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Perspective | The Suez crisis toppled the British Empire. The pandemic will bring down ours.By Stephen MarcheCoronavirus is the plague that reveals. The global nature of the pandemic has illuminated national characteristics as it crosses borders: China exerts ferocious control over its population; Italy has a large elderly population with a tradition of warm social interactions, ideal conditions for the spread of disease; Korea is the best-organized nation on Earth; Israel can switch to a war footing more or less instantaneously.And the United States?This moment is to the United States what the 1957 Suez Canal crisis was for the British Empire. The coronavirus pandemic is the event that has stripped away any lingering pretensions of global U.S. leadership. It has uncovered an emptiness.Every empire has its bluff called eventually. In 1957, when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, Israel invaded Sinai alongside French and British forces. But President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who needed Arab support against the Soviets, insisted on a retreat and threatened to sell American reserves of the British pound if they didn’t concede the territory back to Egypt. ...Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/03/25/british-empire-suez-coronavirus-america/
