‘Recrimination and reconciliation’: Anglo-American relations and the Yom Kippur War

Abstract

The ‘Yom Kippur War’ of October 1973 is thought to have triggered one of the most serious rifts in the history of the Anglo-American ‘special relationship’. The established view of events has been shaped most successfully by the writings of Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor (NSA) at the time. However, this article argues that the reasons for Britain's reservations were understandable and that Kissinger's criticisms were often an overreaction, exacerbated by existing diplomatic tensions. Meanwhile, the international oil crisis, a concomitant development of the conflict, provided an opportunity for the two allies to resume confidential cooperation in a manner befitting ‘special relations’.

Notes

¹ Geraint Hughes, ‘Britain, the Transatlantic Alliance and the Arab-Israeli War of 1973,’ Journal of Cold War Studies 10, no.2 (2008): 3–40.

² Geraint Hughes, ‘Britain, the Transatlantic Alliance and the Arab-Israeli War of 1973,’ Journal of Cold War Studies 10, no.2 (2008) 4, 37, 39.

³ See for example, John Dickie, ‘Special’ No More – Anglo-American Relations – Rhetoric and Reality (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1994), 147; C.J. Bartlett, The Special Relationship, – A Political History of Anglo-American relations since 1945 (Longman, 1992), 133; David Reynolds, Britannia Overruled, – British Policy and World Power in the Twentieth Century (Longman, 1991), 244; Alan Dobson, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (Routledge, 1995), 137, 142; Robin Renwick, Fighting With Allies – America and Britain in Peace and War (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996), 212; David Dimbleby and David Reynolds, An Ocean Apart (Hodder and Stoughton, 1988), 264.

⁴ Henry Kissinger, White House Years (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1979), 933; For other accounts of US-UK relations under Heath, see, for example: John Dumbrell, A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations in the Cold War and After (Macmillan, 2001), 73; Renwick, Fighting With Allies, 207; Dickie, ‘Special’ No More, 144; Dobson, Anglo-American Relations, 140.

⁵ Matthew Ferraro, Tough Going, Anglo-American Relations and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 (New York: iUniverse, Inc, 2007), 12–13; Hughes, ‘Britain, the Transatlantic Alliance’, 9

⁶ Such accounts stress the idea of strengthening the Atlantic Alliance through British membership of the EEC and the problems caused by American actions, especially unilateralism, see Campbell, Edward Heath: A Biography (Pimlico, 1994), 342, 343, 346; Stephen George, Britain and European Integration since 1945 (Blackwell, 1996), 43; John Young, Britain and European Unity, 1945–1999, 2^nd edition (Macmillan, 2000), 193; Denis Macshane, Heath (Haus, 2006), 77–78; Christopher Hill and Christopher Lord, ‘The foreign policy of the Heath government’, in The Heath Government, 1970–74, eds. S. Ball and A. Seldon, (Longman, 1996), 307, 308, 313; and a recent work which shares some similar interpretations to this author, Niklas Rossbach, Heath, Nixon and the Rebirth of the Special Relationship, (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), 202–222.

⁷ See The National Archives UK, (hereinafter TNA), Kew, Records of the Prime Minister's Office (hereinafter PREM) 15 / 1978, Nixon–Heath discussion, February 1, 1973.

⁸ See TNA PREM 15/2231, Freeman to Greenhill, October 28, 1970; Records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (hereinafter FCO) 82/184, Cromer to Heath April 28, 1972; PREM 15/1281, Cromer to FCO, April 18, 1972; Dickie, Special No More, 150–151; Kissinger, White House Years, 94–96.

⁹ See Alex Spelling, ‘Edward Heath and Anglo-American relations 1970–74: a reappraisal’, Diplomacy and Statecraft 20, no. 4 (2009): 638–658; Keith Hamilton, ‘Britain, France and America's Year of Europe 1973’, Diplomacy and Statecraft 17, no.4 (2006): 871.

¹⁰ William Quandt, Peace Process (University of California Press, 2005), 59–61.

¹¹ William Quandt, Peace Process (University of California Press, 2005), 59–61

¹² See William Quandt, Decade of Decision: American Policy Towards the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967–76 (University of California Press, 1978), 154–155.

