Six Days of War

by Michael B. Oren

  17. USNA, Central Foreign Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 7 ARAB-SUMMIT, box 1844: Damascus to State Department, March 16, 1966. Kerr, The Arab Cold War, pp. 125-26. ‘Ali ‘Ali ‘Amer quote from Heikal, Al-Infijar, p. 423. Reference to “in the icebox” in LBJ, National Security file, Country file, Middle East-UAR box 161: Lunch with Ambassador Kamel, Jan. 17, 1967. Oral history interview with Gen. Yusuf Khawwash, Nov. 16, 1999. On rumors of revolt in Yemen, see PRO, FCO 39/233, UAR Internal Political Situation: Tennet Minute, March 30, 1967.

  18. Profiles of ‘Abd al-Hakim ‘Amer appear in Berlinti ‘Abd al-Hamid, Al-Mushir wa-Ana (Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli al-Saghir, 1992), pp. 201-5. Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, pp. 33-45, 52-54. Imam, Nasir wa-‘Amer, pp. 5-13, 39-41, 67-86. Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 818-22. Birs Zia’ al-Din, “‘Abd al-Nasir…Hakama,” in Ruz al-Yusuf 2464, Sept. 1, 1975, pp. 42-47. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation, pp. 159, 161. Gawrych, The Albatross of Decisive Victory, pp. 12-13. Mahjoub, Democracy on Trial, p. 134. Wajih Abu Dhikri, Madhbahat al-Abriya’, pp. 195-97. Anouar Abdel-Malek, Egypt: Military Society - The Army Regime, the Left, and Social Change Under Nasser (New York: Vantage Press, 1968), p. 144. An example of the Soviet communiqués appears in BBC, Daily Report No. 183, B1. ‘Mushir’ quote from USNA, Central Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 7 UAR, box 2554, Cairo to State Department, April 22, 1967. Nasser’s attitudes to ‘Amer in El-Sadat, In Search of Identity, pp. 168-69 and Richard B. Parker, “The June 1967 War: Some Mysteries Explored,” in Middle East Journal 46, no. 2 (Spring 1992), p. 194.

  19. PRO FCO/39/263 UAR - Relations with the USSR: Mr. Gromyko’s Visit to Cairo, March 29, 1967. ISA, Foreign Ministry files, 4083/3, Contacts with the Soviet Union, Raviv to Shimoni, April 1, 1967. Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamim, p. 86. Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 409-20. Ben Tzur, Gormim Sovietiim u-Milhemet Sheshet ha-Yamim, p. 177.

  20. USNA, Central Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 7 UAR, box 2554: Battle to Rusk, Feb. 22, 1967. Heikal quotes from Middle East Record 3, 1967 (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1971), pp. 49-50. LBJ, Lucius Battle Oral History, p. 36; David G. Nes Papers: Nes To Roger P. Davies, Deputy Assistant Secretary NEA, May 11, 1967. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 242-45. The British predictions of Nasser’s need for distractions abroad were similar to the Americans’. See ISA, 4080/5, Foreign Ministry files, Contacts with Great Britain, London to FM, May 16, 1967.

  21. Heikal, al-Infijar, pp. 407-8. Nasser’s remarks to ‘Aref in BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. 25, B3-4. Other Nasser quotes in Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation, pp. 249-51.

  22. ISA, Foreign Ministry files, 3977/20, Relations with the United States: Attack on the Northern Border, Jan. 1967. UN, DAG 13/3.4.0, box 82, Israel/Syria High Level Talks, Cultivation Arrangements: Barromi to President of Security Council, Jan. 15, 1967 and Tomeh to President of Security Council Jan. 13, 1967; Comay to the Security Council (Radio Damascus quote), Jan. 17, 1967. Another translation of the Syrian quote can be found in Draper, Israel & World Politics, p. 43. USNA, POL 12 SYR - SYR - US, box 2511: ‘Asifa Communiqué #56 - al-Ba‘th and al-Thawra, Jan. 15, 1967. PRO, FCO 17/665 Syria - Political Affairs: Damascus to Foreign Office, Jan. 3, 1967.

