The Yom Kippur War

by Sunday Times Insight Team (Creator), Insight Team of the London Sunday Time

This is the dramatic, fully-researched and definitive account of the war that almost destroyed Israel: the Yom Kippur War. Launched by Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and his primary ally, Syria's President Hafiz al-Asad, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the sudden attack took the Israeli Defense Force totally by surprise. Here you will discover how such a colossal intelligence blunder -- one that almost caused the destruction of Israel -- happened. It is a story of incredible courage and bravery of the soldiers on both sides, of the high-stakes diplomatic battles waged by the UN, the United States, and the Soviet Union, even as troops and pilots from Israel and the nine Arab states attacking it shed their blood on the desert sands.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

530 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1974

Reviews

[Eric S · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a very well balanced history of the political and military events leading up to the war and the war itself. It is remarkable how well this 50 year old book stands up. Many of the conjectures that the authors make have turned out to be true. The book does an excellent job of covering all the numerous people and their parts in the conflict. The writing makes the events "feel" real and not dry and monotonous like some histories.
The book is heavier on the diplomatic and political front than it is on the military actions. I wouldn't recommend this if you're looking for just a military history of the conflict. It does cover the military actions very well but given its very close proximity to the conflict it doesn't have a lot of the details later military histories have.
Recommend this to anyone who wants to understand the conflict in a non-trivial way.

[Dan Langlais · Rating 5 out of 5]

A suspenseful and balanced history of the war, published only a few months after it ended. It's concluding observations were quite on the mark given the course of actual events over the following decade. (Note that this review is for the original edition published in early 1974.)