In the 1950s it seemed to the world at large that the British Empire was in a state of terminal decline, not least after the catastrophic setback caused by the Suez crisis of 1956. The British (along with the French and Israelis) had invaded Egypt to sustain Western hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean—and, more specifically, to retain control over the Suez Canal. At the same time the British increasingly believed that the Americans—the ‘trans-Atlantic barbarians’—aimed to replace them in the Middle East. There was also a powerful belief among the Arab states that the British, denounced at the United Nations as racists, torturers, and murderers, could not be trusted. Nevertheless, they largely preferred continued friendship or close relations with London rather than Washington.