The Suez crisis in the 1950s signalled the end of Britain's history as a power that could act alone on the world stage.<br />This documentary tells the story of Suez using dramatic reconstructions and interviews with participants and witnesses to the crisis.<br />Part 3: WAR<br />In the final episode, Anthony Eden takes the country to war in Suez.<br /><br />The invasion took place as planned. But Eden had not informed the Americans.<br />When they found out, they were concerned about wider relations with the Arab world and refused to back the operation.<br /><br />Desperately short of funds and without financial support from the Americans, the British were forced to pull out of Suez by December 1956.<br /><br />As rumours mounted that Eden had colluded with Israel and France, he lied to the House of Commons.<br /><br />He left office shortly afterwards.<br /><br />Eden's widow, the Countess of Avon, recalls the pressures her husband faced. His private secretary remembers how regime change was always part of the agenda.<br /><br />And Michael Parkinson describes how, as a young captain, he nearly came to grief at the hands of angry Egyptian civilians.
