Introduction

Abstract

Studies of British post-war defence and foreign policy using primary sources have now been available for some time, and it is possible to continue this comprehensive reassessment into the middle 1950s. Several excellent works have appeared in recent years on the Labour Government of 1945–51, notably Kenneth Morgan’ s Labour in Power: 1945–1951 (Oxford, 1984) and Lord Bullock’ s Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary 1945–1951 (London, 1983), but only a few books have appeared on the succeeding Conservative governments of 1951–57.1 In the United States, previous interpretations of the Truman and Eisenhower presidencies are also undergoing considerable revision. As yet, however, few of these books have dealt comprehensively with Middle East policy, with the exception of W. R. Louis’ The British Empire in the Middle East 1945–1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States and Post-War Imperialism (Oxford: 1984), which restricts itself to the period of the British Labour Government, and does not consider British defence policy in any detail.KeywordsForeign PolicyMiddle EastSecurity CouncilSuez CanalCanal ZoneThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.