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October 1973: Nixon’s decision to resupply Israel...[Operation Nickel Grass,] Note: This article was written and published before Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023
notevenpast. ^ | October 4, 2023 | Daniel J. Samet

Posted on 06/18/2025 3:59:23 AM PDT by daniel1212

It had been three days since Egypt and Syria launched a two-headed assault against Israel, and now,..Kissinger and the rest of Richard Nixon’s administration faced a decision with titanic consequences. Should they send a flagging Israel the tanks, jets, and other weapons it needed to win the war? Or let the belligerents duke it out as is? The president and his administration chose the former. For the Israelis, this was a deliverance that could have come from God himself. Simply put, America’s resupply saved Israel....

The whole of the U.S. government was caught unawares by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, also termed the October War. As has been the case many times in American history, the intelligence was wrong...

Egypt and Syria attacked at 2:00 p.m. on October 6, which that year fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar....Arab tanks, infantry, and planes ravaged the Israelis’ lines. They lost men and military assets left, right, and center.

To the northeast, Syria took the southern Golan and threatened to roll on into the Sea of Galilee and the rest of northern Israel. To the southwest, the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal...on October 8. Israeli losses kept on mounting while the country neared its breaking point...

All the while, Washington debated how it should respond. Israeli requests for supplies came in earnest...Washington’s dilemma was not easy. It feared that a resupply would alienate the oil-rich Arab states. Another variable was the Soviet Union’s resupply of Egypt and Syria,...

For his part, Nixon authorized providing all the military aid requested by Israel with one caveat....The Israelis would have to collect the weapons themselves from a base in Virginia.....The Pentagon was not cooperative,” remembered Ambassador Dinitz, ...

By October 8, the administration realized the existing arrangement was insufficient for the increasingly desperate Israelis. For the IDF to prevail, it needed vast quantities of American weapons. Nixon, who insisted that Israel “not be allowed to lose,” greenlit a major resupply plan on October 9...

With his directive, Nixon came to the Jewish state’s rescue...He defied recommendations by his Department of Defense and many others... convinced that the resupply was not in America’s economic and political interests...

no private insurers would assume the risk of sending them into a war zone.., the administration realized that it had no option but to provide military planes

“Do it now!” Nixon barked as he ordered the use of military aircraft.[5] ..

Over the ensuing month, C-5 and C-141 transport jets from the Air Force delivered 22,395 tons of supplies to Israel, stopping to refuel at Lajes Air Base in the Azores on the way... Navy ships and their sailors ferried more supplies by sea...

The resupply was a godsend for the Israelis...There is little doubt the resupply was essential to the Israeli victory. The IDF was shellshocked and depleted,


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Business/Economy; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: algeria; azores; c141starlifter; c5; c5a; c5galaxy; cuba; danieljsamet; egypt; iraq; israel; jewhatersonfr; jordan; kuwait; libya; lockheed; morocco; nickelgrass; northkorea; portugal; saudiarabia; syria; tunisia; ussr; waronterror
Excerpts of larger article: https://notevenpast.org/october-1973-nixons-decision-to-resupply-israel/.

Grace and peace thru Jesus the Lord.

1 posted on 06/18/2025 3:59:23 AM PDT by daniel1212
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To: daniel1212

Tense times for America and the Western world and especially for us in the military.


2 posted on 06/18/2025 4:13:13 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: daniel1212

Nixon was known to talk of those damned Jews from time to time but the apparent anti-Semitism was more like a comfortable way to speak in that era. When the situation in the ME was staring him in the face that custom fell and shattered on the floor. “Give them whatever they need!”


3 posted on 06/18/2025 4:31:10 AM PDT by arthurus (| covfefe | -<\o/>-)
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To: daniel1212
I had just finished Office Candidate School and was in the Marine Corps Basic school and doing our amphibious training aboard ship when Nixon ordered the immediate movement of military equipment to the Israelis.

