ABSTRACT
In this essay I should like to suggest that the assimilation and ‘Arabization’ of Communist techniques and ideas by Arab nationalist movements was not accidental, a product of the whims or personal idiosyncrasies of one or two leaders, nor was it the fruit of a mistake made by the West at some point or other in ‘antagonizing the Arabs’, or failing to ‘win them over’ by some stratagem or other. On the contrary, it resulted from the inherently authoritarian tendencies of the Arab nationalist movements themselves.