  23. Ma’oz, Syria and Israel, p. 82. Al-Ba‘th, April 10, 1967. Tlas quote from PRO, FO17/671: Syria - Political Affairs: Damascus to Foreign Ministry, March 2, 1967.

  24. NAC, RG 25 box 2827, Syria: Present Conflict between the Syrian Government and the I.P.C. (Embassy of Syrian Arab Republic - London), Jan. 3, 1967. Damascus radio quote from BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. 8, G2. Al-Ba‘th, March 7, 1967.

  25. PRO FCO/39/263 UAR - Relations with the USSR, Speares Minute - Soviet Foreign Minister’s Visit to Cairo, April 11, 1967. ISA, 4049/7, Foreign Ministry files, Soviet Relations with Arab Countries, Moscow to Foreign Ministry, Jan. 8, 1967; 3975/15, Foreign Ministry files, Diplomatic Relations with the United States: Argov to Bitan, Feb. 9, 1967 (“small rather than big trouble”); Eban Conversation with Hare, June 27, 1966 (“tensions without explosions”). Anatoly Dobrynin, In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to America’s Six Cold War Presidents (1962-1986) (New York: Random House, 1995), pp. 156-59. Oded Eran, “Soviet Policy Between 1967 and 1973,” in Rabinovich and Shaked, eds., From June to October, p. 50.

  26. USNA Central Foreign Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 12 SY, box 2511: Tel Aviv to Department of State, Jan. 24, 1967; Moscow to Department of State, Feb. 15, 1967. PRO, FO17/672 Syria - Political Affairs: Damascus to Foreign Office, Jan. 27, 1967. ISA, 3977/20, Foreign Ministry files, Relations with the United States: Bitan Conversation with Alfred Atherton, Dec. 12, 1966. Dagan, Moscow and Jerusalem, pp. 186-87. Govrin, Israeli-Soviet Relations 1953-1967, pp. 276-79. Ben Tzur, Gormim Sovietiim u-Milhemet Sheshet ha-Yamim, pp. 131-33, 151.

  27. PRO, FCO 17/665 Syria - Political Affairs: Damascus to Foreign Ministry, Jan. 18, 1967; Damascus to Foreign Ministry, Feb. 21, 1967; FO17/671: Syria - Political Affairs: Damascus to Foreign Ministry, Feb. 4, 1967. ISA, 3975/15, Foreign Ministry files, Diplomatic Relations with the United States: North American Desk Memorandum, Feb. 4, 1967. Assassination attempt on al-Assad in BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe No. 8, G1; arrest of government ministers in 64, G2. See also Itamar Rabinovich, “The Ba‘th in Syria,” Rabinovich and Shaked, From June to October, p. 222.

  28. LBJ, National Security file, Middle East Crisis, box 145-57: CIA: Syria - A Center of Instability, March 24, 1967. Assad conversation with ‘Awdah in PRO, FO17/671: Syria - Political Affairs: Craig to Moberley, January 24, 1967.

  29. The number of complaints submitted to the ISMAC in Frederic C. Hof, Line of Battle, Order of Peace? (Washington: Middle East Insight, 1999), p. 14. UN, DAG 13/3.4.0, box 84, Verbatim Records, ISMAC 80th Meeting, Jan. 25, 1967. Syria description of talks in BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. 19, G1. See also Indar Jit Rikhye, The Sinai Blunder (London: Frank Cass, 1980) p. 9.

  30. PRO, FCO 17/576: Israel-Defense Attaché, Annexure 1, June 12, 1967. Walid Abu Murshid, Antoine Butrus and Fuad Jabber, “Al-Kitab Al-Sanawi lil-Qadiyya al-Filastiniyya li-‘Am 1967,” in Silsilat al-Kitab al-Sanawi lil-Qadiyya al-Filastiniyya 4 (Beirut: Manshurat Mu’assasat al-Dirasa al-Filastiniyya, 1969), pp. 124, 151-54. UN, DAG 13 3.4.0, box 84, IJMAC, Israeli Complaints of March 12 and 26, 1967. Al-Fatah communiqué can be found in USNA, POL 12 SYR-SYR-US, box 2511.

