The Syrian Crisis of 1957 was a period of severe diplomatic confrontations during the Cold War that involved Syria and the Soviet Union on one hand, and the United States and its allies, including Turkey and the Baghdad Pact, on the other.
The tensions began in August 18,[1] when the Syrian government made a series of provocative institutional changes, such as the appointment of Col. Afif al-Bizri as chief-of-staff of the Syrian Army, who was alleged by Western governments of being a Soviet sympathizer. Suspicion that a communist takeover had occurred in Damascus grew larger, prompting neighboring Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to consider supporting an Arab or Western military intervention to overthrown the Syrian government. Turkey was the only country to step in by deploying thousands of troops along the Syrian-Turkish border. Nikita Khrushchev threatened that he would launch missiles at Turkey if it attacks Syria, while the United States said that it could attack the Soviet Union in response to an assault on Turkey. The crisis ended in late October, when Turkey agreed to cease its border operations following pressure by the United States,[2] and when Khrushchev made an unexpected visit to the Turkish embassy in Moscow.[1]
The events are widely seen as a major failure of the Eisenhower Doctrine, which stressed that the United States could intervene militarily on behalf of a Middle Eastern ally to fight "international communism".[2]
Footnotes
- ^ a b Brecher 1997, pp. 345–346
- ^ a b Salim 2011, pp. 114–116
References
- Anderson, Philip (1995). "'Summer Madness': The Crisis in Syria, August-October 1957". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 22 (1/2). Taylor & Francis: pp. 21–42.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - Blackwell, Stephen (2000). "Britain, the United States and the Syrian crisis, 1957". Diplomacy and Statecraft. 11 (3): pp. 139–158.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - Brecher, Michael (1997). A Study of Crisis. University of Michigan Press. pp. 345–346. ISBN 9780472108060.
- Brown, Kevin (2013). "The rdr Syrian Crisis of 1957: A Lesson for the 21st Century" (PDF). CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy. University of Southern California Center for Public Diplomacy.
- Jankowski, James P. (2002). Nasser's Egypt, Arab Nationalism, and the United Arab Republic. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 9781588260345.
- Kirk, George (1960). "The Syrian Crisis of 1957: Fact and Fiction". International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-). 36 (1): pp. 58–61.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - Laçiner, Sedat; Bal, İhsan (2011). "USAK Yearbook of International Politics and Law: Volume 4". International Strategic Research Organization. 4. ISBN 9786054030477.
- Lesch, David W. (1992). "The Saudi Role in the America‐Syrian Crisis of 1957". Middle East Policy. 1 (3): pp. 33–48.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - Lesch, David W. (1994). "Syria and the United States: Eisenhower's Cold War in the Middle East". Foreign Affairs. 73 (6). Council on Foreign Relations: pp. 183.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - Pearson, Ivan (2007). "The Syrian Crisis of 1957, the Anglo-American 'Special Relationship', and the 1958 Landings in Jordan and Lebanon". Middle Eastern Studies. 43 (1). Taylor & Francis: pp. 45–64.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - Yaqub, Salim (2004). Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807855089.
- Yaqub, Salim (2011). "Contesting Arabism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Arab Middle East, 1956-1959" (PDF). 6 (27). The MacMillian Center Council on Middle East Studies: 111–123.
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