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The Sphinx and the Commissar: The Rise and Fall of Soviet Influence in the Arab World
The Sphinx and the Commissar: The Rise and Fall of Soviet Influence in the Arab World
By Mohamed Heikal
Harper, 1979, 304 pp.

The former editor of Al-Ahram continues his revelations of conversations in high places as he traces Soviet-Arab relations over two decades. He dwells on the many ways in which the Soviets misunderstood and miscalculated the affairs of the Middle East and ultimately found their policy "in ruins" as the result of the common aim of Henry Kissinger and Anwar Sadat to exclude them from the region.

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