Book Review: Middle East: The United States and the Arab World
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000443 |
| Published date | 01 December 1965 |
| Date | 01 December 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
574
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
democracy.
The
course
of
Indonesian political development
in
this
period
and the
party's
tactical
responses
really
never
clearly
emerge in
Hind-
ley's
discussion.
Considering
that
the
book
carries
the
PKI story through
most
of
1963
the
absence
of
any
discussion
of
PKI
expansionist
strategy
in
Southeast
Asia,
for
example
again
in
relation
to the
Malaysia
ques-
tion,
and
of
the
dovetailing
of official
government
and
Communist
party
policies
in
this
regard,
is
a
particularly
unfortunate
lacuna.
The
more
enduring
value
of
the
book
would
seem
to
lie
in
its
thorough
grasp
of
united
front
tactics
and
party
appeals.
University
of
Bridgeport
JUSTUS
M.
VAN
DER
KROEF
Middle
East
THE
UNITED
STATES
AND
THE ARAB
WORLD.
By
William
R.
Polk.
1965.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto: Saunders.
xiv,
320pp.
$5.95)
William
R.
Polk has
written
a
first
rate
introduction
to
the
Arab
Middle
East,
which
achieves
a
successful compromise
between
a
schol-
arly
monograph
and
popular
journalism,
the
aim
of
the
series
of
handbooks
of
which
this
forms
part,
the
American
Foreign
Policy
Library.
It
is
unfortunate
that
the
title
of
this
book,
like
those
of
most
if
not
all
of
the other
books
in
this
series,
is
misleading.
In
the
case
of
this
book
the
title
is
doubly
misleading.
It
does
not
deal
with
the
Arab
World
since
it
excludes
from its
purview
the
Arab
states
of
Africa
apart
from
the
U.A.R.
It
is
not
about
the
United
States
and
the
Arab
Middle
East
but
it
is
about
the
Arab
Middle
East
with
a
concluding
two
chapters
on
the
United
States
and
the
Arab
Middle
East.
The
book
as
a
whole
is
enriched
by
Mr.
Polk's
experience as
a
member
for
the
last
four
years
of
the
Policy
Planning
Council of
the
State
Department,
concerned
with
United
States
relations
with
the
Middle
East.
He
warns
in
his
preface,
however,
that
this
official
posi-
tion
has
imposed
"a
degree
of
restraint
on
his
pen". This
has
resulted
in
rather
bald
and
bland accounts
of
the
Aswan
Dam negotiations
(which
had
a
profound
effect
on
United
States
influence
in
the
Arab
Middle
East),
the
Eisenhower
doctrine,
the
mission
of
Eric
Johnston
on
Jordan
waters
and
of
Joseph
Johnson
on
Arab
refugees.
Mr.
Polk's
account
of
the
history
of
the
Arab
Middle
East
is
illuminated
by
insights
into
social
and
economic
development.
All
conquered
people
are
scarred
by
conquest
and
the
scars
persist
for
centuries
as
we
in
Canada
well
know. When
the
conqueror
is
the
arrogant
West
and the
conquered
belong
to
another
of
the
great
civilizations
of
the
world,
the
scars
are
usually
very
deep.
This
is
true
not
only
of
the
Arab
World
but
also
of
China where
the
West
imposed
its
will
and
of
India
which
the
West
conquered
outright.
Mr. Polk
argues, and
he
may
be
right,
that
the
Arab
scars
are
particularly
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