Eisenhower Doctrine

Eisenhower Doctrine, (January 5, 1957), in the Cold War period after World War II, U.S. foreign-policy pronouncement by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower promising military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression. The doctrine was intended to check increased Soviet influence in the Middle East, which had resulted from the supply of arms to Egypt by communist countries as well as from strong communist support of Arab states against the Israeli, French, and British attack on Egypt in October 1956 that was at the centre of the so-called Suez Crisis.

On October 29, 1956, Israel invaded Egypt. The following day Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum in which they threatened to intervene in the conflict if Israel and Egypt did not observe an immediate cease-fire and retreat 10 miles (16 km) from the Suez Canal. Although Israel complied, Egypt did not, and Britain and France began bombing Egyptian targets. Britain then vetoed a U.S. resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for a cessation of hostilities. Nonetheless, the fighting ended quickly; by the end of the year, British and French troops had withdrawn.

The short-lived conflict helped ensure Eisenhower’s reelection over his Democratic challenger, Adlai Stevenson, in the 1956 U.S. presidential election. Moreover, it led U.S. policy makers to fear the increase of Soviet influence in the Middle East. On January 5, 1957, then, Eisenhower proclaimed, with the approval of Congress, that he would use the armed forces to protect the independence of any Middle Eastern country seeking American help. The Eisenhower Doctrine did not represent a radical change in U.S. policy; the Truman Doctrine had pledged similar support to Greece and Turkey 10 years earlier. It was a continuation of the U.S. policy of containment, or resistance to any extension of the Soviet sphere of influence. In an address to the American people the next month, Eisenhower said:

The United States has no ambitions or desires in this region other than that each country there may maintain its independence and live peacefully within itself and with its neighbors, and, by peaceful cooperation with others, develop its own spiritual and material resources. But that much is vital to the peace and well-being of us all.