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Anthony Eden

Prime Minister 1955 - 57

Anthony Eden's early career was that of a very popular and hard working politician. After Eton, Christ Church College, Oxford, and service in the First World War, entry to Parliament as MP for Warwick and Leamington came in 1923. Promotion followed quickly. By 1926 Eden was parliamentary private secretary to Austen Chamberlain at the Foreign Office. Other important jobs at the Foreign Office led to the position of foreign secretary in 1935. It was during this first period as foreign secretary that Eden experienced events that marked him for the rest of his career. In March 1936, soon after Eden took over at the Foreign Office, Hitler ordered German troops into the Rhineland. This was done in direct contravention of the Versailles treaty concluded at the end of the First World War. Eden was regarded as a gifted diplomat, and his instinct had always been to try and find a negotiated settlement to international disputes. But in the light of World War Two Eden would deeply regret in later years his efforts to negotiate with Hitler. He would feel that failure to make a show of force with the French over German occupation of the Rhineland was his responsibility. And it was this failure which encouraged Hitler to eventually invade Europe. Whether this is true of course is very debatable. The fact is there was no general desire to oppose Hitler in the late 1930s. Memories of the First World War were still fresh in people's minds, and the vast majority of people were willing to do almost anything to avoid another war. As late as September 1938 a Mass Observation study - an early form of opinion poll - showed that 70% of those questioned were in favour of trying to negotiate a settlement with Germany. (See The Prime Ministers Vol 2 P294) Eden could only do what was possible, and it could be argued that an attack on Germany in 1936 simply was not politically feasible. But Eden didn't think like this. He was a man who felt he had power over world events. Every waking hour was full of work and meetings - this was not a man with a sense of events beyond his control. In his memoirs Eden wrote that Britain and France "should have attempted the impossible" and put military pressure on Germany. To Eden the fault for inaction lay with the British foreign secretary, and him alone. This sense of failure could be seen as dictating later disastrous events in Eden's career, in trying to go back and rewrite this painful past.

Ironically as the Second World War approached, Eden's reputation was not damaged because of his past support for negotiation with Germany. While Neville Chamberlain suffered the humiliation of being judged a weak appeaser, Eden managed to escape with his reputation intact. This happened more through luck than judgment. Eden was an insecure man, who resented prime minster Chamberlain's involvement in "his" area of foreign affairs. Eden resigned as foreign secretary over this interference in February 1938, and it appeared that Eden had resigned because he disagreed with Chamberlain's foreign policy. In this way Eden came to be seen as a brave voice of resistance to Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Winston Churchill clearly viewed Eden in this way. After the 1938 resignation Churchill didn't sleep. He wrote: "From midnight until dawn I lay in my bed consumed by emotions of sorrow and fear. There seemed one strong young figure standing up against long, dismal, drawling tides of drift and surrender. Now he was gone. I watched the daylight slowly creep in through the windows and saw before me in mental gaze the vision of death." (Quoted in The Prime Ministers Vol2 P355)

Entrance to underground Cabinet War Rooms, Whitehall

Once Churchill became prime minister in May 1940 he immediately made Eden foreign secretary, and began to groom him as a future prime minister. As well as foreign secretary, the additional job of leader of the Commons was considered useful in the grooming process. These extra responsibilities exacerbated an already workaholic personality. Eden worked from before breakfast into the early hours every day. Virtually every waking moment was devoted to meetings and business. This driven man seemed unable to be quiet, or alone, for more than a few minutes at a time. Perhaps in time of war this impression of endless activity gave a required sense of purpose and direction, which Churchill loved so much. By 1945 these work habits were causing health problems.

Following the war Clement Attlee's labour government took over, until an ageing Churchill won again for the Conservatives in 1951. Following Churchill back into power, Eden reprised his role as foreign secretary, and the endless hours of work continued. The Cold War was at its height, and Eden is attributed with much success during this period. Eden's talents for diplomacy were often called upon, and his final period as foreign secretary certainly coincided with an easing of global tensions. In his three and a half year term tensions in Korea, in Persia where British oil men had been ejected, and in the Balkans where Italy and Yugoslavia were arguing over Trieste, all eased. Eden was credited with a role in all this. Politicians often write about politicians, and it is natural for them to magnify a politician's importance. In The Prime Ministers the politician Anthony Nutting writes about Eden, and attributes the coming of global peace to him. I have no way of knowing whether this was true or not, but common sense would suggest it is an ambitious claim. Certainly in different circumstances Eden, with all his diplomatic talents had been unable to bring peace, and in the case of the Rhineland occupation even blamed himself for bringing about war by not being aggressive enough. But in the early 1950s, things went the right way, and Eden was given much credit.

Whether or not Eden was truly responsible for global peace, Eden himself had to feel in control. The endless hours of work continued. When Churchill retired in 1955, Eden became Conservative leader and won the ensuing election. A personal, and global crisis then followed for the new prime minister. Egypt under General Nasser was becoming increasingly hostile towards Britain, perceived as playing a major role in the creation of Israel. The presence of a huge British garrison of 80,000 men at Suez was a focal point for anti-British feeling. Nasser did little to curb anti-British protest and riots, but was himself a prisoner of such feeling, surviving an assassination attempt inspired by the sense that Nasser was not doing enough to defeat British influence. If he wished to survive as Egypt's leader Nasser had little choice in his stance against Britain. On 26th July 1956 tensions culminated in Nasser's announcement that the privately owned Suez Canal was to be nationalised. Eden came under pressure to act decisively. The press had already begun making disparaging remarks about Eden's firmness. The Daily Telegraph described Eden's tendency, whilst making a speech, to put the clenched fist of one hand into the palm of the other. "But the smack is seldom heard." (Quoted The Prime Ministers Vol 2 P339) Conservative MPs were drawing comparisons between the Egyptian situation and the appeasement of Hitler in 1938. Eden was acutely sensitive to this kind of criticism. Trying to make up for his perceived failure in the late 1930s, Eden now abandoned his diplomatic instincts and lashed out. This time he would be in control, and set about organising an operation in combination with France and Israel to secure the Canal Zone. Operations began in October 1956, and although militarily successful, they were politically disastrous. International opinion was resolutely against the invasion, and fearing a wider war, a ceasefire was forced on Britain by the United States on 6th November. Eden's fragile physical and mental health collapsed under the strain, and he resigned on January 9th 1957.

Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel le Ferne

In a way the story of Anthony Eden is very Shakespearian. Imponderable questions of fate will tend to come to mind in reading about him. He thought it was his fault World War Two started. He thought he could learn from his mistake and manipulate events differently if the same thing happened again. Eden had great pressures on him in 1936 preventing any firm response to Hitler's invasion of the Rhineland. Like Shakespeare's Hamlet he beats himself up for not acting, and bitterly resents the manipulations of his enemy. But then, like Hamlet, when he tries to act, his actions cause more disasters beyond his control. In 1956 Eden thought he could make up for past mistakes by acting differently with his Suez operation. He was of course wrong. Eden, who had come to office as one of the world's most respected statesmen, was swept out of government in January 1957 a broken man. Fittingly, in retirement he became president of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Eden lived the last part of his life at Broadchalke in Wiltshire. He died in Salisbury in January 1977, and is buried in the country churchyard at Alvediston.