The Albatross of Decisive Victory: War and Policy Between Egypt and Israel in the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars

(Hardback)

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In 1967, the Israeli Defence Forces defeated the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in a mere six days. This remarkable military accomplishment would, however, have the ultimate effect of creating an albatross around the neck of the Israeli Army, as Israelis would now expect the next conventional war with the Arabs to achieve similar results: a quick, decisive victory with relatively few casualties. Although Egyptian forces were militarily inferior to those of Israel, President Anwar Sadat developed a successful limited war strategy designed to exploit this unrealistic expectation. Rather than aiming to achieve a military victory or to seize strategic terrain, Sadat merely sought to break a diplomatic stalemate with a major military operation designed to soften Israeli intransigence toward negotiations and to force a change in US foreign policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict. In support of these political aims, the Egyptian Armed Forces set out to discredit the Israeli Army's prowess by inflicting heavy casualities in a limited war. Sadat's success in regaining the entire Sinai without another armed struggle holds an important lesson for the United States. After its dramatic victory in Desert Storm, American armed forces feel compelled to win the next conventional war quickly, decisively and with relatively few casualties, much like the challenge that faced Israel after the 1967 war.

Reviews

"A clear, no-nonsense account of events that shook the world. George Gawrych's work on the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars will remain standard for many years to come."-M. van Creveld History Department The Hebrew University
"The Albatross of Decisive Victory, Dr. George Gawrych's able account of the Yom Kippur War of 1973 adds depth, detail and new interpretation to a well-known story. Gawrych has used new materials on the origin and prosecution of the war (including some previously neglected Egyptian sources) and interviewed many of the principal actors. As a result his book contains unique insights and fresh information on operations on the Southern Front. It will become a standard reference for that reason alone. This is the book's greatest strength. It outlines Sadat's deliberate analysis of his position and dispassionatley describes the radical revision of Egyptian strategy that followed."-Lt. General (Ret.) Don Holder
"This careful study...contributes not merely to Middle Eastern history but also to the general study of war...[a]n important work..."-Foreign Affairs
Gawrych has generated a book that serves as an inspired capstone to his earlier efforts and includes a wealth of important details....The conflicts analyzed within this study represent some of the most important events in Arab-Israeli history, and Gawrych makes valuable and unique contributions to our understanding of these events.-MESA Bulletin
Gawrych...has done a masterful job of collating Arabic, Israeli, and western sources for an interesting and insightful account of to major wars that have altered many of our assumptions about the fighting qualities of the peoples of the Middle East.-Journal of Military History
This careful study...contributes not merely to Middle Eastern history but also to the general study of war...[a]n important work...-Foreign Affairs
"Gawrych...has done a masterful job of collating Arabic, Israeli, and western sources for an interesting and insightful account of to major wars that have altered many of our assumptions about the fighting qualities of the peoples of the Middle East."-Journal of Military History
"Gawrych has generated a book that serves as an inspired capstone to his earlier efforts and includes a wealth of important details....The conflicts analyzed within this study represent some of the most important events in Arab-Israeli history, and Gawrych makes valuable and unique contributions to our understanding of these events."-MESA Bulletin

Author Bio

GEORGE W. GAWRYCH is Historian on the faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, a position he has held since July 1984. He taught at the University of Hawaii, the University of Kansas, and the School of International Studies at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His publications on modern Middle East history include articles in academic journals and two short monographs published by the U.S. Army. In November 1989, he received the Turkish Studies Association's biennial prize for the best published article in Turkish Studies.