BBC Suez A Very British Crisis 3of3 War

[@trishwhitenburg9167]

One of the best docs on Suez crisis, thats for sure... a gem of a series.

[@karimelhilali7700]

⁶the other two

[@par576]

I was an 18 yr old Lance Corporal National Serviceman in 1 Para. On day 2 we were sent to head the advance down the Canal. I was in the forward platoon. It was late afternoon and I sat on a bollard looking down the Canal. There was nothing in front of me apart from desert and the canal. No noise, no shooting, nothing. Then we were withdrawn, put on an aircraft carrier and sent back to Cyprus. We were told it was because we were going to drop further down the canal. All I can say is we were up for it and did not know what was behind it all.

[@raymondgill9796]

Thank you for serving and sorry you were sent on such a mistaken action.

[@isilder]

"You don't just walk into a country and invade it".... tell that to russia.

[@slavenaljinovic1162]

Dear Mohammed, Truely great you put this up. Slaven from Croatia

[@nigelbarrett4091]

How could Eden have been , to quote his very own words,a man of peace and invading an independent country ! Again it,s an example of cynical politicians and a pure liar. And we,ve plenty of them still around in 2019 too.

[@richpryor9650]

No, its a convincing statement, much like when a gambling degenerate begs for money. They always say, "Hey man, you know me... I always good for it, I'll pay you back"

[@Amidat]

Some of the British soldiers interviewed were very arrogant. Some were humble and seemed contrite. A couple sounded like maniacs thinking war was cool.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

44:26 - That's the most British thing I've ever fucking heard. Just got blown into the air, leg hanging on by the tendon, and pants on fire, and he calls it an "interesting situation." I suppose he's not wrong, but good lord.

[@forkleong9184]

Dear Mr Mohammed. Many thanks to you for uploading all the 3 parts of this excellent BBC documentary. I came here after the incident concerning the container ship Ever Given in the Suez Canal.

[@Yasser.Osman.A.Z.]

My grandfather was among the first military engineers, first ever, he and his colleagues designed the mobile bridges to be fixed over the bitter lakes in order to allow Egyptian armed divisions besieged Port Saeed, that was not mentioned here, few from his battalion were caught and executed by Israeli forces

[@joem551]

It's BBC. Do you really expect them to tell the whole truth?

[@Iranda_]

Thanks, Mohammed. I learned a lot from this documentary.

[@smaaj0007]

This BBC series has been very informative. Thank you so much for uploading!

[@adamwithey8194]

You now have 11,000 subscribers! (saturday 18th november 2023)

[@MrVtorrejon]

Got to say, the actor playing Eden is brilliant. You can really feel the pain of the situation based on his "shock", illness or disappointment faces.

[@dylanroff4205]

he's a famous British actor. have you seen the day of the jackal?

[@82boulou]

They were disappointed that the robbery was called off after killing all those people in Egypt and destroying their town for no good reason and no one is even feeling ashamed ! Ladies and gentlemen this is the moral code of the free world .

[@notsobadkarma]

i actually watched this series , because my father was a royal marine on hms jamaica at this time and since his passing i,ve had an interest in his military career , he didnt speak of it much to me tbh ,it sickens me to think he went to war for another lying hypocrite politician ,who didnt even have the bollocks to follow through with it ...

[@martinmilojevic_Vienna]

This has nothing to do with Personal Animosity It's about Money & Power That's what War's always about The BBC is doing a great Job with this Documentary but the Narrative is ridiculous but that's not the first Time that they've done something like this Optics Acting's great but the way they talk about the Reason for the War is a Joke!

[@RoobehTunes]

Great documentary, I'd of liked to of seen more behind the relations between France, Israel and the USA.

[@reformerx667]

Fantastic documentary. Thanks for posting.

[@ausezpauser]

When frenchs and englishs realized they were not the boss any more

[@theilluminatedone9214]

The French are the only ones who don't seem to hold a grudge over it.

[@Michael.Talbot]

@@theilluminatedone9214 You got that wrong im British and i have never heard anyone say "i wish we still had the Empire" ever ...screw that let the Americans take their turn we are done with it but we did not back them in Vietnam because of it so what goes around comes around

[@theilluminatedone9214]

@@Michael.Talbot Nice try. I've seen Top Gear. You people spend a creepy amount of time obsessing over America. On a related note, I love Aston Martin and I think it's a tragedy they sold out to the Germans. You have my sympathies.

