It was hard for France and Britain to accept their post-war secondary status.
Key point: America's allies went on a foolish adventure and did not realize the problem they were causing. Washington had to intervene and get London and Paris to stand down.
The war began with an imperialist invasion to seize the Suez Canal. It ended with the Soviet Union threatening to nuke Britain, France and Israel.
The 1956 British and French attack on Suez, and the parallel 1956 Israel-Egypt War, have to be among the strangest conflicts in history. The cast of characters includes two fading empires reluctant to admit their decline, a charismatic Arab dictator, a paranoid Jewish state, a semi-fake war and a superpower with nuclear weapons.