| Summary |
On 6 October 1973, utilizing the skills and arms that the Soviet Union had provided them, the Arab states of Egypt and Syria launched coordinated attacks into the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, respectively; areas that were conquered from Egypt and Syria by the state of Israel during the Six-Day War in June 1967. Israel, a de-facto ally of the United States, called upon its free-world benefactor for the assistance - moral, diplomatic, and in materiel - necessary to combat its Arab, Soviet-backed aggressors. Both the United States and the Soviet Union found it necessary to shift air and naval units in October 1973 to assistant their respective belligerent client(s), and to guard against further intervention on the part of either superpower into the conflict; the United States readying itself for war when the Soviets bluffed such an intervention. The October War is an excellent study in the processes of escalation and de-escalation in an international crisis during the Cold War, and demonstrates how the United States was able to transform the diplomatic landscape of the-Middle East and supplant, in time, the influence of the Soviets in the region. |
