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But Western diplomats, though disappointed and occasionally disquieted by Nasser's flirtations with the neutralists and worse, ascribe these moves to a mixture of pique and necessity—such goings-on help to divert domestic attention from the domestic plight.
It is but a delaying game and cannot work for long. Gamal Nasser, a shrewd young man, if not yet an altogether wise one, undoubtedly senses this, and he is dogged each day by the sensation that time and a multitude of forces are working against him. "The longer I take to do things," he complains, "the less time I will have to accomplish them." He is not sure where he and Egypt are going, but he is in a hurry. "I don't think I am a dictator," says Premier Nasser quietly. "I don't have the character for it. I am sentimental, like all our people. But I am going on with the revolution—until I meet a better assassin."