[@Michael.Talbot]

@@theilluminatedone9214 Aston Martin is British owned, it has never been owned by Germany ......maybe you should learn something before you type, BTW which bullshit country do you come from?

[@theilluminatedone9214]

@@Michael.Talbot Aston Martin now uses German engines, among other German parts, instead of purely British Engines. ......maybe you should learn something before you type.

[@nigelbarrett4091]

One current infamous leader has told an average of 1 lie a day over 3 years so Eden was tame stuff by comparison.

[@desssval]

Sad story but a great documentary.

[@nigelbarrett4091]

The Brit. army had been in 1919 at Amritsar and 1920/21 just as callous in Ireland so even in 1956, they were to continue a brutal policy that life was cheap,particularly fighting in a third world nation . Don,t say the Irish started it- it was started 700 years ago when they invaded and occupied Ireland and they are still there in 2019 as a truce was calledin the north in 1998.

[@nigelbarrett4091]

@MrKingdig Not given any prominence in the history of the British isles and England,s pillage ,land seizure and occupation with oppressive scum landlords who increased rent with no productivity were all to blight Ireland for 700 years. Meanwhile the Scots Protestants grabbed Ulster 400 years ago.

[@RobertWBates-hw5ej]

Why the British followed the French and Israel lead this into ths disaster rather than heeding Eishenhower's warning was a hugh mistake i ignoring Eiserhower was a huge mistake. . Eisenhower had received a more direct threat from the Russians about possible intervention in the Suez while the battle of Hungary was raging. Eisenhower was right to do what he did.

[@BrianSmith-yq7ys]

This was a great documentary and I learned allot

[@mouhoubazzoug9046]

A

[@nitinkataria1288]

It's alot

[@fran87blacon]

the irony of the usa have such a stance against britain only to go and do the same thing few years later in vietnam... i think the main reason britian didnt back usa in vietnam was because of suez. usa wasnt willing to stand by us so why should we in vietnam.

[@johncronin9540]

1manuscriptman Yes, there were important differences, but in both cases, the UK and US had no business meddling in sovereign nations. (I am an American, btw). Had the negotiated treaty agreed to by the French and Vietnam been faithfully carried out, there would never have BEEN a “South Vietnam” to request American aid. According to the treaty, the separation of Vietnam was to be temporary, followed by a national election, an election everyone knew Ho Chi Minh would have won (overwhelmingly). The US, completely misreading the situation, was looking at what was a Vietnamese War of Independence, solely in terms of the Cold War. They couldn’t see the huge difference between Korea and Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was NOT Kim il Sung.

[@jamesunsworth6865]

Sharpe Royalist No thank God we were went dragged into Vietnam, if there had been a CONSERVATIVE Government In power it would have been a forgone conclusion!!!!! Harold Wilson, point blank refused to commit British Troops, the American Military Hubris, again, they learned nothing from the French debacle at Dien Bien Fu

[@johncronin9540]

James Unsworth Many people look at Vietnam, and wonder what might have been had JFK lived. When you listen to LBJ on his tapes, you can see a man who really didn’t want to fight in Vietnam, but couldn’t find a way out. He was completely out of his depth, wondering why he couldn’t win over the Vietnamese with generous Great Society largesse. His brilliant sense of psychology, which served him so well as Majority Leader and President in domestic matters, failed him so completely in his failure to grasp the simple concept that what the Vietnamese wanted was Independence. But to me, the what if question that is far more interesting is wondering what might have happened had FDR, who was only in his early sixties when he died, lived to serve out his fourth term. Truman was the first to admit that the burden he inherited was staggering, and that he just wasn’t prepared, especially in trying to plan a post-war world. FDR had a very clear vision of what he wanted to happen, and part of that was to permanently end European colonial empires, a point Roosevelt made quite clear many times to Churchill. In 1945, French General Charles DeGaulle bluntly demanded that French Indochina (which consisted of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) be returned to France, and threatened Truman with moving France toward the Soviet orbit. Truman, still very new, conceded to DeGaulle. But I don’t think Roosevelt would have. I think that DeGaulle was bluffing, and FDR likely would have called that bluff, and sided with Vietnam’s leaders, and allowed Independence. The French return never would have happened, and the entire history would have been very different. Ho Chi Minh, early on, looked to the US as a model of a colony breaking away from a colonial empire. He quoted Jefferson in declaring Vietnamese independence. History would have been very different. I’m not looking to blame Truman. He brought everything he had to the job, learned quickly, and surrounded himself with very able men. And had things happened even a few years later, he likely would have been far less deferential to the often insufferable DeGaulle. Speaking as an American, I am glad the UK (and the rest of NATO, by the way), stayed out, and wish that US leaders of BOTH parties, had had the wisdom to do the same. A great deal of human suffering might have been avoided. One thing stirs in my memory whenever I think about the Vietnam War Memorial, which lists every American who died in that war. That is this: if we were able to obtain the names of all the Vietnamese who died in that war, and put those names on the Wall, that Wall would stretch from Washington, DC to New York.

