Syrian Crisis of 1957

1957 Syrian Crisis
Part of the Cold War

Gamal Abdel Nasser meeting Syrian delegation pushing for unity between Egypt and Syria
Date18 August – late October 1957
Location
Result Turkey halts its border operations
Belligerents
 Turkey
 United States
Baghdad Pact
 Syria
 Soviet Union
Egypt Egypt
Commanders and leaders
Turkey Celâl Bayar
United States Dwight Eisenhower
United States John Foster Dulles
Second Syrian Republic Shukri al-Quwatli
Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev
Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser

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 on August 18,[1] when the Syrian government presided by Shukri al-Quwatli made a series of 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 to be 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 overthrow 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 attacked 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]

  1. ^ a b Brecher 1997, pp. 345–346.
  2. ^ a b Yaqub 2011, pp. 114–116.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · View on Wikipedia

Developed by Nelliwinne