Anatomy of an airlift: United States military assistance to Israel during the 1973 war

During the 1973 war the United States flew 12,000 tons of military equipment to Israel, transferring advanced weaponry that it had hitherto withheld. In fact, Nixon and Kissinger had planned to strictly regulate the supply of arms to Israel, intending both to control its strategy during the fighting and heighten its dependence following the war. Yet the exigency of matching the Soviet Union's massive resupply of Egypt and Syria forced the United States to launch an airlift that greatly accelerated the pace and degree of sophistication of military hardware to its client. This article demonstrates that the determination both to outpace the rival superpower and ensure Israel's post-war cooperation created a process of rearmament that for the United States was an unintended consequence.