¹³ Quandt, Peace Process, 62, 65, 102–104. Morchai Gazit, Israeli Diplomacy and the Quest for Peace (Frank Cass, 2002), 84–86, 88–89, 92–93, 208–211.

¹⁴ Campbell, Edward Heath, 348–349.

¹⁵ Hughes, ‘Britain, the Transatlantic Alliance…’, 10–11.

¹⁶ James Akins, ‘The Oil Crisis: This Time the Wolf is Here’, Foreign Affairs 51 (1973): 468–469, 472–473, 486–487.

¹⁷ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13).

¹⁸ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Oil Policy Committee meeting, January 24, 1973, (16).

¹⁹ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Heath and Nixon meeting, February 2, 1973, (21).

²⁰ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Peter Walker memo, February 21, 1973, (28).

²¹ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Katz and Wright meeting, June 11, 1973, (118).

²² Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Maberly to Parsons, June 21, 1973, (139).

²³ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Heath and Ismail meeting, February 20, 1973, (27).

²⁴ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Gore Booth to Parsons, March 29, 1973, (57); Parsons to Adams, April 10, 1973, (63).

²⁵ Keith Hamilton ed. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972–74, CD-ROM, (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2005), Greenhill to Acland, January 18, 1973, (Document 13) Parsons to Maberly, April 27, 1973, (80); Home–Kissinger meeting, May 10, 1973, (89).

²⁶ Ferraro, Tough Going, 13, 18, 32–33.

²⁷ TNA PREM 15 / 1981, Heath (letter) to Nixon, June 15, 1973.

²⁸ Hamilton, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, Parsons to Coles, July 3, 1973, (148).

²⁹ Hamilton, The Year of Europe, America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, Parsons to Coles Home to Amery, July 25, 1973, (172).

³⁰ Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1982) and Crisis: The Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003). These accounts have now been substantially supplemented by the publication of Nina Howland and Craig Daigle (eds.), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–76, Volume XXV, Arab Israeli Crisis and War 1973, (United States Government Printing Office, 2011).

³¹ See Ferraro, Tough Going, 9, 21–22.

³² US National Archives and Record Administration II (hereinafter NARA), College Park, Maryland, Nixon Presidential Papers Project (hereinafter NPP), Henry Kissinger Telephone Transcripts (hereinafter HAK Telcons), HAK and Cromer; HAK and Haig, October 6, 1973; HAK and Cromer, October 7 and 9, 1973; Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 471, 496, 498.

³³ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Dinitz, October 11, 1973.

³⁴ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons HAK and Scowcroft, October 11, 1973.

³⁵ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons HAK and Cromer, October 12, 1973.

³⁶ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, October 12, 1973.

³⁷ See Ferraro, Tough Going, 24–25, 33–34, 37–39.

³⁸ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, draft resolution and telegram to UK Embassy, Washington, October 12, 1973.

³⁹ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, draft resolution and telegram to UK Embassy, Washington, October 12, 1973 Adams (telegram) to FCO, October 13, 1973. There remains difficulty here in knowing exactly what Sadat said to the Soviets and both versions may be correct within the diplomatic juggling that took place, see also William Quandt, ‘Soviet Policy in the Middle East War II’, International Affairs 53, No. 4 (October 1977): 589–590.

⁴⁰ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons: HAK and Home, October 13, 1973.

⁴¹ Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 510.

⁴² NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Douglas-Home, October 13, 1973.

⁴³ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Douglas-Home HAK and Dobrynin, October 13, 1973; Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 518.

⁴⁴ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Douglas-Home HAK and Cromer, October 13, 1973; Kissinger, ibid, 521.

⁴⁵ TNA FCO 82 / 432, Cromer (letter) to Home, January 9, 1974.

⁴⁶ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, October 13, 1973; NARA NPP, HAK Telcons: HAK and Cromer, October 13, 1973.

⁴⁷ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, October 13, 1973; NARA NPP HAK Telcons, HAK and Schlesinger, October 13, 1973.

⁴⁸ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, October 13, 1973; NARA NPP HAK and Nixon, October 14, 1973; Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 520.

⁴⁹ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, October 13, 1973; NARA NPP HAK Telcons, HAK and Scowcroft, October 13, 1973;

⁵⁰ Dobson, Anglo-American Relations, 142; Dickie, Special No More, 147.

⁵¹ See Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 707–709, 711.

