat Young suggested regime change in not one, but three Arab countries, and for the first time he mentioned the possibility of working with a new Middle Eastern partner. Israel. CIA Memorandum: "Following is outline of our impression of the British Government three phase plan. First phase - complete change in government of Syria. MI6 believes it can mount this operation alone, but if necessary will involve joint action with Iraq, Turkey, and possibly Israel. Phase two - Saudi Arabia. Believe MI6 prepared to undertake efforts to exploit splits in Royal Family and possibly hasten fall of King Saud. Phase three - to be undertaken in anticipation of violent Egyptian reaction to phases one and two. This ranges from sanctions, calculated to isolate Nasser, to use of force, both British and Israeli, to tumble Egyptian government. Extreme possibilities would involve special operations by Israelis against Egyptian supply dumps and newly acquired aircraft and tanks, as well as outright Israeli attack on Gaza or other border areas." Presenter: Julian Amery meanwhile was pursuing his own plans. At the beginning of 1956 he revived contacts with the Egyptian elite opposed to Nasser. These included members of the Egyptian royal family, deposed by the 1952 revolution, the Waft party - the ruling government of Egypt until 1952, and King Zog, the former ruler of Albania and a distant relative of the Egyptian monarchy.... by May 1956 Amery and his fellow Conservative MP Billy McLean had developed their plans. Working with a representative of former Egyptian Prime Minister Nahas Pasha, and with King Zog, they schemed for a shadow or restoration government to assume power after the British military had toppled Nasser.... Thus months before Nasser moved against the Suez Canal Company there were no less than three British schemes to undermine his power - the Anglo-American Operation Omega, the Amery plan for a new Egyptian government, and the radical MI6 blueprint for regime change throughout the Middle East. The attitude of the Secret Intelligence Service [MI6] was well known to Julian Amery, who wrote in his diary on 11 June about a meeting with MI6 Deputy Director George Young: Amery [diary]: "Lunched with Young. Very full discussion on the Middle East situation. Young is well ahead of the Foreign Office in his views, and would like to attempt action, though rather doubtful whether the situation is yet ripe. The Foreign Office, I think, will wait on the Americans." Presenter [to Adam Watson, responsible for Egypt at the Foreign Office in 1956]: Would there have been any discussion between Mr Young and the Foreign Office about his ideas regarding regime change? Adam Watson: "Yes, indeed. I think there were, and I thought he was too optimistic - if optimistic is the right word. What I mean is, I think that I, having lived in Egypt for three years or so, do you see what I mean, didn't feel that it was going to work. And nor did it work." Presenter [to Watson]: Did you believe he was optimistic about the level of contact that he had, or that he was being optimistic about the planning that he was trying to put in place? Adam Watson: "Yes, about the ability to succeed. I mean I don't think it's impossible to get together a group of men who would like to take the place of Nasser, but the question of whether you could actually have them effectively govern Egypt is another question." Presenter: Adam Watson. Yet if MI6's scheming was too extreme for the Americans and others in London, it was possible that the Foreign Office headed by Selwyn Lloyd might embrace Amery's manoeuvres... Pat Dean was Assistant Under Secretary of State, and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. By the end of June 1956, with the support of Lloyd, Amery and Billy McClean were meeting not only Dean, but also other interested parties [including a man called Farmer] .... My research reveals Farmer to be John Farmer, MI6's chief operative in Cairo. Through Amery and McLean he met Egyptian opposition figures. It only remained now for the touch paper for the coup to be lit.... For him [Nasser] nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company was a necessary repost to the western powers. For Anthony Eden it was a 'casus belli' [i.e. justification for war]. Patrick Reilly was an Assistant Under Secretary of State during the Suez year. In 1989 he told me the story of a great missed opportunity. Patrick Reilly: "One morning I was electrified to find on a telegram, in the unmistakable handwriting of the Prime Minister, a little note to the Foreign Secretary which ran 'Foreign Secretary, this may give us the pretext for which we are looking'. I remember very clearly that I had no doubt that he meant a pretext for a