Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis--Suez and the Brink of War - Hardcover

Nichols, David A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1439139334 ISBN 13: 9781439139332

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2011

Synopsis

A gripping tale of international intrigue and betray-al, Eisenhower 1956 is the white-knuckle story of how President Dwight D. Eisenhower guided the United States through the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. The crisis climaxed in a tumultuous nine-day period fraught with peril just prior to the 1956 presidential election, with Great Britain, France, and Israel invading Egypt while the Soviet Union ruthlessly crushed rebellion in Hungary.

David A. Nichols, a leading expert on Eisenhower’s presidency, draws on hundreds of documents declassified in the last thirty years, enabling the reader to look over Ike’s shoulder and follow him day by day, sometimes hour by hour as he grappled with the greatest international crisis of his presidency. The author uses formerly top secret minutes of National Security Council and Oval Office meetings to illuminate a crisis that threatened to escalate into global conflict.

Nichols shows how two life-threatening illnesses—Eisenhower’s heart attack in September 1955 and his abdominal surgery in June 1956—took the president out of action at critical moments and contributed to missteps by his administration.

In 1956, more than two thirds of Western Europe’s oil supplies transited the Suez Canal, which was run by a company controlled by the British and French, Egypt’s former colonial masters. When the United States withdrew its offer to finance the Aswan Dam in July of that year, Egypt’s president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, nationalized the canal. Without Eisenhower’s knowledge, Britain and France secretly plotted with Israel to invade Egypt and topple Nasser.

On October 29—nine days before the U.S. presidential election—Israel invaded Egypt, setting the stage for a “perfect storm.” British and French forces soon began bombing Egyptian ports and airfields and landing troops who quickly routed the Egyptian army. Eisenhower condemned the attacks and pressed for a cease-fire at the United Nations.

Within days, in Hungary, Soviet troops and tanks were killing thousands to suppress that nation’s bid for freedom. When Moscow openly threatened to intervene in the Middle East, Eisenhower placed American military forces—including some with nuclear weapons—on alert and sternly warned the Soviet Union against intervention.

On November 6, Election Day, after voting at his home in Gettysburg, Ike rushed back to the White House to review disturbing intelligence from Moscow with his military advisors. That same day, he learned that the United Nations had negotiated a cease-fire in the Suez war—a result, in no small measure, of Eisenhower’s steadfast opposition to the war and his refusal to aid the allies.

In the aftermath of the Suez crisis, the United States effectively replaced Great Britain as the guarantor of stability in the Middle East. More than a half century later, that commitment remains the underlying premise for American policy in the region.

Historians have long treated the Suez Crisis as a minor episode in the dissolution of colonial rule after World War II. As David Nichols makes clear in Eisenhower 1956, it was much more than that.

About this title

About the Author:

David A. Nichols, a leading expert on the Eisenhower presidency, holds a PhD in history from the College of William and Mary. A former professor and academic dean at Southwestern College, he is the author of A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution; Eisenhower 1956: The President’s Year of Crisis; and Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower’s Secret Campaign against Joseph McCarthy; as well as other books. He lives in Winfield, Kansas.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

2

CRISES OF THE HEART
September 23-November 11, 1955

“Well, I walked over to the wall and sat down and came back. I am getting to be a big boy now.”

Eisenhower to Sherman Adams, October 26, 1955, a month after his heart attack

DWIGHT EISENHOWER had not enjoyed a vacation so much in years. He had pleased Mamie by agreeing to spend the six-week vacation at the home of Mamie’s mother, Elvira Doud, in Denver, but his part of the bargain was a five-day, men-only fishing trip to Byers Peak Ranch. Once at the ranch, Eisenhower, as his physician Howard Snyder put it, was “as full of contentment as I had ever seen.” The group was made up of old friends—the host, Aksel Nielsen, a friend, George E. Allen (not to be confused with assistant secretary of state George V. Allen), assistant press secretary Murray Snyder, and the physician. They were later joined by another longtime Eisenhower friend, Robert L. Biggers of Chrysler Corporation.