⁵² The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (hereinafter FAOHC), Library of Congress, Alan James interview, (Charles Stewart Kennedy, November 20, 1994), http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mfdip:@field(DOCID+mfdip2004jam01, accessed August 20, 2010.

⁵³ See Ferraro, Tough Going, 58, 60–61.

⁵⁴ See Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 712–714; TNA FCO 82 / 435, Sykes (telegram) to FCO, February 4, 1974.

⁵⁵ TNA FCO 82 / 445, Home (telegram) to Washington, February 6, 1974.

⁵⁶ TNA FCO 82 / 445, Home (telegram) to Washington, February 6, 1974 537, 583–587.

⁵⁷ TNA FCO 82 / 445, Home (telegram) to Washington, February 6, 1974 588–590.

⁵⁸ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Cromer, October 25, 1973; ‘How Kissinger Handled a War’, Time Magazine, July 1, 1974, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942876-6,00.html, accessed April 15, 2007. TNA FCO 82 / 434, Hankey (note) to North American Department, June 26, 1974; Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 593.

⁵⁹ Hamilton, The Year of Europe, Home to Cromer, October 25, 1973 (330)

⁶⁰ Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 592–593, 596, 713; NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Cromer, October 25, 1973; TNA FCO 82 / 432, Cromer (letter) to Home, undated; ‘The Middle East War and US-UK relations’, January 9, 1974.

⁶¹ See Ferraro, Tough Going, 101–102.

⁶² NARA NPP, HAK Telcons: HAK and Cromer, and HAK and Haig, October 26, 1973.

⁶³ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons HAK and Cromer, October 26, 1973.

⁶⁴ ‘UK in dark over 1973 nuclear alert’, Friday, January 2, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3334155.stm, accessed on February 10, 2004.

⁶⁵ ‘UK in dark over 1973 nuclear alert’, Friday, January 2, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3334155.stm, accessed on February 10, 2004

⁶⁶ See Ferraro, Tough Going, 99–100; for Cromer's telegram, Hamilton, The Year of Europe, Cromer to FCO, October 25, 1973 (329)

⁶⁷ NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Cromer, October 30, 1973.

⁶⁸ TNA PREM 15 / 1767, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, October 31, 1973

⁶⁹ NARA NPP: National Security Council (hereinafter NSC) Files, Harold H. Saunders Files: Middle East negotiations, Box 1176, Kissinger (telegram) to US Mission, NATO, October 29, 1973.

⁷⁰ Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 717, 719.

⁷¹ Records of the State Department (hereinafter RG59): Subject Numeric Files, 1970–73, Box 2657. October 30, 1973; Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 712–714.

⁷² Hamilton, ‘Britain, France and America's Year of Europe’, 884.

⁷³ TNA PREM 15 / 1767, Bridges (memorandum) for PM, November 3, 1973.

⁷⁴ TNA PREM 15 / 1767, Bridges (memorandum) for PM Home (telegram) to Washington, November 4, 1973.

⁷⁵ TNA PREM 15 / 1767, Bridges (memorandum) for PM Carrington–Schlesinger meeting, November 7, 1973.

⁷⁶ TNA PREM 15 / 1767, Bridges (memorandum) for PM Cromer (telegram) to Home, November 15, 1973.

⁷⁷ TNA PREM 15 / 2232, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, November 28, 1973.

⁷⁸ TNA PREM 15 / 1989, Cromer (telegram) to FCO, November 30 and December 1, 1973; NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Cromer, November 30, 1973.

⁷⁹ TNA PREM 15 / 1989, Home (letter) to Cromer, December 1, 1973.

⁸⁰ TNA PREM 15 / 1989, Home (letter) to Cromer Home (letter) to Kissinger, November 29, 1973; Home (telegram) to Kissinger, December 1, 1973; Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 721.

⁸¹ Cited in Ferraro, Tough Going, 23, 29.

⁸² Edward Heath, The Course of My Life. The Autobiography of Edward Heath (Hodder and Stoughton, 1998), 500–502.

⁸³ Fiona Venn, ‘International Co-operation versus National Self-Interest: The US and Europe During the 1973–74 Oil Crisis’, in The United States and the European Alliance Since 1945, eds. K. Burkes and M. Stokes (Oxford: Berg Press, 1999), 80, 82.

