In few ways did the generals' self-deception, their interpretation of desires as realities, reach a higher peak than in their almost total lack of thought as to how the outside world might react. To this day Challe insists most emphatically that he "had no contact personally with any foreign countries", and that in fact he had deliberately avoided all such contacts so as not to incur any possible charge of having been brought in on foreign bayonets. Nevertheless, some of his subordinates appear to have made informal, and highly tentative, soundings with representatives of various countries that might be considered sympathetic, among them Portugal, Spain, Israel and South Africa. But nothing more encouraging or positive had been received than offers of "hang on as long as you can, and then we'll see" — beyond a commitment allegedly made by a South African contact promising material aid after eight days.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1350