Most Arabs regarded the doctrine as a transparent ploy to promote Western influence in the Middle East by restraining Nasser's brand of Arab nationalism that opposed Western domination, and some like the Syrians publicly denounced the initiative as an insidious example of US imperialism. Following the 1958 crisis in Lebanon and accusations by US senators of exaggerating the threat of communism to the region, Eisenhower privately admitted that the real goal was combatting Arab nationalism.