But this attitude was most dramatic during wartime. He covered the First Arab-Israeli War on the establishment of the State of Israel. He was also present in Cairo when Colonel Nasser staged a military "coup d'etat" in 1952, whom he immediately befriended. Yet his journalism with "Al-Aharam" as its editor put the regimes under the microscope, gaining a reputation for investigative reporting, and sound authoritative statements. "The Washington Post" dubbed him "the voice of Egypt...window on a secretive regime". Heikal frequently travelled cross-desert borders between countries in the Middle East eagerly reporting on the conflicts. Heikal was an unashamed Pro-Arabist during the post-war era when Nasser dreamed of a Pan-Arab republic across the whole region. Between 1957 and 1974 he was the author of a well-regarded Friday column "Bi-Saraha" which spoke frankly about Nasser's policies at home and abroad, whilst also being critical. He became a member of the Arab Socialist Union Party, briefly acting as foreign minister under Nasser. But his mood changed with the Colonel's successors, whose lurch to the right shook Cairo's post-colonial establishment.