[@LondonLadsArt]

Absolutely, both false flag operations.

[@johncronin9540]

Sharpe Royalist Both countries were absolutely wrong to act the way they did, whether it be Egypt or Vietnam. And lest we forget, France and Israel were involved in the Suez operation also. Colonial imperialism is just plain wrong. (Just think how the people of those invading nations would feel if they were on the receiving end. Perhaps Israel would have been justified in a limited action, given the fact that Egypt had a role in cross border acts of terrorism, but that is a different story altogether. Part of the reason for the anger of Eisenhower was the fact that this was all taking place during the invasion of the Soviet Union to brutally suppress a popular revolt on the part of the people of Hungary. When one looks at the entirety of all these events, it could have led to a Third World War.

[@tilethio]

BBC have done a good work in producing this very educational documentary. This invasion was an example to justify the history behind a continuous conflict in Africa as a result of the land mine planted by Britain and France many years ago. Egypt was in a desperate position and they were fighting for their country. That was exactly what a brave Franch and British men did when Germany and Italy invade their countryside. Apart from that, I didn't like the documentary try to put all the blame on Sir Anthony Eden. Eden was a veteran of WWI who knows exactly what war is, he was a distinguished politician and analyst of foregin policy, he was not a foolish person he was a wise man. So why on earth he make such a decision even when his very close friend President Eisenhower opposed his move? I suspect he was under huge pressure from his own cabinets, advisors and the military. I also suspect he was under huge pressure from the Israeli government( Egypt had blocked Isreal from navigating to its southern probinces so they need to gain control of that rout. I also suspect Eden was under pressure from the French who are facing a problem from Algerian independence fighters supported by Egypt and other African countries. The bottom line I belive Eden didn't act alone, many of the poletical advisors on this documentary seems to wash their hand on a person who can't defend himself any more. Any way it is what it is.

[@robertewing3114]

He was instructed by PM Chamberlain to go home and take an aspirin and known to be influenced adversely within the FO, and he ultimately resigned without clear reasons. Churchill knew Eden wasn't as capable as himself and Chamberlain, and Eden again resigned having allowed personal feelings dominate his judgment. He wrote having met Hitler, I rather like him. However he rather disliked Mussolini, and Nasser too provoked him.

[@goodoldblighty7481]

Thank you for uploading 🇬🇧💙☮️

[@Larkinchance]

every american should watch this

[@dantaylor7344]

Ah so true!

[@josebarberena9564]

22:00 The Egyptians had the legal right to nationalize whatever they wanted provided they paid everyone a just price. This mans reasoning is a selfish one without care for the sovereignty of a country and a people. This flagrant act of terrorism served to expose what more advanced nations with the power to do so are willing to do to safeguard a financial gain. That "operation" geniously crafted is nothing more than organized crime. Im sure the british and french people felt misrepresented as nations who oppose invasions, conspiracies and acts of destabilization as a means to settle a dispute of high importance.

[@Asidders]

37:51 I find it so funny how the officers believe and act like they're part of the aristocracy, haha

[@antoniocarrascosa6060]

Y la parte primera? 1/1?

[@granskare]

glad to see David Attenborough !!!

[@beatricemadeleinecadrin7829]

The Canadian representative for the UN (and future Prime mininster of Canada) Lester B. Pearson won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his role in deescalating the Suez Crisis by proposing what led to the creation of modern peacekeeping missions, yet this documentary not only makes no mention of the UN debates and involvement, but just makes it sound like it was pressure from the American government that convinced Eden to back down...

[@noneinparticular2338]

agree...the english are just so easy to control and manipulate. they are sold crushing defeats as victories... just the way the largest empire in the world failed to beat germany, who 20 years earlier was bankrupt and armyless, and was saved by the US. They claim to have nukes but we all know they are controlled by US .. another defeat as a victory that the british public buys happily.

