their troops had not yet landed. Eisenhower was appalled by both British tactics and British strategy. “If one has to fight,” he told Gruenther, “the… - Stephen E. Ambrose

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their troops had not yet landed. Eisenhower was appalled by both British tactics and British strategy. “If one has to fight,” he told Gruenther, “then that is that. But I don’t see the point in getting into a fight to which there can be no satisfactory end, and in which the whole world believes you are playing the part of the bully and you do not even have the firm backing of your entire people.” Eisenhower said he had talked to an old British friend who was “truly bitter” about Eden’s gunboat diplomacy, and who had declared, “This is nothing except Eden trying to be bigger than he is.” Eisenhower said he “did not dismiss it that lightly. I believe that Eden and his associates have become convinced that this is the last straw and Britain simply had to react in the manner of the Victorian period.”29 The news over the weekend was quite disheartening. On Saturday, Dulles had entered Walter Reed