Read about the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel through recently declassified CIA briefings for the US President: Last Wednesday, the CIA declassified c.2.5k daily presidential briefs (think: “Enterprise for the American president”) covering 1969-1977. While some sections within the briefings remain redacted, they provide a fascinating glimpse as to what American intelligence assessed as events transpired. Of likely particular interest to our readers is how the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel unfolded across the desk of US President Richard Nixon.

The briefings show that while at first neither the Americans nor the Israelis were concerned about a potential Egyptian attack, on 6 October the Israelis believed an attack was imminent — and the Americans discounted the concerns. But the most remarkable admission must be the brief saying the Americans believed the Soviets had sent nuclear missiles to Egypt. On the night of 24-25 October, the US raised its alert to DefCon III, its highest level of alert since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. All links below are pdfs:

5 October 1973: “Military exercises now going on in Egypt are larger and more realistic than previous ones, but the Israelis are not nervous.”

6 October 1973: “A military initiative at this time would make little sense for either Cairo or Damascus. Another round of hostilities would destroy Sadat’s painstaking efforts to invigorate Egypt’s economy and run counter to his attempts to bring the less militant, oil-rich states into a united Arab front.”

26 October 1973: “The Middle East cease-fire is largely being observed… A Soviet ship, probably carrying nuclear weapons, arrived at its destination–most likely Alexandria–on October 24.” The non-redacted portions of the batch of declassified documents never reveals the fate of the ship.

(Read through the relevant pages of the declassified documents, detailing the war from 6-25 October 1973, here: Page 1, Page 2)

(Now, if only the good people at FRUS would get things moving and start publishing the Reagan years, we could have a field day. Thank you, AMJ, for the introduction — it’s the gift that keeps on giving.)