CBS Funded Invasions to Televise and Other Extreme Lengths in History

1. The Extreme British Plan to Punish a Troublesome Egyptian Ruler by Blocking the Nile

Egypt was a British client state and protectorate from 1882 to 1952, and Britain-based troops were there to protect her interests. Most important of those interests was safeguarding the Suez Canal, of which the British government was a majority shareholder. Then in 1952, nationalist Egyptian officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew Egypt’s pro-British king. The new government demanded that British troops leave Egypt, and in 1956, nationalized the Suez Canal. Nasser infuriated British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, who was determined to put the Egyptian upstart in his place. So secret plans were drawn for an extreme solution: cut off the Nile’s flow of water.

Britain controlled Uganda, where the Owen Falls Dam lay astride the White Nile, the main source of the river flowing into Egypt. The idea was to cut off the flow in Uganda, thus reducing the Nile’s water volume by seven eighths by the time it reached Egypt. The plan was ultimately rejected because it would deprive other countries between Uganda and Egypt of water, would take too long, and would produce a PR nightmare. Instead, Eden opted for direct military intervention. The result was the 1956 Suez Crisis, which ended with Britain forced into a humiliating climb down, and the wrecking of Anthony Eden’s political career.

_________________

Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Ceilan, Cynthia – Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed (2007)

Cracked – 6 Times the News Went Totally Overboard Chasing a Story

Daily Sabah, August 6^th, 2015 – The History of Fratricide in the Ottoman Empire

Encyclopedia Britannica – Al Hakim, Fatimid Caliph

Gabriel, Richard – Subotai the Valiant: Genghis Khan’s Greatest General (2004)

Gonick, Larry – The Cartoon History of the Universe III: From the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance (2002)

Guardian, The, May 14^th, 2000 – US Planned One Big Nuclear Blast for Mankind

Guardian, The, December 1^st, 2006 – Lawyers Warned Eden That Suez Invasion Was Illegal

How Stuff Works – Japanese Holdouts

Los Angeles Times, May 18^th, 2000 – US Weighed A-Blast on Moon in 1950s

Mason, Phil – Hitler’s Secret Jewish Psychic and Other Strange and Obscure History (2014)

Mike Dash History – Final Straggler: The Japanese Soldier Who Outlasted Hiroo Onoda

Motherboard, April 25^th, 2013 – The Soviet Scientist Who Dreamed of Melting the Arctic With a 55 Mile Dam

National Archives, UK – Operation Unthinkable

Raphael, Chad – Investigated Reporting: Muckrakers, Regulators, and the Struggle Over Television Documentary (2005)

Smithsonian Magazine, September 4^th, 2018 – When the US Government Tried to Make it Rain by Exploding Dynamite in the Sky

Snopes – Did a Man Die Demonstrating a Window’s Strength?

Stewart, Desmond – Great Cairo: Mother of the World (1981)

Wikipedia – Inland Customs Line

Williams, John Alden, ed. – The History of Al-Tabari, Volume XXVII: The Abbasid Revolution, AD 743-750 (1985)

Yorkshire Post, November 30^th, 2006 – Britain Hatched Plot to Cut Off River Nile Amid Crisis Over Suez