The Two O'Clock War: The 1973 Yom Kippur Conflict and the Airlift That Saved Israel [Anglais] [Relié]

In The Two O'Clock War Walter J. Boyne chronicles with intense detail the brief but furious October 1973 invasion of Israel by Egypt and Syria, an episode also known as the Yom Kippur War. Boyne alternates his attention between actual battlefield descriptions and the equally frantic maneuvering by diplomats and statesmen of the combatant countries, their allies. and, most ominously, Russia and the United States, which refused to stop rattling their sabers at each other. At least twice, the region--and by implication the greater world--came perilously close to suffering the ultimate nightmare: nuclear war. Boyne's language is often blunt but he is generally fair-minded: his showers of blame and praise fall on individuals on both sides of the conflict. Running through the book is his premise, convincingly presented, that a massive American airlift--Operation Nickel Grass--was the decisive factor in Israel's fending off defeat. The book--especially its military sections--demands a reader's full attention. --H. O'Billovich

Boyne's focus on Israel's initial defeats after being surprised by Egypt and Syria in the fall of 1973 establishes the key scenario of his book: a near-ultimatum to U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that Israel's continuing deferral of the nuclear option would depend on American delivery of diplomatic and military aid. The best and most useful parts of the book are those devoted to the U.S. decision to mount a massive airlift, using the old reliable C-141s and the newer, larger C-5s, whose acquisition costs and technical reliability had been major points of controversy in earlier years. Boyne (Beyond Wild Blue), a retired air force colonel and former Air and Space Museum director, credits the U.S. Air Force's military airlift command with establishing a lifeline of vital equipment and spare parts that in turn sustained the Israeli Defense Force as it rallied and counterattacked enemies unable to exploit their initial victories. No less remarkable was the air force's ability simultaneously to sustain its other commitments in Vietnam and Europe a sharp contrast with a similar Soviet airlift to Syria and Egypt that suffered constant, embarrassing gridlocks. Initially unable to convince its Arab clients to accept a cease-fire, the Soviet Union turned to Kissinger. In face to face negotiations, the superpowers hammered out an agreement which almost collapsed when a Soviet-sanctioned Egyptian missile launch generated a chain reaction that culminated in the U.S. escalating its alert status to DefCon III and the Soviet Politburo debating a direct response. Boyne concludes that war was avoided less by positive decision making than because specific mistakes were not made. His emphasis on the importance of contingency informs the book as a whole and makes it a useful counterpoint to Michael Oren's recent account of the 1967 conflict, Six Days of War.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Boyne here tells the story of how, on Yom Kippur, October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack using tanks and jet bombers that could have ended the existence of Israel and started a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. In a controversial decision, the United States came to Israel's aid with an enormous airlift and changed the situation. Boyne (Beyond the Horizons; Beyond the Wild Blue) is a retired air force colonel and former Air and Space Museum director. While telling the dramatic story, he also provides valuable insight on war strategy, focusing on the psychological factors and subtle political interactions of the conflict's decision makers. In that respect, this book contrasts greatly with Michael Oren's recent Six Days of War, which focuses on documented and factual events. Boyne's writing is engaging and easy to read, making this book a good addition to public as well as academic libraries.
Ethan Pullman, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Retired USAF Colonel Boyne, former director of the National Air and Space Museum and author of numerous books, including Beyond the Wild Blue (1997), provides a dramatic, hour-by-hour account of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, begun by Egypt's surprise attack on October 6, 1973. Reflecting Boyne's forte, his concentration is heavily on the U.S. airlift that literally saved the day for the besieged Israelis, who were often only hours away from depleting aircraft and ammunition supplies. Boyne also skillfully weaves in and out of his tale the diplomatic negotiations between Henry Kissinger--basically given carte blanche in foreign affairs by a distraught President Nixon, who was trying to keep his head above water with Congress in the wake of Watergate--and Leonid Brezhnev, trying to save detente and to save his own scalp from the clamoring hawks of the USSR. Boyne also attaches a valuable 21-page appendix that provides a concise diplomatic, military, and political history of Israel from 1946. Allen Weakland
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

October 6, 1973. Yom Kippur. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar. At 2 p.m., a blinding shower of explosives rained down on a collection of concrete bunkers sunk in the Sinai sand. Minutes later, 600 Egyptian tanks rolled onto pontoon bridges to cross the Suez Canal. Simultaneously, 100 Syrian MiGs and Sukhoi bombers screamed through the skies above the Golan Heights. Burning at both ends, Israel was caught completely by surprise. The United States, after much vacillation, finally elected to help Israel, beginning a monumental airlift, code named: Operation Nickel Grass. In two weeks time, the U. S. armed forces would be on Def Con III and nuclear tensions would be mounting within the Kremlin.The Two OClock War is a minute-by-minute account of that fateful October when Israel was almost lost and the two superpowers stared down the barrel of the nuclear gun.

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Walter J. Boyne served as director of the National Air and Space Museum from 1983-1986. His bestselling titles include The Wild Blue (with Steve Thompson), Weapons of the Gulf War and The Smithsonian Illustrated History of Flight. He lives in Ashburn, Virginia.