  31. UN, DAG 13/3.4.0, box 82: Israeli Complaint S/7853, April 14, 1967.

  32. PRO, FO17/671: Syria-Political Affairs: Damascus to Foreign Office, Feb. 27, 1967. USNA Central Foreign Policy files, 1967-1969, POLY 12 SY, box 2511: Damascus to Department of State, May 23, 1967. ISA, 3975/15, Foreign Ministry files, Diplomatic Relations with the United States: Argov to Harman, March 19, 1967 (Hoopes quote); 3977/21: Evron to North America Desk, March 16, 1967; Argov to Bitan, March 27, 1967; 7919/1, Levi Eshkol files, Diplomatic Telegrams: U.S.A.: Evron to Levavi, May 17, 1967 (Rostow quote).

  33. Evron quote from LBJ, National Security file, Middle East, Israel box 140, 141: W. Rostow to the President, Jan. 16, 1967. Eshkol quote from Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 141, “Syrian syndrome” on p. 99. See also Eyal Sisser, “Bein Yisrael le-Suria: Milhemet Sheshet ha-Yamim ule-Ahareiha,”Iyunim be-Tkumat Yisrael 8 (1998), pp. 220-21.

  34. Al-Shuqayri, Mudhakkirat 5, p. 35 (‘Ali ‘Ali ‘Amer quote). Heikal, Al-Infijar, p. 434. See also Hisham Sharabi, “Takrit ha-7 be-April: 20 Shniyot Aharei-Sheshet ha-Migim she-Kirvu et Sheshet ha-Yamim,”Bamahane 39 (April 8, 1987).

  35. Sidqi quote from Mazhar, I’tirafat Qadat Harb Yunju, pp. 107-8. Heikal, Al-Infijar, p. 434. Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamin, p. 94. Al-Shuqyri, Mudhakkirat 5, p. 50. Al-Sabbah, Mudhakkirat Qadat al-‘Askaraiyya al-Misriyya 5, pp. 14-15. Kimche and Bawly, The Sandstorm,, p. 86. Cohen, Ha-Hagannah al Mekorot ha-Mayim, pp. 178-79. Speeches by the Egyptian delegation to Syria in BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. 72, B1 and 72, G1.


  36. Jordanian claims in BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. 73, D1. Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamim, p. 83. Nasser’s remarks in BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. 86, B1-17. Suliman quote from BBC, No. 82, G1.

  37. USNA, Central Foreign Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 7 ARAB-SUMMIT, box 1844, Cairo to the Secretary of State, March 27, 1967; 1967-1969, POL Arab-Jordan, box 1844: Amman to Department of State, April 19, 1967. Mutawi, Jordan in the 1967 War, p. 101.

  38. Ephraim Kamm, Hussein Poteah be-Milhama: Milhemet Sheshet ha-Yamim be-Eynei ha-Yardenim (Tel Aviv: Ma‘arakhot, Misrad ha-Bitahon, 1974). Mutawi, Jordan in the 1967 War, p. 86. Hussein of Jordan, My “War” with Israel, pp. 38-39. Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 435-36. Amman broadcast in BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. 86, B1-17.

  39. PRO,FCO 17/576: Israel-Defense Attaché, Annexure 1, June 12, 1967. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10,1967, pp. 5-6. UN, DAG 13 3.4.0, box 84: Syrian Compliant 7863, April 28, 1967; Israeli Complaint 7880, May 11, 1967.

  40. Harman quote in LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 8-9. Eban quote from Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamim, p. 97. A similar statement was made by Gideon Rafael, Israel’s UN ambassador, to the Security Council. See Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation, p. 41.

  41. Prittie, Eshkol, pp. 105, 183. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 140-42. Weizman, On Eagles’ Wings, pp. 190-91. NAC, RG 25 10082: 20-ISR-9: Visit of Prime Minister Eshkol to Canada, Jan. 15-26. 1968. Oral history interview with Miriam Eshkol, Aug. 30, 1999. See also the eassays by Yoav Gelber in http://research.haifa.ac.il/%7Eeshkol/index.html (Levi Eshkol homepage).

