Anthony Eden’s reputation will always be linked with the Suez fiasco of 1956. The humiliating failure at Suez has almost entirely blotted out his earlier achievements and represents as David Reynolds called it the “Suezide” of Eden’s reputation. Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis by Ken Ruane and Matthew Jones seeks to “free” Eden from the “shadow of Suez.” Before succeeding Winston Churchill as prime minister in April 1955, Eden had been a member of parliament since 1923 and served three turns as Foreign Secretary. He was “one of the dominating figures in British foreign policy from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, an adroit and oft-times successful Foreign Secretary in the Second World War and the early Cold War.” 1954 was Eden’s ‘annus mirabilis’ in which he achieved an “amazing series” of diplomatic successes, with the negotiation of the end of the French war in Indochina at the forefront. Ruane and Jones detail Eden’s approach to the Indochina Crisis, its place in overall British foreign policy, the role of nuclear weapons, Anglo-American relations, and the negotiation of the settlement at the Geneva Conference. Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis is the definitive study on the subject of Eden and Indochina.
Book Review
29 Tuesday Oct 2019
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