"Since the death of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970, there has been no ideology to capture the imagination of the Arab world except Islamic fundamentalism. What we see today in the Middle East is a direct result of Western opposition to Nasser's Arab nationalist ideals and his belief in the supremacy of the secular state." "Nasser is a towering figure in Arab politics. When he refused to follow a strictly America line, the CIA tried to undermine him. He responded by throwing in his lot in with the Soviet Union, even though he was fervently anti-Communist. Nasser wanted to achieve a military par with Israel, to create a balance of power that would lead to peace and not to the '56 or '67 wars." "A dictator with a human bent, Nasser was extremely popular, and his pan-Arab ideology appealed to many and produced a brief chance for Arab unity and a cluster of relatively democratic, incorruptible governments." "Nowadays the Arab world is Islamic, anti-Western, and teetering on the edge of disaster. This searching account of Nasser's life asks whether the interests of the West and the Arab world are reconcilable. Although Nasser's ambitions came to an end because the West opposed him, what replaced him is infinitely more dangerous."--BOOK JACKET