<P> Today more than a quarter of the world's oil is shipped through the Suez Canal . </P> <P> Although accepting large sums of military aid from the United States in 1954, by 1956 Egyptian leader Nasser had grown tired of the American influence in the country . The involvement that the U.S. would take in Egyptian business and politics in return for aid, Nasser thought "smacked of colonialism ." Indeed, as political scholar B.M. Bleckman argued in 1978, "Nasser had ambivalent feelings toward the United States . From 1952 to 1954 he was on close terms with U.S. officials and was viewed in Washington as a promising moderate Arab leader . The conclusion of an arms deal with the USSR in 1955, however, had cooled the relationship between Cairo and Washington considerably, and the Dulles - Eisenhower decision to withdraw the offer to finance the Aswan High Dam in mid-1956 was a further blow to the chances of maintaining friendly ties . Eisenhower's stand against the British, French, and Israeli attack on Egypt in October 1956 created a momentary sense of gratitude on the part of Nasser, but the subsequent development of the Eisenhower Doctrine, so clearly aimed at' containing' Nasserism, undermined what little goodwill existed toward the United States in Cairo ." "The Suez Crisis of 1956 marked the demise of British power and its gradual replacement by USA as the dominant power in the Middle East ." The Eisenhower Doctrine became a manifestation of this process . "The general objective of the Eisenhower Doctrine, like that of the Truman Doctrine formulated ten years earlier, was the containment of Soviet expansion ." Furthermore, when the Doctrine was finalised on March 9, 1957, it "essentially gave the president the latitude to intervene militarily in the Middle East...without having to resort to Congress ." indeed as, Middle East scholar Irene L. Gerdzier explains "that with the Eisenhower Doctrine the United States emerged "as the uncontested Western power...in the Middle East ." </P> <P> Meanwhile, in Jordan nationalistic anti-government rioting broke out and the United States decided to send a battalion of marines to Lebanon in case of possibly having to intervene in Jordan later that year . Moreover, attempting to keep the pro-American King Hussein of Jordan in power, the CIA started to make secret payments of millions of dollars a year to King Hussein . In the same year, the U.S. supported allies in Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and sent fleets to be near Syria as Syria's government had executed nationalistic and pro-Soviet policies the same year . However, 1958 was to become a difficult year in U.S. foreign policy; in 1958 Syria and Egypt were merged into the "United Arab Republic", anti-American and anti-government revolts started occurring in Lebanon, causing the Lebanese president Chamoun to ask America for help, and the very pro-American King Feisal the 2nd of Iraq was overthrown by a group of nationalistic military officers . It was quite "commonly believed that (Nasser)... stirred up the unrest in Lebanon and, perhaps, had helped to plan the Iraqi revolution ." </P> <P> In June 1967 Israel fought with Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the Six - Day War . As a result of the war, Israel captured the West Bank, Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula . The U.S. supported Israel with weapons and continued to support Israel financially throughout the 1970s . On September 17, 1970, with U.S. and Israeli help, Jordanian troops attacked PLO guerrilla camps, while Jordan's U.S. - supplied air force dropped napalm from above . The U.S. deployed the aircraft carrier Independence and six destroyers off the coast of Lebanon and readied troops in Turkey to support the assault . </P>

How have tensions in the middle east posed concerns for the united states