  42. Robert Slater, Rabin of Israel: A Biography (London: Robson Books, 1993), pp. 108-16. Dan Kurzman, Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), pp. 1-32. Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, p. 61.

  43. Michael Brecher, Decision in Crisis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), p. 36. Semyonov quotes in Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamim, p. 87. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation, p. 11.

  44. ISA, 3975/15, Foreign Ministry files, Diplomatic Relations with the United States: Harman to Bitan, March 1, 1967; Bitan to Harman, March 6, 1967; Argov to Harman, March 19, 1967. LBJ, National Security file, Middle East, Israel box 140, 141: US Attitudes Toward Military Aid to IS, April 20, 1967; Tel Aviv to Department of State January 17, 1967 (Barbour quote).

  45. U.S. News & World Report 62, no. 16 (April 17, 1967), pp. 75-77. Prittie, Eshkol, p. 249. Al-Atassi quote from BBC, Daily Report No. 214, G3.

  46. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 6-7. Arthur Lall, The UN and the Middle East Crisis, 1967 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), pp. 3-4. Gideon Rafael, Destination Peace: Three Decades of Israeli Foreign Policy (New York: Stein and Day, 1981), p. 136. Brian Urquahart, A Life in Peace and War (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 20. Tomeh quote in Menachem Mansoor, Arab World: Political and Diplomatic History, 1900-1967: A Chronological Study (NCR, Microcard Editors, n.d.), entry for May 13, 1967. See also Yost, “How It Began,” pp. 306-7. Rikhye, Sinai Blunder, p. 11.

  47. LBJ, National Security files, NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 17: Tel Aviv to the Secretary of State, May 12, 1967. Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamim, pp. 98-101. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 146-47. Middle East Record 3, p. 187. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 15-18. Parker, The Six Day War, pp. 31-32, 69. Weizman, On Eagles’ Wings, p. 208.

  48. PRO, FO17/666, Syria-Political Affairs: Damascus to Foreign Office, May 14, 1967. ISA, Foreign Ministry files, 3975/17, Bilateral Relations with the U.S.: Harman to Foreign Ministry, May 12, 1967; 7920/4, Levi Eshkol Papers, Prime Minister’s Reports and Surveys: Eshkol’s Reports to the Ministerial Defense Committee, May 18, 1967. Rapid, The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East, p. 17. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 147. Seal, Asad of Syria, p. 115. Rikhye, Sinai Blunder, p. 10. Al-Atassi quote from Mansoor, Arab World, entry for May 13, 1967. Makhous quotes from LBJ, National Security files, NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 17: The President in the Middle East Crisis, Dec. 19, 1968, and Damascus to the Secretary of State, May 20, 1967.

  49. UN, DAG 13/3.4.0, box 84: HJKIMAC, El-Farra to the Secretary General, Feb. 6, 1967; Comay to Secretary General, Feb. 10, 1967; Bull to Sasson, May 15, 1967. LBJ, National Security file, Middle East, Israel box 140, 141. Katzenbach to the President, May 2, 1967. NAC, RG 25, box 10050: Political Affairs-Canada’s Foreign Policy Trends and Relations-Israel: Israel’s Independence Day Parade, May 15, 1967. ISA, 3977/22, Diplomatic Relations with the United States: Bitan to Evron, April 16, 1967. Teddy Kollek, For Jerusalem (London: Weindefeld and Nicolson, 1978), pp. 187-88. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 118-19, 145-465. Rikhye, Sinai Blunder, p. 13. Bull, War and Peace in the Middle East, p. 70. U Thant, View from the UN (New York: Doubleday, 1978), pp. 218-19.

