More Guns and More Butter. U.S. Arms Sales to Israel, 1969-1974

Abstract

In the first years of Richard Nixon's presidency, he drastically raised the scale of the American commitment and support to Israel. The country had proven to be a strategically reliable ally by averting an invasion by Syrian troops in Jordan during the Civil War in 1970. To handle similar events in the future and to halt Soviet influence in the region, the United States considered it necessary to strengthen Israel with military means. In 1971, Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to form a long-term arms deal with Israel and during the final stages of the October War in 1973, the American government carried out a massive airlift to Israel. The airlift proved to be crucial for the outcome of the war, but brought with it some consequences for the U.S., such as the oil embargo which put severe strains on the American relationship with their Western and Arab allies. What motives lay behind the U.S. arms policy towards Israel in the period between 1969 and 1974? What kind of weapons and in what quantities were they sold to Israel, and why was this military support so extensive?