9
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 44:
Line 44: − + + + + +
→Middle East
===Middle East===
===Middle East===
One challenge to détente under Kissinger came with the outbreak of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Faced with a threat of Soviet intervention, Kissinger successfully urged that U.S. forces be placed on worldwide alert. With Israel facing defeat at the hands of the Arab aggressors, President Nixon (over Kissinger's initial objections) launched the largest airlift in military history to save Israel from collapse (the left would condemn his actions no matter how big or how small, Nixon said, so "''let's make it big''"). Kissinger then employed shuttle diplomacy to secure cease-fires between Israel and the Arab states and to restore U.S.-Egyptian diplomatic ties, broken since 1967. The US assisted in a vast rescue operation conducted by Israeli forces to save Egyptian troops stranded in the Sinai.<ref>The Times, UK, June 15, 1967.</ref> President Ford secured the first peace agreements between Israel and Egypt, which would be finalized under President Carter. In turn, [[Jordan]] felt compelled to reach a separate peace, and the Arabs were deterred from launching a conventional war against Israel ever again.
One challenge to détente under Kissinger came with the outbreak of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Faced with a threat of Soviet intervention, Kissinger successfully urged that U.S. forces be placed on worldwide alert. With Israel facing possible defeat at the hands of the Arab aggressors, President Nixon launched the largest airlift in military history to replenish Israel's stocks (the left would condemn his actions no matter how big or how small, Nixon said, so "''let's make it big''"). Kissinger had urged Nixon to delay the airlift so as to let Israel "bleed a little", in the hopes that a badly bruised Israel would be more pliable to concessions in post-war negotiations, but Nixon refused.
When the Israelis surrounded the Egyptian Third Army at the end of the war, Kissinger believed that the United States had a tremendous opportunity. Egypt was now dependent on solely the United States for the survival of its Third Army, and Kissinger hoped that the United States could mediate the dispute and wean Egypt from Soviet influence. As a result, he exerted intense pressure on Israel not to destroy the Third Army and to allow it to receive non-military supplies. Among other things, he threatened that the United States would resupply the Third Army by helicopter, support a UN resolution demanding an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before the Third Army's encirclement, and falsely told the Israelis that the Soviet Union had threatened to intervene over the Third Army.
Kissinger then employed shuttle diplomacy to secure disengagement agreements between Israel and the Arab states and to restore U.S.-Egyptian diplomatic ties, broken since 1967. Kissinger's goal was to drive the Soviets out of Egypt by showing the Egyptians that only the United States could persuade Israel to make concessions. The US assisted in a vast rescue operation conducted by Israeli forces to save Egyptian troops stranded in the Sinai.<ref>The Times, UK, June 15, 1967.</ref> US-brokered peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt continued past Nixon's term. Though negotiations were tough, with both sides sometimes intransigent, President Ford ended up securing the first peace agreements between Israel and Egypt, which would be finalized under President Carter. In turn, [[Jordan]] felt compelled to reach a separate peace, which resulted in a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994.
Kissinger and Nixon approved a covert [[CIA]] campaign of subversion and sabotage designed to bring down the Socialist government of [[Iraq]] in 1973. Done in collaboration with the [[Shah]] of neighboring [[Iran]], it involved Soviet arms captured from Egypt and [[Syria]] in the 1973 war being dispatched to Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. The Shah cynically used the Kurds to pressure the Ba'athist government to back down on a number of serious territorial disputes between the two nations. The US brokered a peace treaty between Iraq and Iran in 1975, and aid to the Kurds was subsequently cut off. The Kurds were then viciously slaughtered. "''Covert action should not be confused with missionary work,''" Kissinger famously declared.<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2156400/</ref>
Kissinger and Nixon approved a covert [[CIA]] campaign of subversion and sabotage designed to bring down the Socialist government of [[Iraq]] in 1973. Done in collaboration with the [[Shah]] of neighboring [[Iran]], it involved Soviet arms captured from Egypt and [[Syria]] in the 1973 war being dispatched to Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. The Shah cynically used the Kurds to pressure the Ba'athist government to back down on a number of serious territorial disputes between the two nations. The US brokered a peace treaty between Iraq and Iran in 1975, and aid to the Kurds was subsequently cut off. The Kurds were then viciously slaughtered. "''Covert action should not be confused with missionary work,''" Kissinger famously declared.<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2156400/</ref>