  50. Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 442-44. El-Sadat, In Search of Identity, pp. 171-72. Prediction of the U.S. embassy in USNA, Central Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 2 UAR, box 2553: Cairo to the Department of State, April 29, 1967; POL ARAB-ISR, box 9: Paris to the Secretary of State, May 23, 1967. LBJ, National Security files, NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 20: Davis to Rostow, June 2, 1967. On the Soviet interpretation of the absence of tanks and cannons from the Jerusalem parade, see ISA, 4078, Foreign Ministry files, Contacts with the United States with the Entry of Egyptian Forces into Tiran, Evron to Foreign Ministry, May 15, 1967, and USNA, POL ARAP-ISR, box 9: Paris to Teheran, May 15, 1967. Podgorny quotes from Dayan, My Life, pp. 309-10 and Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 445-46.

  51. A minor literature has grown up around the reasons for the Soviet’ warning to Sadat. See Michael Bar-Zohar, Embassies in Crisis: Diplomats and Demagogues Behind the Six Day War (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970), p. 2. Ali Abdel Rahman Rahmi, Egyptian Policy in the Arab World: Intervention in Yemen 1962-1967: A Case Study (Washington D.C.: University Press of America, 1983), pp. 232-35. Nadav Safran, From War to War: The Arab-Israel Confrontation, 1948-1967 (New York, 1969), pp. 267-77. Anthony Nutting, Nasser (New York: Dutton, 1972), pp. 397-98. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 18-19, 156-57. Parker, The Six Day War, pp. 35-41, 48-49, 70-73. Parker, “The June 1967 War: Some Mysteries Explored,” p. 181. Ritchie Ovendale, The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Wars (London: Longman, 1984), p. 178. W. W. Rostow, The Diffusion of Power: An Essay in Recent History (New York: Macmillan, 1972), p. 257. Seale, Asad of Syria, p. 129. Govrin, Israeli-Soviet Relations, pp. 308-9. Ben Tzur, Gormim Sovietiim u-Milhemet Sheshet ha-Yamim, p. 167. Ilan Asia, Tismonent Dayan: Arab Milhamot ve-Shalom Ehad—ha-Roved ha-Nistar (Tel Aviv: Yediot Ahronot, 1995), p. 129. Oral history interviews with Vadim Kirpitchenko, Dec. 25, 2000, and Carin Brutenz, Jan. 21, 2001.

  52. A similar interpretation of Soviet decision-making was posited by State Department Middle East expert Harold Saunders shortly after the war: “The Soviet advice to the Syrians [sic] that the Israelis were planning an attack was not far off, although they seem to have exaggerated the magnitude. The Israelis probably were planning an attack—but not an invasion.” From LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Crisis, box 17, Saunders to Bundy, June 16, 1967. See also Meir Amit, “Ha-Derekh le-Sheshet ha-Yamin—Sheshet ha-Yamim be-Re’i le-Ahor,”Ma’arakhot 325 (June-July 1992). ISA, 4083/3, Foreign Ministry files, Contacts with the USSR-Closure of Tiran: Bonn to Foreign Ministry, June 14, 1967; Levanon to Foreign Ministry, June 23, 1967. “Ideological myopia” from PRO, FCO/39/263, UAR-Relations with the USSR: Mr. Gromyko’s Visit to Cairo, April 1, 1967; FCO 17/498: Israel-Political Affairs: The Middle East Crisis (Morris),
October 23, 1967 (“ideological myopia”). LBJ, National Security files, NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 18: Paris to the Secretary of State, May 23, 1967. Solomon M. Shvarts, Sovetskii Soiuz I Arabo-Izrailskaia Voina 1967 (New York: Amerikanskii Evreiskii Rabochii Komitet, 1969), pp. 24-26.

  53. Shukri Dhabbah, Wa-Madha Ba’du? (Cairo: Dar al-Quds, n.d.), pp. 18-24. Eric Rouleau, Jean-Francis Held, Jean and Simone Lacouture, Israel et les Arabes le 3e Combat (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1967), p. 54. Ivan Prokhorovitch Dediulia, “Na Zemle Obetovannoy,”Nezavisimoe Veonnoe Obozrenie, no. 20 (1998). Syrian claim in Mazhar, I’tirafat Qadat Harb Yunyu, pp. 109-10. Parker, The Six Day War, pp. 2, 42. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, p. 5. Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 448-51.