TY - BOOK AU - Penney, Matthew T. ED - USA. TI - President Nixon and the role of intelligence in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War T2 - Presidential series PY - 2013/// CY - Washington, DC PB - CIA KW - Arab-Israeli relations KW - conference KW - regional conflicts KW - Middle East KW - USA KW - official publication KW - Egypt KW - armed conflicts KW - military operations KW - Israel KW - Syria KW - intelligence KW - 1973 Arab-Israeli War KW - Yom Kippur War of 1973 N1 - SIP1302; Symposium held on 30 January 2013 in Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, CA with a panel chaired by Matthew T. Penney, CIA Historian; The Yom Kippur War of 1973, the most recent ‘full’ war in Middle East history, is so-called because it began on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the holiest day of prayer and fasting in the Jewish calendar. The Yom Kippur War is also known as the October War. At the time of Yom Kippur, Israel was led by Golda Meir and Egypt by Anwar Sadat. The Yom Kippur War started with a surprise Arab attack on Israel on Saturday 6th October 1973. On this day, Egyptian and Syrian military forces launched an attack knowing that the military of Israel would be participating in the religious celebrations associated with Yom Kippur. Therefore, their guard would temporarily be dropped. The combined forces of Egypt and Syria totalled the same number of men as NATO had in Western Europe. On the Golan Heights alone, 150 Israeli tanks faced 1,400 Syria tanks and in the Suez region just 500 Israeli soldiers faced 80,000 Egyptian soldiers. Israel ultimately repelled the attack and regained lost ground, but only after the United States made the decision to supply the Israeli military. This war ultimately compelled the Nixon administration to step up its efforts to settle the decades old dispute; The Historical Review Program, part of the CIA Information Management Services, identifies, collects, and produces historically relevant collections of declassified documents. These collections, centered on a theme or event, are joined with supporting analysis, essays, video, audio, and photographs, and showcased in a booklet plus DVD, and made available to historians, scholars, and the public. All of the Historical Collections are available on the CIA Library Publication page located at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collection-publications/ or contact us at HistoricalCollections@UCIA.gov UR - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collection-publications/arab-israeli-war/nixon-arab-isaeli-war.pdf ER -