Unsuccessful Effort of the Superpowers to Settle the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Aftermath of the Six-Day War: The Gromyko-Goldberg Agreement

In the aftermath of the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab countries, the Soviets and the Americans were locked in a diplomatic and propaganda battle in the UN over the future of the vast territories that Israel had conquered. Fearing that their Middle-Eastern clients, namely Egypt and Israel, could drag them into a direct clash, the two superpowers maintained secret contacts parallel to their power struggle in the UN in an effort to reach an agreement on principles to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Studies that analyze the diplomatic and political consequences of the Six-Day War tend to belittle or even ignore the tentative agreement reached between Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko and Arthur Goldberg, the US ambassador to the UN. This article offers a new perspective on the neglected Gromyko-Goldberg agreement and a new interpretation of its indirect role in bringing the two superpowers to support UN Resolution 242 that formed the foundation for future diplomatic efforts to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt signed in March 1979. The article also illustrates the negative impact of the Cold War on the two superpowers’ attempts to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.