1. Middle East Iran had been in a state of instability since 1951 It had once been a British colony, but in 1941 the British “withdrew” and placed the Shah in power The British owned the main oil company in Iran and profited from it greatly The Iranian citizens were tired of being poor and wanted control of the company

2. Middle East First Truman, then Eisenhower fear that the struggling company would turn communist The CIA staged a coup to overthrow the government They gave Mohammad Reza Pahlavi many supplies such as gun, trucks, and radio communications in 1953 so the Iranian rebels could overthrow the current government After the coup the United States & Britain split most of the Oil profits

3. Suez Crisis Was a military confrontation between Egypt and Britain, France, and Israel in 1956 The United States and the Soviet Union both supported Egypt Israel invaded Egypt in 1956 in order to gain control of the Suez canal They then received support from the British and French The British and France wanted to remove Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser from power in order to place a leader in there more friendly toward them