Page 70 - History of War - Issue 10-14

White House

declassifi ed

A memorandum of a conversation between US President Gerald Ford
and Senator James William Fulbright on Wednesday 2 July 1975,

discussing the situation in the Middle East

y 1975 there had already been four
wars between Israel and Arab nations
B since the turn of the century. The most
recent was the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, where
Egyptian and Syrian forces surrounded Israel
but were eventually pushed back by an Israeli
counterattack. A ceasefi re was signed on 18
January 1974 but tensions still ran high. A
year later, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
rejected an Egyptian offer of a peace accord.
As a result, offi cials from both the United
Nations and United States were called in to
help smooth negotiations. These diplomats
included the now legendary fi gure Henry
Kissinger and little-known US senator James
William Fulbright. This text is a write-up of a
conversation between Fulbright and President
Ford after the former’s visit to the Middle East.
Here Fulbright shares his opinions on the
situation in the region and the effects action
will have on Ford’s domestic popularity.
Gerald Ford’s foreign policy was a
continuation of his predecessor President
Nixon’s ideology. Ford is quoted as saying “a
strong defence is the surest way to peace…
Weakness invites war.” The president
championed long-term agreements and
improved relations with China, the Soviet Union
and South Vietnam after the war. In the Middle
East, he held meetings with the presidents
and prime ministers of Egypt, Israel, Jordan
and Syria in attempts to help quell confl ict in
the region. His diplomatic assistance helped
improve peace talks between Israel and the
Arab states and aided their government’s
resistance to extremist pressures and threats.
The intervention resulted in the fi rst ever
agreement between an Arab country and Israel
that wasn’t directly negotiated to stop an on-
going confl ict. Overall the US sent $4.2 billion
(£2.63 billion) of aid to Israel. Despite all these
efforts, war broke out again in 1982 between
Isreal and its neighbours in the Lebanon War.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War killed over 10,000 people and led the UN
and US to become involved in Middle Eastern matters once again

70