The real Suez crisis

by Jacques Georges-Picot

Since this book is intended above all to put the 1956 crisis back within a framework that has existed since 1869, and since the influence of the crisis is still being felt, the account could be developed only in the following manner: What we call "The Clouds Gather" includes the story of Egypt's political evolution and its consequences for the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez (later known as Compagnie Financière de Suez) in the ten years preceding the crisis. These first four chapters are followed by a summary of the company's attitudes toward the West and its own reputation on the eve of the crisis. The story of the "storm" itself, while it cannot ignore the attitudes of Egypt, Great Britain, and France, or of the United States and several other countries, will be told essentially from the point of view of the company. In the end, the consequences pose two main questions: Is the damage now repaired? and Won't the repercussions, by no means near an end, stay with us? - I