[@davidstegne2044]

When you were the most powerful country for the longest time, its a tough pill to swallow knowing that you weren't what you once were. A very humbling experience for the British...

[@davidstegne2044]

Granted but the UN only works if the five members of the security Council want it too. If Eisenhower gave Eden permission to stay, rest assured British troops wouldn't have left. Just a game of brinkmanship nothing more. Looking back on it, had Nasser been overthrown, there would have been no 6 day war, Yom Kippur or the numerous spats Egypt has had with Israel till they finally mad peace.

[@jameskbaxter548]

@@noneinparticular2338 Your comment makes no sense. If you think the British had no part in defeating Germany in WW2 then you have no knowledge of history. Have you ever heard of the Battle of Britain?

[@aravindc102]

This mis adventure caused the world to lose focus on the Atrocities in hungary..,

[@philmorris7964]

Well done Egypt.

[@marks_sparks1]

32:55 Nick Vaux later led 42 Commando in the Falklands

[@JMARLOWE1972]

Good man. I met him once when he was stationed for a while in the US.

[@brentsummers7377]

57:58 The last speaker in the video sums it up very well. Possibly because of ill health & medicines, Eden acted like an absolute idiot. Had he learned nothing from working closely with Churchill & the humiliation of the Yalta conference when Britain's diminished place in the World order had been made very clear?

[@iamreg1965]

Never heard Michael Parkinson swear before...surreal.

[@rafterrafter5320]

23:05 An Egiptian Muslim cemetery with Christian crosses?

[@Sturminfantrist]

its a egyptian cemetery they have a minority of Coptic orthodox christians logical they have there own section in a cemetery, Christians are in nearly every muslim country, incl. Lebanon, egypt, syria, irak even the palestinians have nearly 20% arab christian community before the 1967 war. Nothing new, my tunesian father had a syrian christian Buddy when i was a Kid and i was befriended with a christian women from syria, Sunni , Shia, druse, Alawi or christian all are arabs ;)

[@kinunomichijp]

This doc. has good and bad features. It's very good that it shows conspiracy in details, people understand a lot about real decision making in politics by swing it. It's bad that it minimises to below minimum the real cause, the Soviet threat, showing instead their intervention in Budapest to stop a proven Us-Uk plot. It does not even read the text of that letter, the real cause, that the nuclear USSR would knock Israel, Britain and France, at that time all non-nuclear powers, out of the map with nukes. That was the only and real reason, as a draw upon currency is a too small thing to stop a military invasion at such a scale. The USA stood wiły-nilly with the USSR because it did not have the military capacity and the money to support a war against the USSR. Just like today, against Russia. So, with the time, it bought the Kgb masters and they topples their own country. Should we assume the USA is trying to buy the Fsb bosses nowadays? Time will tell, we'll see what comes after Putin.

[@nitinkataria1288]

Whether it's Canada or Egypt, the British are experts in digging mass graves....

[@davidmaslow399]

Excellent

[@oldgysgt]

Like a lot of Britons at the time, (and even today) Eden simply couldn't admit that by 1956 Briton was no longer a first class world power. It was a hard pill to swallow that after hundreds of years Briton could no longer influence world events. US President Eisenhower had made it quite clear that America did not approve of military force being used in the Suez crises, so for Eden to claim that American refusing aid to Briton and France in their invasion of Egypt was an "unforeseen event" was pure BS. In effect, Eden wrote a hot check, and then cried foul when the US refused to endorse it.

[@JMARLOWE1972]

Excellent series. Thank you. Do you know disrespected anyone, I think things would have turned out better if the UK had held on in Suez.

[@SuperBamaBob]

Bloody good documentary

[@backtoeden853]

Well I'd like to say, very welldone for doing your duty as soldiers and well done for protecting Britians interests

[@scipio1010]

And I'd like to say to those soldiers, very well done for going home empty handed and with your tail between your legs. Thank you America

[@johnclark4593]

Sam Elliott should have played Eden in a movie.

[@carfonju1018]

englishmen needed james bond for live again

[@fareaislam6681]

Omar sharif is damn smart

[@dps253]

Came here because the show "The Crown" season 2.

[@alexandrabrill4060]

dps253 me too! 🤣

[@alliearscott3978]

Me 3 !! lol

[@MaximGhost]

Why no mentioned of the part where Soviet premier Nikolai Bulganin threatened to drop nukes in the UK, France, and Israel if they didn't leave Egypt after the invasion? This was one of the reasons the U.S. refused to side with the U.K.

