Proxy war

• Arab Israeli war conflict 1948 1973


  • Example of Détente working
• Israel


  Created in 1948 from the British mandate of Palestine
• Partition of Palestine


  1. Recommended by the UN to create Israel

  2. There were already Palestinian Arabs under jurisdiction of Jewish state
• Countries involved in 1948 Arab-Israeli war

  • Egypt
  • Syria
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Iraq
• Nakba ended 1949 with survival of Israel due to ceasefire with all except Iraq
• Egypt & Syria launched an attack on Israel in Oct 1973 (Yom Kippur War)


  As response to the 6 Day war
• Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy


  1. Went to Moscow (as the soviet union was ally to Egypt)

  2. Worked out a truce
• Initially Israel refused to abide by the truce, so the USSR proposed it should propose it militarily and the soviets warned they would go in alone if the US refused
• The USSR dropped its proposals & America put pressure on Israel, so a final settlement agreed in 1975
• Angolan civil war 1975

  • Cuba sent 300,000 forces to support the MPLA (Marxist)
  • China sent 120 advisors to the FNLA(pro-US) & provided military aid to UNITA (Maoist) to undermine soviet support of MPLA
  • South Africa supported the FNLA
  • USA provided $300,000 covert funds to FNLA
• Ethiopia Ogaden War 1974-78


  • Britain awarded the traditional Somali territory to Ethiopia
  • Somali invaded Ogaden in July 1977
  • Cuba sent 15,000 troops to support Ethiopia (led by Mingtsu, Marxist Leninist)
  • USSR withdrew support for Somalia & provided economic & military aid to Mengitsu
• The US felt the USSR was using Cuba as a proxy
• Chile


  • Salvador Allende was democratically elected leader but was viewed as another Castro because he threatened US company interest in copper & silver mines
  • After exerting economic pressure by withdrawal of aid ,US backed Augusto Pinochet staged military coup in Sep 1973 & Allende's communist reforms were reversed
• Nicaragua


  • After Sandinistas gained power in 1979, Reagan regarded the Sandinistas as communists
  • March 1981 Reagan funded the Contras through illegal arms sales to Iran to assist training & equipment
  • US gave $ 1million to Violeta Chamorro who united 14 anti-Sandinista parties after becoming president in 1990
• Grenada


  • Coard Faction (leftist org) launched a military coup
  • Reagan feared Grenada would become communist so Oct 1983 Reagan sent 7000 troops to invade
  • General Hudson Austin took control
• El Salvador


  • Civil war between Duarte(US backed) atrocities & FMLN (Leftist guerrillas Cuban-Soviet backed)
  • Provided funds & military assistance to Duarte
• Iranian revolution


  • US orchestrated coup against Mosaddeq, Shah Pahlavi was reinstalled as Shah of Iran in 1953
  • Shah was widely unpopular for his rapid urbanisation, westernisation & disrupted rural economies
  • Opposition to Shah increased as living standards declined
  • In Jan 1979 Shah fled Iran & Khomeini returned on Feb 1979 after crowds demonstrated outside the US embassy of Tehran
  • Khomeini planned of an Islamic republic
  • Iranians imprisoned US diplomats in the US embassy of Tehran because there was also Iranian fear of reinstallation of the Shah
• This showed that US influence was challenged. Led to reconsideration of détente specifically by neo-conservatives
• USSR's invasion of Afghanistan by 1979


  • July 1973 Mohammad Daoud Khan led a coup creating an Afghan state in 1970s
  • Left-wing people's democratic party of Afghanistan had initially supported Daoud's regime but it tried to increasingly weaken communist influence in Afghanistan
  • In 1978 the PDPA took power under Muhammad Taraki, his policies of secularisation of govt, advancement of women's rights were viewed as anti-Islam
  • A civil war erupted & Amin took control yet alienated many Afghans so was viewed as a liability to the USSR
  • In fear of a loss of soviet influence & spread of instability along the USSR's borders shared with Afghanistan , the soviets invade in 1979
  • Brezhnev justified the invasion through the Brezhnev doctrine of Nov 1968
• Carter 1977-1980


  • He was heavily dependent on Vance (dove) & Brzezinski ( hawk)
  • In response to the invasion he demanded to the senate to not ratify SALT 2
  • Advocated arms reduction but also emphasised soviet treatment of their dissidents
  • Announced the Carter doctrine: containment extended into Persian gulf