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The British and French were the first to become disenchanted with Nasser. But slowly the U.S. learned, too. Nasser had made, not one deal for $60 million in Czech arms, but four−for a total of some $240 million; he had pledged such sums that it seemed doubtful that Egypt would have any money left to pay its part of the Aswan Dam costs. He boldly tried to blackmail the U.S. with a Russian offer to build the dam−an offer that proved to be nonexistent. In a fit of pique at the U.S., he recognized Communist China, breaking his word to Byroade that he would let him know first. He freely admitted recently to having lied about the "Czech" arms deal: it had been with Russia all the time.
India's Nehru is convinced that the U.S. withdrawal of its offer to build Nasser's high dam is not what set him off recently, but "the way it was done." Whatever set him off, Nasser in a blind rage counterpunched. Screaming: "Americans, may you choke to death on your fury!", he ordered his police to seize the Suez Canal Company. "The annual income of the company is $100 million!" he shouted. "Why not take it ourselves? We shall build the high dam as we desire. The company will be nationalized. And it will be run by Egyptians! Egyptians! Egyptians!"
Universal Ditch. Once again, the man who tried to figure out everything on paper had not paid due heed to the obstacles in his second column. Says a friend: "He didn't understand that the British mean what they say when they call the canal the lifeline of empire. He thought this would be like the Czech arms deal, a stir for a couple of weeks and then forgotten."
The crisis also brought fresh proof that in the coiled-spring character of Nasser there is a cool, calculating brain, as well as an emotional impulsiveness. The expropriation of the Universal Suez Canal Company, though executed as an act of hurried vengeance, had been thoroughly prepared for 2 1/2 years. Nasser's case was technically strong, since the company is Egyptian and owes its existence to Egyptian law. Yet the notion that the international waterway belongs to Egypt and can be run to Egypt's will is insupportable under the original compact and inadmissible in practice. The great Frenchman, De Lesseps, who conceived and built the canal, was a private citizen with a belief in "universalism" (the 19th century equivalent of One World), who called his company "universal" in the hope that it "will weld, the whole universe into one great unit, politically, industrially, religiously."