THE DEAL AT THE SUMMIT AND THE “EXPULSION” MYTHGather all documents, papers, and property ... by the end of the day, prepare lists of those
to be evacuated.”^64There was, then, an extraordinary, conspicuous and sudden recall of the military
advisers to Cairo in mid-July. The “most unusual” disappearance of Soviet advisers
from the canal zone was noted by an informant of the French embassy even before
Sadat’s order was made public.^65 The display was further amplified by including the
Soviet civilian advisers. On 21 July, the British agent Urwick cabled to London “the
Spanish M[ilitary] A[ttaché] ... says he has reliable information that the Soviet engi-
neers helping to run the generating plant etc. at Aswan have left. The head of the
attachés branch, Col. Ezzy, also said that all the Russians, including civilian techni-
cians, were leaving.”^66 The Western defense attachés in Cairo thus operated as an echo
chamber, amplifying and mutually corroborating meager information from the same
limited and tendentious sources.