military operation. I sat in front of that telegram for quite a time and wrestled with myself. I thought, wouldn't it be a coup if I took this out of the bunch and kept it as an important historical document? But I realised that that would have been a very foolish thing to do. And I sent the bunch back to the Secretary of State's Office, where I suppose that telegram was duly destroyed." Presenter: A war cabinet was formed including the Prime Minister, Lloyd, and Harold Macmillan, who had been Eden's first Foreign Secretary but had become Chancellor of the Exchequer in December 1955. Macmillan also happened to be the father-in-law of Julian Amery... On 30th of July Macmillan revealed his belligerence towards Nasser in a long discussion with Amery.... Robert Murphy had been sent to London by the US State Department to gauge the state of the British government's opinion. Three days later, however, Macmillan presented an idea to the war cabinet that George Young had mentioned to the CIA in March. He suggested that Britain should not only launch military operations, but should do so in co-ordination with Israel.... The initiative was sharply rebuffed by Eden, who snapped to the war Cabinet: "It was none of Macmillan's business anyway". But Julian Amery accelerated his plans for a coup in Cairo. Amery [Diary]: "1 August 1956. Bill and I went to see Douglas Dodds-Parker [junior Foreign Office minister responsible for MI6], Pat Dean, and George Young [of MI6], at the Foreign Office. They wanted our co-operation over Egypt. We said we wanted to sure, first of all, whether they really meant business. In the end it was agreed that we should tell our Egyptian friends that there was no substantial difference between us and the government any longer." Presenter: Amery held a series of meetings in Switzerland and France with Egyptian royalist[s?], politicians and even the Muslim Brotherhood, who had once attacked British troops in the Suez Canal zone, but had subsequently tried to assassinate Nasser. In 1989 I asked Amery exactly whom he met. Amery: "I don't want to name my Egyptian contacts because I don't know what effect it could still have. No names, no packdrill." Presenter: 'Packdrill' being the military punishment for inappropriate behaviour. Amery's diary, however, is more forthcoming about his contacts among the Egyptian royal family and military.... The talks culminated in late August at King Zog's villa in the south of France, with the Egyptians demanding confirmation of British support from an MI6 officer. Amery's diary reveals who provided that confirmation - the mysterious Biffy Dunderdale [MI6 officer on whom novelist Ian Flemming's James Bond character is thought by some to be based]. Amery [Diary]: "27 August 1956. Conference at the Villa. Present: Zog, Geraldine, the Princess, Taha [?], Billy and I. We expected an official representative from the Foreign Office, who would explain the exact position. At 4.30 or so Billy and I duly met Commander Biffy Dunderdale at our hotel. He presented his credentials and appeared to be inadequately briefed. We did our best to put him in the picture and to orientated his mind in the right direction. We then met Taha in a Cafe. He was so overjoyed at finding himself in touch with a genuine agent that he hardly paid any further attention to Billy and me. He even asked for Dunderdale's address in case 'I want to send you a Christmas card'." Presenter: Writing to the titular leader of the Suez group, Captain Charles Waterhouse, Amery set out his grand design. Amery [Letter]: "3 September 1956 - The objective of military operations would be to destroy the Egyptian army, to bring down the Nasser government, and to control the Suez Canal pending the establishment of machinery for international management and control. There are good reasons to believe that given the defeat of the Egyptian army, and the collapse of the Nasser regime, a successor government could be formed that would be able to maintain law and order." Presenter: But there were some in the Foreign Office, such as Patrick Reilly, who saw folly rather than opportunity in such plans. He told me about a meeting he had with the head of MI6. Reilly: "I remember that I went to see Dick White who was an old friend of mine. And he told me that MI6 had information, which he regarded as reliable, that there was a body of dissidents in Cairo who were prepared to stage a revolt and upset Nasser, if allied forces approached the capital. I remember feeling extremely sceptical about this, and in fact if there were any such dissidents prepared to do anything, Nasser had absolutely no difficulty in dealing with them." Presenter: On its own the Amery-MI6 scheme might have been an intriguing footnote to