Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseAfter 1945 the USA and the Soviet Union became rivals who never fought each other directly. Each tried to win friends and block the other. The Middle East mattered to both because it held the Suez Canal and most of the oil that the West used.
Key terms:
In 1957 President Eisenhower promised help to Middle Eastern states that resisted communism. Israel at first bought most of its arms from France, but the USA sold it Hawk missiles in 1962. When France cut its supplies in the late 1960s, Israel turned to the USA. In 1968 the USA agreed to sell it Phantom jets. Support for Israel among Americans, and the wish for a firm ally in the region, were the reasons for this backing.
The Soviet Union supplied Egypt and Syria with tanks, aircraft and missiles, and sent advisers to train their armies. It also supported them at the UN. It wanted a base in a region close to its own border and wanted to weaken the West. Nasser took Soviet arms because the West would not sell him enough.
This did not make Arab leaders communists. Nasser jailed Egyptian communists. He wanted modern weapons and a powerful friend, and the Soviet Union wanted a foothold. Other Arab states, such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, stayed closer to the West.
1967. The Soviet Union rebuilt Arab armies, and false Soviet reports about Israeli troops on Syria's border helped push Egypt towards war. Once fighting began, the two leaders used the hotline in a real crisis. On 10 June, as Israeli forces advanced on Syria, the Soviet Union warned that it might act, including by force. The USA moved its Sixth Fleet nearer to the Syrian coast. Israel accepted a ceasefire with Syria that day. Neither side wanted a war between the superpowers over this, and the Soviet Union broke off relations with Israel.
1967-72. The USSR quickly replaced Arab losses. During the War of Attrition (1969-70), a series of artillery duels and raids along the Suez Canal, it sent missile crews and pilots to Egypt. The USA sent more weapons to Israel. Detente then began to ease tension between the two leaders. In 1972 Sadat sent most Soviet advisers home, but Egypt still bought Soviet weapons.
1973. The Soviet Union knew an attack was coming and flew out the families of its advisers. When Israel needed supplies, the USA organised a huge airlift of arms to Israel, and the USSR sent supplies to Egypt and Syria. Then came a moment of danger. The USA and the USSR worked out the ceasefire of 22 October (Resolution 338) together. It broke down, and Israeli forces trapped Egypt's Third Army. Brezhnev warned on 24 October that the USSR might send troops itself. The USA put its forces on a higher alert on 25 October. The ceasefire then held and the crisis passed.
The Cold War did two things at once. Rivalry meant steady supplies of arms, so every Arab-Israeli war was bigger and deadlier than the last. Restraint meant that, when a war threatened to pull the superpowers in, each leader pulled back and pushed for a ceasefire. The superpowers never solved the conflict. They kept it going and also kept it from exploding.
Change and continuity: the Middle East became more tightly tied to the Cold War, and the wars grew more costly. But the causes stayed local: disputed land, Arab anger over 1948 and 1967, and the Palestinian refugees.
How significant was the Cold War in the Arab-Israeli conflict in the years 1956-73? Explain your answer. [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own.
The Cold War was very significant in how the conflict was fought and how dangerous it became. But it was not the cause of the conflict, and by 1973 local forces mattered as much.
The Soviet arms for Egypt and Syria changed the scale of the fighting. After Egypt's arms deal of 1955, Soviet weapons flowed in, and after 1967 the USSR replaced the losses within months. By 1973 Soviet anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles helped Egypt to cross the canal and both countries to hold off the Israeli air force. Without them, the early Arab success of 1973 would have been unlikely.
The USA played the same role for Israel. It sold Hawk missiles in 1962 and agreed to sell Phantom jets in 1968. In October 1973 its airlift helped Israel to recover. This arming of both sides made each war larger than the last. Each superpower feared that an ally left without arms would be a gain for its rival, so neither would stop supplying its friends.
The Cold War also set limits. In June 1967 the USSR warned that it might act over Syria, and the USA sent its fleet, but both accepted a ceasefire. In October 1973, after Brezhnev's warning on 24 October, the USA raised its alert, and then the two powers backed a ceasefire.
However, other factors were just as important. The conflict began over land and refugees in 1947-49, long before the Cold War reached the region. Nasser's wish to lead the Arabs and the Israeli capture of Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights in 1967 shaped what Arab leaders wanted. After 1967 the Palestinian resistance movement, led by Arafat and the PLO, raised its own demands, with the hijackings of 1970 and the Munich attack of 1972, and the superpowers did not control it. Even Sadat, in 1973, wanted to win back Sinai, not to please Moscow, and he had sent Soviet advisers home in 1972.
Overall, the Cold War was significant because it paid for the wars and decided how far they could go. But the aims came from local disputes, so it made the conflict more dangerous without being its cause.
This is a top answer because it covers several aspects, weighs the Cold War against local causes, uses its own knowledge and ends with a justified judgement.
For "how significant" questions, decide your line of argument in the first sentence, then test it against a rival factor in a paragraph of its own before you conclude.