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Unresolved issues remained. In return for British recognition that the U.S. carries the main responsibility in the Far East, Churchill would like to get reciprocal U.S. support for British leadership in the Middle East. To Churchill's surprising suggestion that U.S. troops might share the defense of the Suez Canal, where the British stand by treaty rights, neither the U.S. Congress nor the State Department reacted favorably. Since it is by no means clear what Britain is trying to do in the Middle East, this U.S. attitude is understandable. Nevertheless, the West is going to continue to lose ground in this vital area of the world until British and American policies are united.
In spite of the very serious failure to make progress on Middle East policy, the Churchill visit was a success; it reversed the Anglo-American drift away from unity.
* Particularly, in Moscow's white paper of 1949, a directive for undermining the North Atlantic defense organization.