Everyone knows that Washington, D.C. is a city of secrets. There are secrets in the White House, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court. There are secret files in the Pentagon, the FBI, CIA, NSA, and a veritable alphabet soup of federal agencies. Yet the greatest secrets in the nation's capital are not locked in a vault or under 24-hour guard. Washington's greatest secrets are hidden in plain sight. They are the secrets of Ancient Egypt and of its influence on the development of the United States and its capital city. America's founding fathers were profoundly influenced by the ancient Egyptians. Egypt is on the Potomac, but you will never know it it you do not know what to look for. The hidden history of Washingtonc D.C. and its relationship to ancient Egypt are revealed in the pages of this book.

Egypt's most brilliant commander.

Civilians are troops in meeting today's needs

The civilization of Egypt, and of Africa in general, is the most written about and the least understood of all known subjects. This is not an accident of an error in misunderstanding the available information.

"In eleven dramatic years, Anwar Sadat changed history--not just that of Egypt, or of the Middle East, but of the entire world. As the architect of the 1973 war against Israel, he gained the support of other Arab nations and inspired the oil embargo that transformed the global economy. Following the war, however, he forever ended Arab aspirations of unity by making peace with Israel. Early in his presidency, Sadat jettisoned Egypt's alliance with the Soviet Union and turned to the United States, thereby giving the West a crucial Cold War victory. Sadat's historic tenure still resonates in the twenty-first century as the Islamic activists--whom he originally encouraged but who opposed his conciliatory policy toward Israel and ultimately played a role in his assassination--continue to foster activism, including the Muslim Brotherhood, today.Thomas W. Lippman was stationed in the Middle East as a journalist during Sadat's presidency and lived in Egypt in the aftermath of the October War. He knew Sadat personally, but only now, after the passage of time and the long-delayed release of the U.S. State Department's diplomatic files, can Lippman assess the full consequences of Sadat's presidency. Hero of the Crossing provides an eye-opening account of the profound reverberations of one leader's political, cultural, and economic maneuverings and legacy"--

Although it seems almost incredible today, the United States had relatively little interest in the Middle East before 1945. But the dynamics and outcome of World War II elevated the importance of the Middle East in the American mind, and the United States has viewed the region with vital interest to its security and economy ever since. The projection of American power into the region has had consequences that have forever changed the United States and the Middle East, with the rise of al Qaeda and the turbulent occupation of Iraq being the latest examples. Crisis and Crossfire surveys and analyzes the broad contours of U.S. involvement in the region. It probes the reasons why the United States implemented various policies and assesses the wisdom of American leaders as they accepted greater responsibilities for preserving stability and security in the Middle East. Major themes include U.S.-Middle East policy in the context of the Cold War, the rise of Arab and Iranian nationalism, decolonization, the U.S. approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the politics of Western dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and America's military interventions, particularly its two wars against Iraq. This book's concise narrative and selection of primary-source documents make it an ideal introduction to U.S.-Middle East relations for students and for anyone with an interest in understanding the history behind today's events.

Of all the countries in the world that are vital to the strategic and economic interests of the United States, Saudi Arabia is the least understood by the American people. Saudi Arabia's unique place in Islam makes it indispensable to a constructive relationship between the non-Muslim West and the Muslim world. For all its wealth, the country faces daunting challenges that it lacks the tools to meet: a restless and young population, a new generation of educated women demanding opportunities in a closed society, political stagnation under an octogenarian leadership, religious extremism and intellectual backwardness, social division, chronic unemployment, shortages of food and water, and troublesome neighbors. Today's Saudi people, far better informed than all previous generations, are looking for new political institutions that will enable them to be heard, but these aspirations conflict with the kingdom's strict traditions and with the House of Saud's determination to retain all true power. Meanwhile, the country wishes to remain under the protection of American security but still clings to a system that is antithetical to American values. Basing his work on extensive interviews and field research conducted in the kingdom from 2008 through 2011 under the auspices of the Council on Foreign Relations, Thomas W. Lippman dissects this central Saudi paradox for American readers, including diplomats, policymakers, scholars, and students of foreign policy.

Overturns common misperceptions about the lives of Middle Easterners.