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The American presidential election in November 1956 coincided with two of the greatest crises of the postwar era: Suez and Hungary.

In July of that year, the Suez Canal had been nationalised by Egypt’s President Nasser. It provoked alarm and outrage in Britain and France, and it led to a joint Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt that in turn produced an international outcry.

Meanwhile, in October an uprising in Hungary against Soviet rule prompted an invasion by the Red Army and a brutal campaign of repression.

This series is about the interplay of these three overlapping dramas – the Suez crisis, the Hungarian revolution and the American presidential election – and their consequences for the world. Between them these events shattered the illusions of the postwar world: about British power, about Soviet tolerance of dissent, about American commitment to democracy, about European solidarity, about the future of the Middle East and about the power of international institutions. Seventy years on David Runciman explores how these events in late 1956 represent a watershed in twentieth-century history.

In Britain Suez stands as a morality tale and still flashes like a beacon of warning. What are the wider lessons of 1956? More to the point, is anyone capable of heeding them?

Producer: Martin Williams