What was immediately recognized as a watershed moment was the interference of the United States into the international actions of the traditional European Colonial powers. Eisenhower told Britain and France to backdown, in effect, and did not support their imperialist intervention in Suez. This sort of American annoyance with European imperialism was not new, mind you. Woodrow Wilson also attempted to interrupt Colonialist machinations in the spirit of international democracy— notably, the British and French conquests of the Middle East were legitimized through “Mandates” and not outright annexation as a result. However Wilson was not consistent with his criticism and his influence was limited, only counting at all because of the tremendous war loans the Americans had given to the eventually victorious Allies , a sort of Financial humanitarianism if you will. By the end of the second world war, there were American troops throughout Europe and American influence overwhelmingly saturated Europe... from Sherman tanks to occupation troops to Financial assistance to diplomatic obligations. And when Eisenhower withdrew support or otherwise directed Britain and France not to seize Suez by force, the British and French were in no position to argue.

Notably, the later Mossadegh coup in Iran was an interference by Britain and the United States into a “colonial” world nation and deemed important enough for realpolitik reasons. Of course, the spectre in the Suez case was the Soviet Union — to whose arms Egypt would turn when the West came to bully. And by the time Mossadegh came to power, the cold war had heated up.

In conclusion, we can say that the Suez Canal shows the limits of European hard power. Without the US’s explicit support, European great powers were limited in pursuing a full range of options in securing their national interests. We can speak therefore of the birth of soft power, to the extent that to this day, Europe has strong financial and soft power influence on many former colonies but can hardly send in the Royal Marines or French Foreign Legion unless “invited” or with international support.