I remember Marine Corps A-4 fighters being painted with the Star of David and loaded aboard ships.

I also remember that the Soviets were moving nuclear warheads and a parachute unit to Egypt when Nixon stopped them - allegedly telling them that we would counter that move and that they turned their transports around.

4 posted on 06/18/2025 4:46:15 AM PDT by Chainmail (You can vote your way into Socialism - but you will have to shoot your way out.)
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To: arthurus; All

Nixon was even more pro Israel than lefty Kissinger


5 posted on 06/18/2025 4:46:57 AM PDT by Milagros
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To: Chainmail

Graduated high school in 73, went active in January 75.


6 posted on 06/18/2025 4:57:11 AM PDT by exnavy (See article IV section 4 of our constitution.)
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To: arthurus

The saying at the time was “Everything that shoots, on everything that flies”.

Nixon didn’t care too much for commies. I don’t believe he was anti-semitic.


7 posted on 06/18/2025 5:25:28 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: Milagros

Nixon was a good president hounded out of office by evil Democrat and weak Republicans.


8 posted on 06/18/2025 5:27:19 AM PDT by hoosierham (Freedom isnt free)
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To: daniel1212

Israel losing would have meant the Samson Option; Israel delivering nuclear bombs to Arab capitols. Probably why the Soviets did not directly intervene; they were protecting their client dictators.


9 posted on 06/18/2025 5:44:22 AM PDT by jjotto ("...saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau...")
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To: arthurus
Nixon was known to talk of those damned Jews from time to time but the apparent anti-Semitism was more like a comfortable way to speak in that era. When the situation in the ME was staring him in the face that custom fell and shattered on the floor. “Give them whatever they need!”

I suspect it was only liberal Jews that he was adverse to, rightly so, but not adverse to Jews as in antisemitism.

10 posted on 06/18/2025 5:51:19 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves damned+destitute sinners on His acct, believe, b baptized+follow HIM)
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To: Chainmail
I also remember that the Soviets were moving nuclear warheads and a parachute unit to Egypt when Nixon stopped them - allegedly telling them that we would counter that move and that they turned their transports around.

Astounding.

11 posted on 06/18/2025 5:52:30 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves damned+destitute sinners on His acct, believe, b baptized+follow HIM)
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To: Chainmail
I had just finished Office Candidate School and was in the Marine Corps Basic school and doing our amphibious training aboard ship when Nixon ordered the immediate movement of military equipment to the Israelis. I remember Marine Corps A-4 fighters being painted with the Star of David and loaded aboard ships.

And thank you for your service.

12 posted on 06/18/2025 6:02:22 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves damned+destitute sinners on His acct, believe, b baptized+follow HIM)
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To: hoosierham

Don’t forget the deep state first deleted Spiro Agnew. Smart guy, good solid conservative. They had to pave the way for Nelson Rockefeller, that was the plan for the replacement President. We ended up with Leslie King, aka Jerry Ford. And then the execrable peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter.


13 posted on 06/18/2025 6:42:56 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: daniel1212

Has Israel elected a woman president (or prime minister) since that war?


14 posted on 06/18/2025 6:43:35 AM PDT by BobL
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To: daniel1212

Nixon may well have prevented a New Caliphate from emerging. Documents released in 1995 showed that the Soviets intended to create a pan-Arabic bloc to oppose the West as their ally. Insanely foolish, of course, but those were the times.


15 posted on 06/18/2025 7:37:34 AM PDT by montag813
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To: BobL
Has Israel elected a woman president (or prime minister) since that war?

No, but militant Islam seeks to extermination of Jews regardless. And subjugation of all who will not submit to them. Thus, even on that basis, Israel should supported as our ally. Much more so due to the prophetic nature of the survival of the Jews. Despite their disobedience.

16 posted on 06/18/2025 7:40:32 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves damned+destitute sinners on His acct, believe, b baptized+follow HIM)
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