1973 October War. The Fiftieth Anniversary. Egypt, Syria, and Israel. (Also the US and USSR)

1973 October War, 50th anniversary October 6.  

October 6, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the 1973 October War.  This war lasted three long weeks and took the great powers (the US and the USSR) to the brink of  nuclear war.  It also cleared the sinuses, so to speak.   Nixon and Kissinger realized that unless there was progress in working out some kind of resolution of the 1967 war, the US was going to get dragged into a major war.  

Let me clarify the term “The Year of Decision.”  My lecture got a bit distracted on that.  In 1972 Sadat spoke to his parliament and said “This is the Year of Decision.”  The Egyptians knew what that meant.  They cheered hysterically.  The Israelis also knew what that meant. They mobilized their reserves and prepared for the attack.  That mobilization cost a lot of money.  But as the joke goes, what if you gave a war and nobody came?  In fact, there was no war in 1972.  Then in 1973, Sadat delivered another speech.  “This is the Year of Decision.”  Again, the Egyptians were hysterical with excitement.  But Golda Meir decided she had been snookered once and would not be snookered a second time.  Alas, for her, this time the war came.  And Israel was not prepared.  This  decision wrecked Golda Meir’s credibility.  She was driven from office and replaced by Yitzhak Rabin (who was elected a second time in 1992).   The Israelis still argue over who was responsible for that decision not to mobilize.  

Let me also note that the Israelis thought it was a bit of dirty pool that the attack came on Yom Kippur Eve when many  Israeli soldiers had been given home leave.  Of course it also came during Ramadan so it was a religious holiday for both sides.  We Americans also remember that George Washington attacked the British at Trenton on Christmas Eve when he knew the British army would be drunk.  As Harvey unwisely said in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, “there are no rules in a knife fight.” Or a war.  

This was a class lecture and there were a few glitches along the way:  paper rattling, the zoom fading.  And also the laptop microphone not as good as the quality one I now hae.  I hope that is not too distracting.