the Suez crisis. But by late August it had become enmeshed with official British military plans. Initially 'Operation Musketeer' was to land troops near Alexandria, who would then march on Cairo. At the start of September, however, this was replaced by 'Musketeer Revise', in which British and French bombing and propaganda would turn the population against Nasser. Regime change was now firmly linked to Amery's discussions with his shadow network. Patrick Reilly again. Reilly: "It took me no time at all to realise that things were not being handled in the proper traditional way. Instead of the military's directors of plans making plans for a possible military operation, they were being handled by special planning staff. What surprised me enormously was that no Foreign Office adviser was sitting with these planners. I went to see the Cabinet Secretary Norman Brook in London. I said to him that I thought it was a pretty good shambles. And I remember that he smiled and made no comment. He certainly didn't deny it." Presenter: The US government was far from impressed with the evolving British approach. After CIA Director Allan Dulles visited London American officials complained that "The British were more determined than ever to proceed along a certain line". It was clear that Britain and France were still pulling the throttle open. So throughout September the Eisenhower administration forced Britain to accept diplomatic manoeuvres, including the creation of a Suez Canal users association... ... Eden had given up on the military option, at least before spring 1957. Anthony Nutting again, speaking this time in 1976. Anthony Nutting: "All the time here he was with this personal declaration of war against Nasser, but no means of putting it into effect. Because although Nasser had nationalised the Suez Canal Company he hadn't given us any casus belli, he hadn't actually stopped a ship, or arrested a British subject, or shot anybody, or done anything which would give us the opportunity to go in and invade." Presenter: Then, on the morning of 14 October two envoys from the French government arrived at Eden's country residence, Chequers, with a dramatic proposal. Anthony Nutting: "And then suddenly the French came up with this plan whereby the Israelis would take the initiative, they would invade Egyptian Territory, they would march to the Suez Canal, and Britain and France would then intervene in order, so the declaration would read, to separate the combatants, to put out this most dangerous fire which had started in the Middle East and to land troops between the two - well, on the Suez Canal. So we would then in effect retake possession of the Suez Canal and the Suez Canal Company, and this in its turn would be such a humiliation for President Nasser that he would be toppled from his perch. It was as if suddenly the heavens had opened, and here was the opportunity at last. I was allowed to consult two officials at the Foreign Office - Permanent Under Secretary, and the Under Secretary in charge of the Middle Eastern area. Nobody was to be told." Presenter: There is no evidence that Amery knew of the French approach, but in effect his plan for a coup against Nasser was now being put into motion. This was complimented by the collusion with Israel that MI6 and Harold Macmillan had long been advocating. Three days of discussions in Sevres outside Paris, and in London, led to the agreement that after Israel attacked Egypt, Britain and France would then step in as 'peacekeepers' to occupy the Suez Canal Zone. The agreement was signed by Pat Dean and by Donald Logan, the private secretary to Selwyn Lloyd ..... When the plan began to emerge Amery was jubilant... On 29 October 1956 Israeli forces moved across the Egyptian border, advancing 40 miles into the Sinai peninsula. The next day Eden, addressing the House of Commons, issued an ultimatum to Israel and Egypt to move back from the Suez canal or face an Anglo-French intervention. He subsequently told the nation: Eden: "All my life I have been a man of peace, working for peace, striving for peace, negotiating for peace. I've been a League of Nations man, and a United Nations man, and I'm still the same man with the same conviction, the same devotion to peace. I couldn't be other even if I wished. But I'm utterly convinced that the action we have taken is right." Presenter: Eden's ruse of disguising British military operations as 'peace keeping' was somewhat transparent as it allowed the Israelis to march another fifty miles into Egypt while forcing Egyptian defenders to withdraw 10 miles west of the Suez Canal zone. At home his actions provoked fierce criticism from opposition politicians such as Aneurin Bevan. Bevan: "Many Tory newspapers today