As the outing’s final day approached, Ike made a decision worthy of a commander-in-chief: on Friday, September 23, the president of the United States would cook breakfast. The night before, he challenged the men to show up the next morning with “a he-man’s appetite” because he was planning to cook a “despideda” (farewell) breakfast.1

Eisenhower bounded out of bed at 5:00 A.M., ready to commence his culinary duties. Dr. Howard Snyder was the first to arrive at the president’s cabin. He had enjoyed the walk, gazing at the blue-gray outline of Byers Peak in the distance, and breathing in the crisp, cool, 35 degree morning air. When Snyder entered the cabin, the president was just emerging from his bedroom, in full stride toward the kitchen. The president boomed a greeting: “What are you doing up so early, Howard?”

As the others arrived, Eisenhower decreed that no one but he would be permitted in the kitchen. About 6:30, they sat down and indulged, according to Snyder, in “special Eisenhower corn cakes, eggs, sausages, ham, blackeyed peas, and red-eye gravy.” After breakfast, their vehicles already packed, the party journeyed over the twelve-thousand-foot Berthoud Pass, arriving at the Doud home about 8:30 A.M. The group split up and Eisenhower continued on to his office at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver.

Intent on playing golf, Ike conducted his presidential business expeditiously. Colonel John H. McCann provided the president’s morning intelligence briefing, including news that gave Eisenhower pause. Ike betrayed no hint of that concern to Ann Whitman, who had “never seen him look or act better.”2

About 11:00 A.M., the president departed for the Cherry Hills Country Club, where he teed off at noon for an 18-hole round. Up to the 14th green, Eisenhower was, Howard Snyder recalled, “exuberant” about his game. Then he was interrupted with a message that he had a phone call from Secretary of State Dulles. Returning to the clubhouse, Ike was told that the secretary was en route to an engagement and would call again in an hour. The president returned to his golf game. Snyder overheard Ike grumbling about “an unnecessary call” and his game, in Snyder’s terms, “went to pot” between the 14th and 18th greens. Ike returned to the clubhouse “in a bad humor” for lunch.3

About 2:30 Ike teed off for a second round but his game was disrupted three more times by calls from Dulles, two of them unsuccessful in connecting Ike with the secretary. Dr. Snyder noted that the president was so irritated at these intrusions that “the veins stood out on his forehead like whipcords.” The one call that got through was important. The day before, Dulles had addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the American proposal for Arab-Israeli peace in the Middle East—code-named Alpha—that Dulles had announced on August 26. Now that plan was in jeopardy. Dulles confirmed to Eisenhower in his phone call that the Soviet Union was preparing to provide “a massive lot of arms” to the Egyptians. He had experienced “a little rough time” in New York, discussing the matter with Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister. The British and French were “alarmed”; Dulles feared the Israelis might launch a preemptive attack on Egypt because “today they can lick them easily.”4

Eisenhower replied that he had been briefed about “the Egyptian thing” that morning and had been “churning it around.” The president expressed concern that the Russians “are considering giving arms to a country in an area where it will cause trouble.” Dulles suggested a presidential communication to Soviet premier Bulganin. Eisenhower agreed—he was already obligated to respond to a September 19 message from Bulganin on disarmament—but he wanted to think about it overnight. Ike told Dulles he would call him the following morning.5

That phone call was never made.

DUAL CRISES

After the conversation with Dulles, Ike returned to his golf game but quit after nine holes. The president began to experience what he thought were symptoms of indigestion. His discomfort gradually increased during the rest of the day. Eisenhower declined his usual evening drink because, Dr. Snyder recalled, “he did not feel well in the middle.” The president had little appetite at dinner and retired early.6

On Saturday morning, September 24, just after nine, Secretary Dulles discussed the Egyptian situation with the CIA director, his brother Allen, who reported that “the facts seem pretty firm” about the Egyptian arms deal. Foster did not think they would get far in talking with the Egyptians. Any protests should be directed at the Soviets.7

The brothers were unaware that another crisis had been building for hours in Denver. At the Doud home in the middle of the night, Mamie Eisenhower had arisen to go to the bathroom. She passed the door of the president’s room, heard him making noises in his sleep, and stopped by his bed to ask whether he was having a nightmare. Ike replied, “No dear, but I thank you.” Ten minutes later, he was at her bedside, saying, “I’ve got a pain across the lower part of my chest.” Since he had complained about indigestion, Mamie gave her husband milk of magnesia.8

At 2:54 A.M., Mamie called Howard Snyder. Snyder recognized the “distinct note of alarm” in the first lady’s voice and sent for a car. Eisenhower had suffered frequent stomach upsets through the years; a late-night visit to the president’s bedside was not unprecedented. At 3:11 Snyder arrived at the Doud residence. Upon seeing the president, the doctor listened to his chest and took his blood pressure. Ike’s pulse was very rapid and the doctor found it difficult to get a good blood pressure reading.

