The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis p. 948-949

Information October 1973: Syrians and Egyptians attacked Israel to try to get back their lost territory from the 6-day War Kissinger, the Secretary of State, flew to Moscow in an attempt to restrain the Soviets who were giving resources to the Syrians and Egyptians after the Israelis showed helplessness Nixon then places the nuclear forces on standby and airlifts almost $2 billion of materials to Israelis, which allows Israel to hold off and ultimately defeat their attackers Later that month, Arab nations placed an embargo on oil to the U.S. because of their helping hand to Israel This caused a long, cold winter because of the lack of oil

Information The five month embargo showed the U.S. the end of the era of inexpensive and plentiful energy After a twenty-year surplus of world oil supplies, American oil production peaked in 1970 and had been in an indeniably irreversable decline since Since the end of WWII, Americans more than tripled their oil consumption, staying oblivious to their utter reliance on foreign supplies OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) made prices for crude oil about 4 times what they were in a move to show their power U.S. created the International Energy Agency in 1974 as a counter to OPEC, yet this showed little progress for the issues at hand

Source #1 O- 1970s C- Shows a father talking to his son while in a line at the gas station P- Shows how consumers feel chained to OPEC and cannot escape their grasp V- Shows the effects to those at the bottom of the chain of OPEC’s actions L- Does not show gas prices or where this is

Source #2 0- 1970s C- Shows OPEC holding their oil and smiling while grasping money P- Shows that their demand for money outweighs American oil demand V- Gives a different perspective on a classic model of supply and demand L- Complicated, could be taken the wrong way

Source #3 O- 1970’s C- Shows that as U.S. oil production suffers, prices heighten P- To show how OPEC thrives when the U.S. suffers V- Gives a visual representation to the struggle of the U.S. to stay afloat among OPEC L- Not just the Saudis, other Middle Eastern countries too

Compare and Contrast Both Source #2 and #3 give a visual representation of the greed of OPEC. Source #2 supports source #3 in that in #2, a wealth-hungry OPEC is shown, and in #3 the Saudis want to see the oil production in the U.S. tank so that oil and gas prices can rise, thus showing a hunger for wealth. Source #3 suggests that only the Saudis were responsible for the energy crisis; however, Source #2 says that it was OPEC as a whole.

Academic Questions Do you think that it was justified for the U.S. to intervene when the Syrians and Egyptians attacked Israel? Why or why not? What could have been some consequences had the U.S. not intervened in the conflict among the Syrians and Egyptians/Israel? Did they outweigh intervening?