Samson Option

Quoting Wikipedia:

“In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Arab forces were overwhelming Israeli forces and Prime Minister Golda Meir authorized a nuclear alert and ordered 13 atomic bombs be readied for use by missiles and aircraft. The Israeli Ambassador warned President Nixon of "very serious conclusions" if the United States did not airlift supplies. Nixon complied“

What if the US hadn’t helped Israel? What would have happened? Would the Israelis use only tactical nuclear weapons on the advancing enemy armies or would they go directly for their capitals?

In any case, how would the Soviet Union react?
 
I doubt that would be enough.

It nearly was. Look up Operation Nickelgrass. All of our allies forbid us to fly over their territory with supplies for the Israelis.

Nixon got Portugal to let us land on one of their airstrips in the Azores (by promising them several million in extra foreign aid). Even then, we had to bring in our own fuel. From there, the planes had to fly over the straits of Gibraltar, along the exact border between British and Moroccan airspace, then across the Mediterranean to Ben Gurion airport.

If the deal with Portugal hadn't gone through, it would've taken several weeks for Navy ships to deliver the supplies. Would Israel have had to resort to nukes before then? Dunno. Glad we didn't find out -- my parents lived within five miles of Ellington AFB, Johnson Space Center, and a bunch of petrochemical refineries.
 
The U.S also had to strip its forces in West Germany of many of its supplies and replacements allocated for use in case of a Soviet led invasion and send the to Israel

Including M-60 and M-48 tanks.

The airlift per se didn't save Israel, but the assurance of massive resupply allowed Israel to commit the absolute last of its reserves to combat.

A bigger factor in the war were SR-71 flights over the Sinai that when that intel was given to Israel allowed them to mass at several key points and overwhelm the Egyptians
 
Top