Limited War

Report Outline
Conflict Over Defense Preparations
Defense Concepts Since World War II
Special Problems of Limited War

Conflict Over Defense Preparations

Middle East Demonstration of War Risks

Fear of general war was raised throughout the world by the sudden new crisis in the Middle East. Quickly following the overthrow of the government of Iraq on July 14, U.S. marines were landed in Lebanon and British paratroopers in Jordan to discourage similar Arab nationalist coups in those countries. President Eisenhower in a special message to Congress, July 15, acknowledged that the landings at Beirut might have “serious consequences.” Moscow and Peiping immediately voiced charges of Western aggression.

Secretary of State Dulles told the Senate Appropriations Committee, July 18, that this was “a grave moment in history.” On the same day U.S. Ambassador Raymond A. Hare at Cairo formally warned the United Arab Republic that “Any attack on United States forces by military units of the United Arab Republic or under U.A.R. control could involve grave consequences seriously impairing our relations.” Almost simultaneously the Russian government declared that “The Soviet Union will not rest indifferent to the acts of unprovoked aggression in an area adjacent to its frontiers.”

Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev, in a message on July 19 calling for immediate convening of a summit conference on the Middle East, took occasion to remind the West that the Russian arsenal included intercontinental missiles. However, Khrushchev agreed that it would be “wiser not to bring the heated atmosphere to a boiling point.” Both Dulles and British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd had expressed the opinion that the present situation would not lead to open conflict between East and West. But everyone recognized that a false step by either side might usher in the dreaded Third World War.