Eisenhower, Dwight D. Your Stake in the Middle East.

€ 750.00

The Eisenhower Doctrine summarized for the American public: a brief, illustrated statement of American policy towards the Middle East, based on President Eisenhower's address to Congress on 5 January 1957. The illustrations include Egyptian President Nasser amidst a crowd, United Nations troops landing at Port Said to taker over control after withdrawal of Anglo-French forces, the UN General Assembly, British soldiers inspecting Russian-made rocket launchers and projectiles, and identity checks at an Israeli outpost on the Syrian border.

Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression. Eisenhower singled out the Soviet threat in his doctrine by authorizing the commitment of U.S. forces "to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism." Most Arab nations regarded the doctrine as a transparent ploy to promote Western influence in the Middle East by restraining Gamal Abdel Nasser's brand of Arab nationalism that opposed Western domination, and some publicly denounced the initiative as an insidious example of U.S. imperialism. Following the 1958 crisis in Lebanon and accusations by U.S. senators of exaggerating the threat of communism to the region, Eisenhower privately admitted that the real goal was combating Arab nationalism.