1968_4_arabisraelwar

UNITED STATES AND UNITED NATIONS / 147
was seen as a further political defeat for Moscow, especially since Premier
Alexei N. Kosygin had come personally to lead the Soviet onslaught at the
United Nations.
Middle East Cold War Continues
The experience of the war and the Glassboro summit talks between Johnson
and Kosygin reinforced their mutual desire to avoid a hot war, but it
did not lead to agreement on common policy in the Middle East. By year's
end it had become clear that, while the Soviet Union may have had a temporary
setback, it remained a major contender for influence in the region.
Within several months, Moscow replaced an estimated 80 per cent of the
Egyptian and Syrian weapons destroyed in the war, and the new shipments
came with several thousand Soviet advisers and experts. The war naturally
increased the dependence of Cairo and Damascus on Soviet support. Moscow
also airlifted supplies to the Yemen Republican regime, hard-pressed by the
Saudi-backed Royalists after Nasser's final withdrawal of his troops, which
were more urgently needed at home. There were even reports of Soviet pilots
flying combat missions for the Republican forces in Yemen. Besides aiding
such other radical states as Algeria and Iraq, Moscow also offered arms and
economic aid to Jordan, and continued its earlier efforts to woo pro-Western
Turkey and Iran.
Most disturbing to America and its NATO allies was the rapid buildup of
Soviet naval strength in the Mediterranean during and after the June conflict.
The frequent and well-publicized "friendship" visits of Soviet naval units to
Syrian, Egyptian, and Algerian ports were used to demonstrate Moscow's
solidarity with the Arabs. However, the Soviet fleet increase was in reality
part of a long-term Soviet strategy, embarked upon years before the June
1967 crisis, to transform the navy from what essentially had been a coast
guard into a major striking force. Construction of the first Soviet helicopter
assault carrier began in 1963; its so-called shakedown cruise started in the
spring of 1967.
The rapid decline of Britain as a naval power, signaled by its previously
announced intention to withdraw from Aden by the end of 1967, no doubt
influenced Moscow's decision to develop a significant Soviet navy. Deep
American involvement in the Far East also may have tempted Moscow to
challenge United States naval predominance in the Mediterranean. Whatever
the reasons, Soviet Communist party chief Leonid I. Brezhnev declared at a
Communist bloc conference in Czechoslovakia in April that there was "no
justification for the permanent presence of the United States in the waters
washing the shores of Southern Europe," and that the time had come for
"loudly demanding the removal of the United States Sixth Fleet from the
Mediterranean."
The Israeli victory neither eliminated the threat of Soviet penetration of
the Middle East, nor ended American influence in the Arab world. The fa-