Lester Pearson's Role In Ending The Suez Canal Crisis

Imagine four of the most powerful countries at war for a very long time, fighting over the survival instinct to obtain natural resources. Soldiers were dead, some were wounded, and others were tired of fighting. Families were losing loved ones, and the war won’t end, creating a downfall in economy, resources, armies, energy and ending in a gloomy and depressive atmosphere worldwide. What would make England, France, Israel fight Egypt for? The one and only paramount location which is the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is a shipping route that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red sea, that allows ships and cargo to pass, reducing the distance, time and effort. In 1869, the Suez Canal was officially up and running, and because of this great
He, who was a Prime Minister for the Canadian government from 1963 to 1968 (Hillmer 3) did not reach this post easily. His name was known for his tremendous effort in peacemaking especially in solving the Suez Canal crisis. Lester Pearson was the person who initiated ending the Suez Canal crisis, by contributing to a peace conference and settlement between the four countries, asked for a ceasefire and supervised it, and received a Nobel Prize for ending the war and creating peace
What helped him to move even more quickly is Henry Lodge’s indication that “he authorized the secretary general to create an emergency international force to supervise a cease fire”(Cohen p119). Lodge authorized Pearson to be responsible for this gesture, as he knew how much he could depend on him and how Pearson could act fast without obstacles (Cohen 120).In order to improve the supervision, Pearson voluntarily provided a thousand Canadian soldiers to help in the peace by being a barrier between Arabs and Israelis while the settlement is in the making. Also, due to his social intelligence, he made sure that these soldiers were not form the queens own (those who flew the Red Ensign) because he knew they would be rejected by the Egyptians (Cohen 121) fearing they would not trust them, which could have caused more problems. As promised, Pearson successfully helped in making peace again within a short period of time. On November 7th a cease fire was declared, November 15th UN soldiers arrived, and Israelis withdrew and finally the Suez Canal