1973: Egypt and Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid

DATE: October 1973

DESCRIPTION: After the Six Day War in 1967, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat appealed to the Soviets to bring pressure on the US and provide them with weapons; however, the Soviets were more interested in détente and refused. In response, Sadat expelled 20,000 Soviet advisers from Egypt and warned that he would renew the war with Israel, which he did: in October of 1973, Egypt, along with Syria and Iraq attacked Israel on Yom Kippur – the holiest day of the Jewish year. Though the Arabs initially made some significant military advances, the Israelis managed to repel the attacks and push the Arabs back. The war ended when the UN forced all nations to ceasefire on October 22.

BLAME: Egypt was the primary aggressor in this situation, even during the Six Day War, which was pretty much the root cause of this war. Egypt was the one who attacked Israel first in order to erase the humiliation caused by their loss in the 1967 Six Day War. Israel was the one who attacked Egypt first in that war, but they only did that because Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israel and massed their troops on the Israeli border. Therefore, the main cause of this event can be blamed on Egypt.

TENSION INCREASE: Tension was greatly increased in this war. This was due to the fact that if the Soviets had actually been deployed in the war, the USA would have been obliged to provide Israel with similar support. The war would have escalated due to the involvement of the superpowers, which may have led to World War 3 +2

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