are saying, ah well, perhaps we are judging too soon. It may be that Eden will get it all over with and then we can breath a sigh of relief. That's what the Germans said about Hitler. They said 'Ah well, he may be a liar, but will he be a successful liar?' They said 'He's a bully, but will he be a successful bully?' They were perfectly prepared to accept his morality so long as he gave them the prizes....." Presenter: In Washington the Eisenhower administration reacted with shock, anger, and a clear warning that Britain could not count on US support.... Eisenhower [addressing the American people on 31 October]: ".... We believe these actions to have been taken in error, for we do not accept the use of force as a wise or proper instrument for the settlement of international disputes." Presenter: Perhaps most importantly the imposition of collusion with France and Israel on top of the British plan, led to a military shambles, with commanders left in the dark even as they moved into battle... Frank Cooper was Permanent Under-secretary at the Ministry of Defence during Suez. When he spoke to me thirty years later he was still angry about the chaos of the British operations. Cooper: "I was increasingly aware that people had been hiding things, in particular that you couldn't trust a damn thing that the politicians or the Foreign Office said...." Presenter: Within hours the scheme for bombing and psychological warfare, seeking the overthrow of Nasser, had collapsed.... Amery and MI6's Egyptian contacts melted away. Nasser not only survived but flourished, travelling through Cairo and Alexandria in an open topped car before throngs of supporters.... Adam Watson: "I think we didn't really have the cards to put enough pressure on Nasser, who was quite popular in Egypt at that time. To occupy Cairo, to manage the installation of a separate, probably Waft based government tainted with support from imperial Britain was going to be a very difficult job...." Presenter: The British forces raced southwards, but it occupied only two thirds of the Canal Zone when Eden, unable to withstand political and economic pressure from the United States and the United Nations, agreed to Eisenhower's demand for a cease-fire.... Anthony Howard [political journalist and former British soldier who took part in the invasion]: ".... Of course, the thing we will never understand, and I never will be able to grasp, is what on earth did the British and the French governments, to say nothing of the Israeli government, think they were doing in springing this war in the week before a Presidential election. I mean Eisenhower was bound to be livid." Presenter: As the coup against Nasser failed to materialise Amery urged MI6's George Young to organise Egyptian prisoners in Israeli hands into a 'Free Egypt' movement. With the cease-fire all his plans and hopes were collapsing..... On 10 January 1957, three weeks after his return from Jamaica, Anthony Eden resigned his office.... Harold Macmillan moved into 10 Downing St. No MI6 official was punished for the Suez failure, although quietly the service was reorganised to prevent any repetition of its Middle Eastern scheming. Julian Amery became Minister for Air in the Macmillan government, but his true role in the Suez crisis never emerged. Instead Anthony Eden was left alone to carry the responsibility for one of Britain's greatest foreign misadventures ever. Privately Amery still maintained that his plan was the right one - it was just the Prime Minister's execution that was at fault.... There's one final twist to our tale, however. More than fifty years after Suez, Anthony Eden's call for action against evil dictators is echoed by his successors. Britain is once again involved with a regime change in the Middle East, albeit one led by a different imperial power.... Eden: "... The difference between the west and Egypt has not been colonialism. It is a difference between democracies and a dictatorship. The British people with their instinctive good sense have understood that." ............ |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/schedule/2006/11/03/day/
"The underground bunkers beneath
Whitehall had been busy since July, and the 'arthritic' British war machine was already
creaking into action. A top-secret meeting at Sèvres between the three allies (the Israelis turning up in hats and dark
glasses) to plot the final moves was foolishly recorded on paper. Eden was thrown into a
panic. The French and Israelis refused to destroy their copies, but the evidence was
clear: a squirming Eden was up to no good." |
No Solution In Sight? |
NATURAL
LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@btinternet.com
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