apy,” and “The Future of Marriage andnthe Family”), each with its own crispnintroduction, this college reader attemptsnto provide a spectrum of viewsnon everything affecting the family—nfrom the ambivalence of woman’s passivenrole (the constraints placed on allnof us by conventional stereotypes ofnnormal masculinity and femininity) tonthe tragedy of divorce (we can changenpartners like we change laundry detergents)nand single-parent families (upnfrom 117o in 1970 to 197o in 1979).nBut, after all the analysis, the statisticsnand the rhetoric have been exhausted,nwe are still left with the cold fact thatnthose who would attack our basic freedomsnare those who benefit most by thenbreakup of the family’s authority. ThenPaltry SecretsnWilbur Crane Eveland: Ropes ofnSand: America’s Failure in the MiddlenEast; W. W. Norton & Co.; NewnYork.nby Michael W. AlbinnOn July 25, 1958, Wilbur CranenEveland left Lebanon after his attemptsnto prop the government of Camille Chamounnhad failed. He tells us that thisnwas the last assignment of importancenhe ever had from the CIA. By 1961 henhad quit the government to make hisnwell-paid way in the oil and constructionnbusiness. Ropes of Sand % a memoirnof his years as a Middle East expert fornthe Department of Defense and the CIA.nIt is enlivened by gossip about such personalitiesnas Kim Philby and laced withnacerbic digressions on his favorite villains:nhis employers in the public andnprivate sectors, the Dulles brothers,nU.S. foreign policy over the past thirtynyears and Israel. Because his substantialnincome depended on American govern-nMr. Albin is director of the Library ofnCongress field office in Cairo.nChronicles of Cultiirenvalues and prerogatives of the familynrun counter to lib culture, and sincenopposition is not to be tolerated, thenvirtues of the family must be ridiculednout of existence.nTaking a firm stand against thentyranny of those pushing us towardn”exposure” (especially in the area ofnthe pseudosexual revolution) will notnbe easy. Yet were both spouses to beginnto share more equally in morality andnpower, were the doctrine of the twonspheres not abolished but creativelynintegrated into a unity of opposites, werendialogue, not schizoid detachment, tonreign supreme once again, we mightnwitness a new vitality flowing from thenpotential sources and resources of thenfamily. Dnment and private business in the MiddlenEast, it is not altogether clear why henis now biting the hands that fed him andnpresumably now pay him sizable pensions.nSince, by his own admission, henloyally carried out the CIA’s orders tonplot the overthrow of governments andnbuy elections, and later, in business,nbecame handy at winning contracts fornhis firms with bribes and influence, onencan surmise that this book is an act ofncontrition.nAn act of contrition it may be—annact of humility it is not. Here I do notncriticize the construction of his tale.nAfter all, it is Eveland’s life and he canntell it any way he wishes. I refer to thenlong, sententious interlineations basednnot on history but on hindsight. Hendelivers his judgments as if he werenJohn Foster Dulles, himself, insteadnof merely a minor figure in what MilesnCopeland calls the Game of Nations,none who managed once or twice to winnadmittance to the presence of the Secretarynof State. This would not be so badnif we were sure that Eveland is levelingnwith us, telling us the story as he sawnand understood it. But, in fact, he leavesnnnout a great deal of material, importantnand not so important. An instance: hendoes not acknowledge that the 1958nlanding in Beirut by the Army and Marinesnwas one of the only successes thenU.S. has ever enjoyed in the MiddlenEast. Another instance: he refuses tonmention that there were other Americannnegotiators besides himself, RobertnMurphy and Ambassador Robert Mc-nClintock who had their spoons in thenLebanese stew in the summer of 1958.nAs an expose. Ropes of Sand is a bigndisappointment.nAs history it is even worse, althoughnI suppose it is in the nature of politicalnmemoirs to be episodic. In this one, thenonly continuity between the stages ofnthe author’s career is his musings onnlife in the service of a benighted foreignnstrategy. He uses “his thoughts” tonrelate American strategy to his role innits execution: “The sight of an El AlnConstellation as I took off from Orlynturned my thoughts to how our questnfor an Arab-Israeli peace agreement hadnbeen subordinated to coping with diversionaryncrises.” And, “A rough landingnat Istanbul jogged my thoughts backnto the mission…” His CIA experiencesnyielded excellent contacts that he couldnlater use in business, but they are aboutnas useful to the serious reader as a newsndispatch from a hack stringer.nriveland, like so many of us Americansnassociated with the Arabs, takesnthe Arab cause seriously and sees Israelnas a source of disruption in the region.nHe is of that overrated-yet-feared breed,nthe foreign-service Arabist. His careernas an expert, operative and coupmasternbegan with a few months’ training atnthe military-language school in Monterey,nCalifornia in 1949. It is not clearnwhether he ever spoke a word of Arabicnbeyond marhaba (hello) for the rest ofnhis life. After a posting to Baghdad asnmilitary attache, he began his rapid advancementnin the Pentagon bureaucracy.nThe generals treated his advicenwith respect because he kept a map ofnthe Middle East under the glass on hisn