1. Election Day

The American presidential election in November 1956 coincided with two of the greatest crises of the postwar era: Suez and Hungary.

In July of that year, the Suez Canal had been nationalised by Egypt’s President Nasser. It provoked alarm and outrage in Britain and France and it led to a joint Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt that in turn produced an international outcry. Meanwhile, in October an uprising in Hungary against Soviet rule prompted an invasion by the Red Army and a brutal campaign of repression.

This series is about the interplay of these three overlapping dramas – the Suez crisis, the Hungarian revolution and the American presidential election – and their consequences for the world. Between them these events shattered the illusions of the postwar world: about British power, about Soviet tolerance of dissent, about American commitment to democracy, about European solidarity, about the future of the Middle East and about the power of international institutions.

Seventy years on David Runciman explores how these events in late 1956 represent a watershed in twentieth-century history.

The American Presidential election took place on 6th November. The sitting president Dwight D Eisenhower was seeking re-election on a platform promising “peace and prosperity.” But he faced a dilemma.

At midnight, British and French paratroopers had landed at the Suez Canal and were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with the local Egyptian population. At the same time Soviet tanks and soldiers were fighting pitched battles with Hungarian civilians on the streets of Budapest.

Britain was America’s closest ally. The USSR was America’s fiercest foe.

How could Eisenhower support a British invasion whilst condemning a Soviet one?