Dan: I feel this is linked to your earlier comment about "from Versailles to Suez without a war". I assume you are referring here possibly to me.
I am certainly not going to give you list. . . Far too tedious for all parties I suspect. Even more so for any itinerant reader. However let me give you my own response to 'from Versailles to Suez without a war". Without tediously listing all the wee fencing and minor skirmishes and yes.. wars - of a colonial "Great Britain coming to terms with its' lack of greatness", you appear to have somehow overlooked World War 2. In 1992, I cited a British economist of the period in an article as follows: " In addition the US had given major loans to the British and French which it now used as a lever to obtain the privileges of entry into the sterling and franc semi-colonial territories of the British and French. Britain, for example was now completely beholden to the USA: "When sales of foreign investments and of gold and dollars are added in, the net change on capital account between the outbreak of war and the end of 1945 amounted to no less than Pounds Sterling 4,700 million. The United Kingdom ended the war with the largest debt in history " A.Cairncross: "Years of Recovery, British Economic Policy. 1945-51. London, 1985. p. 7. " Cited in: Alliance ML 1992; 'Crisis in Capital.. Free Trade and Protectionism in Developed Countries": at: https://ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALLIANCE3ECONOMICS.html True - WW2 did not pit the USA against the UK - but it was, you might agree a significant war. It completely disrupted the status quo between the imperialist nations. (Here for this purpose under discussion, it is not necessary to discuss the relations between the Soviet Union and world imperialism). Lend-Lease put the nail into the pretensions of British imperialism as it was. It was I believe - a world war that hammered in the USA victory over an ageing dowager Empire. As for Suez - what else was that but a war by proxy? Well, actually perhaps more than just that - it was a trap sprung by the USA to finally humiliate the British into an effective withdrawal from the Middle Wast? In 1992, I wrote about Suez as follows "The Western imperialists feared that Egypt was becoming drawn into the USSR sphere of influence. This was a more urgent fear for the weaker British than for the USA. Marked pressure on the USA to tangibly support this policy, came from Antony Eden (then Conservative Prime Minister of Britain). Winston Aldrich, the US ambassador to London said: "Eden.. asked me to see him on a matter of the greatest importance and urgency. Eden told me that the emergency has arisen in connection with the Egyptian proposal, namely that the Russians had offered to finance the dam. Eden feared that this would give the Egyptians a dangerous foothold in an area vital to the interests of Great Britain.. He asked me to take up at once with Washington the question of whether the US would underwrite the obligations which Great Britain would assume in making such a guarantee (of financing the dam)". Cited David Carlton "Antony Eden" London 1981 p.391. Eisenhower, as his diary showed had already recognised that this was a doomed policy. He concluded that Egypt was moving away from the likely control of the USA, and that the Saudis should be firmly lassoed into the USA sphere: "We have reached the point where it looks as if Egypt, under Nasser is going to make no move.. the Arabs (i.e. Egypt -ED ) absorbing major consignments of arms from the Soviets are daily growing more arrogant and disregarding the interests of Western Europe and the US.. It would appear that our efforts should be directed towards separating the Saudi Arabians from the Egyptians and concentrating, for the moment.. in making the former see that their best interests lie with us, and not with the Egyptians and with the Russians.." D. Eisenhower, Diary, Cited by David Carlton; lbid p. 404. In:"The Gulf war - USA Imperialists Bid to Recapture World Supremacy"; at: https://ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/ALLIANCE2-GULFWAR.htm Thanks for considering, Hari -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#35588): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/35588 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/111412499/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
