re: #57 Dark_Falcon

It might have been, except that by that time Israel had already bombed the PLO repeatedly, and thus by Chamberlin’s own thesis the window was largely closed. But you are right that a determined US diplomatic effort might have had an effect. The reasons that did not happen was Watergate and the Arab Oil Boycott. The boycott hardened the US position against negotiations with the PLO, and even had their been no boycott by the late autumn of 1973 Richard Nixon no longer had enough political capital for such a diplomatic effort (he had squandered it covering up a “3rd-rate burglary”).

Maybe I am reading too many books on Byzantium, but that empire lasted 1,000 years playing off one enemy against the other. So I don’t get this new missionary zeal in diplomacy where we only negotiate with good people - statecraft is warfare without war.

I recommend reading:

The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire by Edward N. Luttwak

amazon.com