Anthony Eden
British Foreign Secretary three times, Prime Minister during Suez (1897-1977)
Also known as: Eden, Anthony Eden, Lord Avon, Earl of Avon
Sir Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (1897-1977), was Conservative Foreign Secretary three times (1935-1938, 1940-1945, 1951-1955) and Prime Minister 1955-1957. Quigley treats Eden as the inter-war and wartime Foreign Office figure who, although not a The Milner Group insider, was 'considerably more to the public taste because of his reputation (largely undeserved) as an upholder of collective security' (AAE 227). His February 1938 resignation in protest at Chamberlain's and Halifax's policy made him the figurehead of anti-appeasement opposition.
Geneva and Hoare-Laval
Eden entered the Foreign Office as Minister of League of Nations Affairs in 1935 and was promoted to Foreign Secretary in December 1935 after Hoare was forced to resign over the Hoare-Laval Pact. Quigley's contemporary review of Eden's memoirs Facing the Dictators (Houghton Mifflin, 1962): 'Eden appeared at the time -- the appeasement years -- as the chief English defender of collective security. He resigned in 1938 in opposition to Neville Chamberlain's efforts for all-out reconciliation with the dictators' (Book Reviews, 155). But Quigley judges Eden's stance as too narrowly procedural: 'Eden insisted on preventing that deal, although his alternative policy, the use of the non-existent machinery of collective security (which, as the Hoare-Laval plan showed, was unacceptable to his own government) was hopeless' (Book Reviews, 158).
Resignation and Quigley's analysis
Eden's February 1938 resignation — replaced by Halifax — is for Quigley the turning point at which the appeasement consensus achieved unimpeded Cabinet control. 'Halifax replaced Eden as Foreign Secretary permanently in February 1938, when Eden refused to accept the recognition of the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in return for an Italian promise to withdraw their forces from Spain' (AAE 228). The exchange of Eden for Halifax was managed by 'the Astors' Cliveden circle' to ensure that Foreign Office policy would be in step with the appeasement faction (AAE 62). Quigley records as a structural fact that the inter-war Conservatives 'were generally inclined to vote Conservative because domestic affairs were more immediately important in 1923-1935' — and to forgive the Foreign-Office accommodation (Book Reviews, 157).
Wartime and Suez
Eden served as Foreign Secretary under Churchill throughout the war and again in 1951-1955. Quigley records his 1941 trip to Moscow at the moment of Pearl Harbor: 'When the stunning news of Pearl Harbor reached London on December 8, 1941, Foreign Minister Eden was just leaving for Moscow. It was decided that he should go anyway but that Prime Minister Churchill should go simultaneously to Washington' (T&H 768). After Churchill's retirement in 1955, Eden became Prime Minister and presided over the Suez Crisis of 1956 — the joint Anglo-French-Israeli operation against Nasser's Egypt that, in Quigley's reading, marked the end of British great-power autonomy. He resigned in January 1957.
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 213 Quigley
Anthony Eden 39 [sessions as Delegate]; Sir John Simon 22; Sir Austen Chamberlain 20; Arthur Balfour 16; Lord Robert Cecil 15.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 227 Quigley
Anthony Eden, who replaced him, was not a member of the Milner Group and considerably more to the public taste because of his reputation (largely undeserved) as an upholder of collective security.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 228 Quigley
Halifax replaced Eden as Foreign Secretary permanently in February 1938, when Eden refused to accept the recognition of the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in return for an Italian promise to withdraw their forces from Spain.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 768 Quigley
When the stunning news of Pearl Harbor reached London on December 8, 1941, Foreign Minister Eden was just leaving for Moscow. It was decided that he should go anyway but that Prime Minister Churchill should go simultaneously to Washington.
- book-reviews · p. 155 Quigley
Eden appeared at the time -- the appeasement years -- as the chief English defender of collective security. He resigned in 1938 in opposition to Neville Chamberlain's efforts for all-out reconciliation with the dictators.
- book-reviews · p. 158 Quigley
Eden insisted on preventing that deal, although his alternative policy, the use of the non-existent machinery of collective security (which, as the Hoare-Laval plan showed, was unacceptable to his own government) was hopeless.