Suez Crisis much-watched debates about the Suez war on "Free Speech" mirrored the divided public response to the war. The British government pressured the BBC to support the war, and seriously considered taking over the network. Eden's major mistake had been not to strike in July 1956 when there was widespread anger at Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company, as by the fall of 1956 public anger had subsided, with many people in Britain having come to accept the "fait accompli", and saw no reason for war. This was especially the case as Eden's claims that the Egyptians would hopelessly mismanage
Nassau Agreement and probably would have worked for the RAF into the 1970s, as it did for the USAF. It therefore came down to Polaris, which the US did not wish to supply except as part of a Multinational Force. Macmillan was emphatic that he would commit the submarines to NATO only if they could be withdrawn in case of a national emergency. When pressed by Kennedy as to what sort of emergencies he had in mind, Macmillan mentioned the Soviet threats at the time of the Suez crisis, Iraqi aggression against Kuwait, or a threat to Singapore. The British nuclear deterrent