[@simmer484]

Did you even watch it? They clearly describe how Eden receives a threat from the USSR

[@dominictarrsailing]

Very interesting that the British sought to put Egypt in their place when they denied helping them build their dam, and then later were put in their place by the Americans. If they had simply gave Egypt a leg up by financing the damn dam they could have all been friends!

[@resistradio4489]

We gotta stop doin' this shit.

[@drprasannasuru]

Lame and futile explanation to invade Egypt. It was huge political embarrassment for Britain. Old Sick Lady of Europe ...Britain.

[@sasmac1829]

I like this " old sick lady of europe " term really correct

[@1117niks]

Grit Britain? Still learning English...

[@1117niks]

Should I Used to have two T in spell

[@neelakash5207]

​@@1117niksgreed Britain is better

[@dimitribuchene3086]

One crucial point this otherwise excellent documentary doesn’t tackle is: why was it necessary for Nasser to seek weapons in the Soviet Union. The answer to that question will determine if Nasser really had aggressive intentions towards Israel.

[@chrisstroh4776]

Dimitri Buchene Yes Nasser had aggressive intentions. Until Sadat, Egypt and most of the Arab nations wanted to drive the Israelis into the sea.

[@jameskbaxter548]

Nasser wanted security against a highly armed and aggressive Israel. Britain and the US refused to sell him weapons because they thought he was a communist, which he wasn't. He was seeking a pan-Arab nationalism and eventually the Western powers admitted they were mistaken in thinking he was communist. He was forced into obtaining arms from the Soviet Union. This is all in the history books and easy to find the references to it.

[@hismajesty9951]

Gosh, Anthony Eden was handsome! :")

[@gatech5190]

also a fascist

[@chel3SEY]

Eden was an extraordinary fool and cad. Interesting admission of war crimes by British soldiers.

[@thomasattard8687]

Watch it through, note the reactions, at least 2/3rds of the Brits opining agree it was a mess, useless and unjustified aggression, what you don’t or rarely hear, from them is a sense of guilt for the civilians and frankly, the non civilian Egyptians, always a tear for the poor boys, the paratroopers. In case you’re wondering it was 650 to 23, defenders vs aggressors, keep that in mind before you say how good this documentary is. It may not be as bad as the usual whitewash, but not good. Peace.

[@scottmcgill559]

`Eden vindicated. He was right all along about Nasser who plunged the region into war directly once, and indirectly a second time after his death.

[@jameskbaxter548]

Not true, it was Israel who started both the wars

[@scottmcgill559]

@@jameskbaxter548incorrect. The conditions for war were created by Nasser.

[@jameskbaxter548]

@@scottmcgill559 Read your history. Israel was the problem since the first Palestine War in 1948, otherwise known as the Nakba (catastrophe). The Arab nations including Egypt attempted to stop Israel militarily but Israel, armed and supported by Britain and France, was too strong. Since that war Israel attacked Egypt a number of times, including an attack on the Egyptian embassy in Gaza, killing many Egyptians. Nasser was merely asserting Egypt's (and the Arab's) rights to self-determination against the occupation of the British and the aggression of Israel. It's all in the history books.

[@scottmcgill559]

@@jameskbaxter548lol! The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

[@jameskbaxter548]

@@scottmcgill559 Are you referring to the British? If so, I agree

[@minilymo]

The documentary started by saying there was 80 thousand uk troops in the suez why did we need to invade? Absolute weasel words at the end by the way.

[@mehmetalikrtan8149]

They retreated after Nasser and Eden had made the deal. According to deal British would retreat and Nasser would protect the Company but Nasser broke his promise and nationalised the Canal.

[@NicholasWarnertheFirst]

We ran out of reasons and money to sustain imperial pretensions.

[@Ali-alshmra-]

2023

[@drprasannasuru]

America , India, France, Germany , Japan , South Korea, Egypt, Holland , Belgium are good countries

[@drprasannasuru]

America is good country. I respect America & Americans. I think Britain is no more strategically important for USA after cold war. Britain is always a backstaber. India is America's economically, strategically, politically, millitarilly best partner across the globe. Britain is bygone era. Old gasping lady of Europe. In world war 3 USA will need India and India will need USA.

[@comanchio1976]

Designated

[@leeshepherd6512]

Delusional clap trap.