The Suez Canal in the U.S. Periodical Press, 1922–1956

The Suez Canal issue has repeatedly attracted the attention of the international press in the context of decolonization, the self-determination of peoples, and the transformation of empires. However, no dedicated study has yet examined how this issue was covered in the American periodical press, despite the fact that it became an important element of heated debates in the United States on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues, as well as over the rethinking of the country’s place and role in international relations. In order to address this gap and better understand the context and logic underlying the U.S. international position in the mid-20th century, the author traces the evolution of debates in the American periodical press concerning the ownership of the Suez Canal and its future. At the first stage (1922–1924), discussions of possible solutions to this issue following Egypt’s independence unfolded against the backdrop of broader debates on international affairs between internationalists and isolationists. The article demonstrates that both pro-Democratic and pro-Republican publications, despite the different tone, criticized Britain’s imperial policy regarding the canal. At the second stage, on the eve of World War II, publications offered varying assessments regarding the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and, more broadly, the changing international situation around the Suez Canal amid the actions of the aggressor states. At the third stage, in the mid-1950s, the Suez Crisis became the focus of attention of the American periodical press. The article demonstrates how, over the course of these debates, the framing of the Suez Canal as an international issue falling primarily within Britain’s sphere of responsibility gradually gave way to criticism of colonial empires and subsequently, following the logic of the Cold War, to anti-communist rhetoric and concerns about possible Soviet intervention in the conflict on the side of Gamal Abdel Nasser. The author concludes that the coverage of the Suez Canal issue in the American periodical press was not an isolated media phenomenon but rather served as a discursive field for articulating conceptions of the U.S. role in the world and as an instrument for shaping public perceptions of the international political situation. This was particularly evident in the construction of the Soviet threat during the escalation of the Suez Crisis.