ABSTRACT
Neither in Israel nor in Egypt did the public have any real appreciation of what was going on along the front lines. The Egyptian media, all in governmental hands since the end of the decade of the 1950s, fed the people an endless diet of victory communiques, most of them unadulterated fantasy. In the reexamination that followed the June 1967 defeat, this practice of outright lying to the public was one that enlightened Egyptians had promised themselves they would extirpate. The defeat of June 1967 dealt a serious blow to the Egyptian economy. The longest and probably the hardest of modern Egypt’s wars—did produce signs of discouragement and of dissatisfaction, particularly among the young. This was made evident by the plentiful lectures the press delivered to its readers about the need to instill in the young the virtues of patience and a better understanding of Egyptian history and the traditions of Islam.