⁸⁴ Venn, International Co-operation, 73, 76, 77; Venn, Oil Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century, (Macmillan, 1986), 148; the importance of UK-US oil cooperation was noted four years earlier, see TNA FCO 59 / 465, Waterfield (note), July 8, 1969.

⁸⁵ TNA PREM 15 / 1765, Heath (letter) to Nixon, October 15, 1973; FCO 82 / 321, Nixon (letter) to Heath, October 20, 1973.

⁸⁶ TNA PREM 15 / 2232, Douglas-Home (telegram) to Kissinger, December 1, 1973.

⁸⁷ NARA NPP, NSC Files: HAK Office Files, HAK Trip Files, Box 42, Kissinger (telegram) to Scowcroft, December 11, 1973.

⁸⁸ Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 725–726.

⁸⁹ TNA FCO 55 / 1102, Washington (telegram) to FCO, December 18, 1973.

⁹⁰ TNA FCO 55 / 1102, Washington (telegram) to FCO Thomson (note) to Home, December 13, 1973.

⁹¹ Heath, Course of My Life, 393; and see Venn, International Co-operation, 83–84.

⁹² TNA FCO 82 / 325, Heath (letter) to Nixon, December 30, 1973.

⁹³ TNA FCO 82 / 443, ‘Kissinger visit’, undated.

⁹⁴ TNA FCO 82 / 443, ‘Kissinger visit’, undated Killick (letter) to Greenhill, December 28, 1973.

⁹⁵ TNA PREM 15 / 2178, Hunt (letter) to Sykes, January 28, 1974; Hunt (note) to Rampton, January 30, 1974.

⁹⁶ Hamilton, ‘Britain, France and America's…’, 888–889.

⁹⁷ TNA PREM 15 / 2178, Heath (letter) to Nixon, January 17, 1974.

⁹⁸ TNA PREM 15 / 2168, Armstrong (note), January 23, 1974; Acland (note) to Armstrong, January 25, 1974.

⁹⁹ TNA PREM 15 / 2168, Armstrong (note), January 23, 1974; Acland (note) to Armstrong Hunt (telegram) to FCO, January 30, 1973.

¹⁰⁰ TNA PREM 15 / 2168, Armstrong (note), January 23, 1974; Acland (note) to Armstrong Nixon (telegram) to Heath, February 3, 1974; Heath (telegram) to Nixon, February 4, 1974.

¹⁰¹ Cited in Hamilton, ‘Britain, France and America's…’, 888–890.

¹⁰² See Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 908–911, 913–914; 917, 919, 921; NARA NPP, HAK Telcons, HAK and Haig, February 11, 1974; HAK and Nixon, February 13 and 14, 1974.

¹⁰³ TNA FCO 82 / 432, Cromer (letter) to Home, January 9, 1974.

¹⁰⁴ NARA NPP, NSC Files, Harold H. Saunders Files: Middle East negotiations, Box 1176, US Mission to NATO, ‘Analysis of the Atlantic Alliance and Middle East crisis’, undated.

¹⁰⁵ NARA NPP, NSC Files, Harold H. Saunders Files: Middle East negotiations, Box 1176, US Mission to NATO, ‘Analysis of the Atlantic Alliance and Middle East crisis’, undated Weiss (note) to Kissinger, November 1, 1973.

¹⁰⁶ See for example TNA PREM 15 / 715, Nixon (letter) to Heath, June 9, 1971; or PREM 15 / 1978, Nixon–Heath discussion, White House, February 1, 1973.

¹⁰⁷ TNA PREM 15 / 714, Freeman (telegram) to Armstrong, October 8, 1970.

¹⁰⁸ TNA PREM 73 / 135, Cromer (letter) to Greenhill, March 7, 1973.

¹⁰⁹ See TNA PREM 15 / 1543, Washington meeting, July 30, 1973.

¹¹⁰ Ferraro, Tough Going, 9–11, 23, 26, 127.

¹¹¹ Cited in Campbell, Edward Heath, 558.

¹¹² TNA PREM 15/2231, Cromer (telegram) to Home, January 17, 1974.

¹¹³ TNA FCO 82 / 443, account of meeting, March 28, 1974.

¹¹⁴ NARA NPP, NSC Files: HAK Trip Files, Kissinger (note) to Scowcroft, March 1974.

¹¹⁵ See Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 142–143, 731.