Ike was “agitated and complaining of severe pain across his chest.” Over the next few minutes, Snyder gave the president amyl nitrite to sniff and injections of papaverine hydrochloride, morphine tartrate, heparin, and, later, a second shot of morphine. Suddenly the president went into what Snyder later called “a state of shock.” His blood pressure plummeted and his pulse became even more irregular.

Instead of calling for an ambulance, Snyder asked Mamie to climb into bed and embrace the president. Snyder later wrote that “this had the desired effect almost immediately.” Eisenhower went back to sleep a little after four—probably due as much to the morphine as Mamie’s embrace. By this time, Snyder believed that he was dealing with a heart attack, but he chose to let the president rest from the trauma.

At 5:45 A.M., Snyder called Ann Whitman to say the president might not be into the office until ten o’clock or later. Murray Snyder, the assistant press secretary, should tell the press that the president had experienced a “digestive upset.” When the fifty-plus reporters clamored for more information, Whitman called the doctor back and asked him how serious the episode was. Snyder responded that the president was asleep and “his digestive upset was not serious.” That was a lie; Ann Whitman took the doctor’s reassuring response at “face value” and passed it on to Murray Snyder.9

The president slept until 11:30 A.M. Dr. Snyder constantly monitored his blood pressure and pulse as he slept; once the pressure dropped to a dangerously low 86 over 56. Only then did Snyder call Denver’s Fitzsimons Army Hospital and request a cardiac specialist to administer an electrocardiogram. The cardiologist, General Byron Pollock, arrived about 1:00 P.M.

Pollock quickly concluded that the president had suffered “a massive infarct,” i.e., significant damage to the tissues of the heart. The president was told that he must go to the hospital. Even then, Snyder did not order an ambulance. Instead, he called for a Secret Service car. Whitman later said that Eisenhower walked down the stairs to the car, but Snyder’s account says that, due to the difficulty of using a stretcher on the stairs, two big Secret Service agents carried the president down the stairs. He then walked to the car.

Arriving at the rear entrance of Fitzsimons, Eisenhower was placed in a wheelchair and rolled to an elevator, ascending to the eighth floor, where the VIP suite was located. Once in his room, the president was placed in an oxygen tent—an action that surprised him. This may have been the moment when Ike began to realize that he was being treated for a serious heart attack.

About 1:45 P.M., Ann Whitman, Murray Snyder, and other staffers left Lowry Air Force Base for the Famous Chef, a nearby restaurant, for a late lunch. As they began to eat, Murray was called to the phone. He returned to inform the group that the president had suffered “a mild anterior coronary thrombosis.” Ann Whitman also received a call; the message was that the president wanted her to call the attorney general to ask him how authority could be delegated during his illness. They paid for their uneaten lunch and rushed back to the base. Ann Whitman believed that “we—and perhaps the world—knew that he had an attack of thrombosis before the President himself knew.”10

GOVERNING WITHOUT IKE

The administration’s first crisis in Middle East policy, mixed with the president’s heart attack, only exacerbated the disarray that afflicted the Eisenhower team. In the months to come, the Egyptian arms deal would evolve into a major threat to peace. And the president was out of action at its inception.

Such situations seem destined to arise on a weekend when key people are unavailable. Congress was in recess. The chief of staff, Sherman Adams, was in Europe at the president’s request, reviewing NATO operations. Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr., was on vacation in Spain. On that rainy Saturday in Washington, Jim Hagerty, the press secretary, was enjoying his first vacation in years, although he had stayed in the capital. Hagerty returned home from golfing about four o’clock and picked up the afternoon edition of the Washington Star, noting a two-column box at the bottom of the page, reporting that a digestive upset had kept the president from going to his office that morning. Hagerty, assuming nothing serious, lay down for a nap.11

About 4:30 P.M., Hagerty’s special White House phone began to ring incessantly—a signal the call was urgent. The press secretary picked up the receiver and Murray Snyder was on the other end: “Jim, Dr. Snyder has just called me and told me that the President has suffered a heart attack.” Hagerty felt like he had been “slugged”; he was sure his own heart was skipping beats. Snyder told Hagerty that he intended to tell the press that the president had endured “a mild coronary thrombosis.”

