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The time had come for the Free Officers to act. "The original plan," says Nasser, "was to kill Farouk and all his stooges in the palace. We had 15 groups of three officers each to do the killings. But we decided the plot was too complicated, and we called it off at the last moment. If we failed to kill the King, the country would be hurt. If we succeeded, what then? Chaos?" A few days later they learned that there was to be a cleanup of officers. "We knew that they had our names." A plan was decided upon: 1) control of the army, 2) control of the country, 3) dismissal of the King by any means.
Says Nasser of the night of July 22, 1955:"I went from house to house giving our officers the word. My job was to convince them all that we were bound to succeed. I convinced myself in talking to them. At 11 p.m. I got word from our people in intelligence that the palace knew about the plot. I was without feeling. I was very tired. The officer asked if we should call it off and I said, 'No, the wheel is turning and it cannot be stopped.' " The wheel made its full turn in the next three days. Gentle Mohammed Naguib, 51, a good front man, was made commander in chief of the army; Farouk abdicated, and his Premier resigned.
The Free Officers began cleaning up: half the old officer corps, hundreds of police and some judges were fired; others were imprisoned. The press, radio and universities were brought under control. Nasser's young officers went into every department of government. An internal intelligence system was set up. The frantic, dizzying pace of affairs befuddled Prime Minister General Naguib. "I would like to rule the country like Gandhi, without official responsibility," said he worriedly. He was not long for this rough game.
Seven Days Later. There was a sure way for the new regime to get a solid lease on power: get the British out of Egypt. The British, except for some of the old Empire diehards, had the good sense to see that the new regime might be healthy for Egypt and hence for the entire weak Middle East. Washington pitched in to help keep negotiations alive and moving. After hard bargaining, Nasser, who then wore the title of Interior Minister, signed with Britain the agreement ending the long British occupation of the canal zone. (Under the agreement's gradual withdrawal clause, the British by last week had turned about half of the canal zone over to Egyptian control.) It was a momentous, street-filling, torchlight-parading triumph for the revolutionary regime, and it gave the Nasser junta fuel on which to travel for months to come. There was, however, grumbling from one sector: the Moslem Brotherhood saw betrayal of Islam in Egypt's agreement to let the British back into Suez if Turkey is attacked—the one vague link Nasser has allowed himself to make with the West.