Hagerty knew he must leave for Denver immediately. While his wife packed his clothes, the press secretary frantically scribbled a to-do list on a scratch pad. The phone rang; it was Vice President Richard Nixon. “Dick, sit down,” Hagerty said. “The President has had a heart attack.” “Oh, my God,” the vice president responded. “When, how bad is it?” Hagerty did not know. Nixon expressed the feelings of the Eisenhower team: “We all need the President.”

The conflicting accounts of those first hours reflect the turmoil that afflicted the Eisenhower staff. In Denver, Ann Whitman was stacking up five or six phone calls at a time. Hagerty and Wilton B. “Jerry” Persons, the assistant chief of staff and congressional liaison, agreed that the press secretary would call the secretaries of state and treasury, and cable Sherman Adams. Whitman’s memory later was hazy; she thought she had called Milton first, then the other Eisenhower brothers, but Hagerty recorded in his diary that Ann had tearfully called him, relaying Mrs. Eisenhower’s request that he be the one to contact the family.12

Hagerty recalled that Foster Dulles “was deeply shocked” when he told the secretary of state of Eisenhower’s condition. “Jim, this is terrible news. It is terrible news for the President’s family and for the country. But it is equally terrible for the free world.” Dulles worried about the possibility that the nations of the world “will adopt an attitude of waiting and seeing who will be the next President” and decline to make commitments.

Dulles had reason for concern. A foreign ministers meeting was scheduled in Geneva starting October 27, designed to follow up on the July meeting of American, British, French, and Soviet heads of state. Eisenhower’s first summit with the Soviets had generated hope for progress toward peace, especially disarmament. Dulles feared that the president’s illness would make the foreign ministers’ negotiations “more difficult than ever” and give the Soviets freedom “to play the usual game of stalling.”

Hagerty’s voice was “choked up” as he reached Milton Eisenhower on the phone. Milton suggested that, for public confidence, they bring in a civilian heart specialist, one not associated with the Army. Dr. Snyder and the Fitzsimons physicians had already reached the same conclusion and had settled on one of the leading cardiologists in America—Paul Dudley White, the Boston specialist.13

About 5:15 P.M., a frustrated Murray Snyder informed Hagerty that he had been instructed to remove the word “mild” from further announcements to the press. He and Hagerty groused about Dr. Snyder’s messages, which had migrated from “a mild digestion upset” to “a mild coronary thrombosis.” Would the next message reveal something more serious? At Dr. Snyder’s request, Hagerty arranged for Thomas W. Mattingly, the cardiologist at Walter Reed Hospital, to fly with him to Denver. Merriman Smith, the lead reporter with United Press International, had heard the news, called, and persuaded Hagerty to permit him to fly to Denver with them.14

At ten minutes until eight o’clock, Hagerty, Mattingly, and Smith boarded their plane. A torrential rainstorm at Lowry Air Force Base forced them to land at Stapleton Airport in Denver. Arriving at Fitzsimons about midnight, Hagerty quickly confirmed his worst fear—the president’s heart attack was “more than mild.”

Ann Whitman, after a sleepless night, described Sunday, September 25, as “a daze—mostly telephoning.” Hagerty, equally weary, arrived at the hospital at 6:30 A.M. He shared a medical bulletin with the press that read: “The President had a very satisfactory night. His blood pressure and pulse continued stable. There were no complications.”15

As the hours passed, Hagerty’s anger smoldered over Howard Snyder’s handling of the situation. He grumbled to his diary that “there is no such thing as a mild coronary thrombosis.” Hagerty could not comprehend the manner in which Ike had been transported to the hospital. “You just don’t let a person with a heart attack walk from his house to the car,” he wrote.16

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1439139334
• ISBN 13: 9781439139332
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368