The day itself: history has made its first move, and the next one is yours.
Briefing
6 October 1973, Yom Kippur. Egypt is crossing the Suez Canal, Syria attacks on the Golan, and Israel's reservists are only beginning to mobilise. The Arab oil producers stand ready to answer the West with an embargo; Nixon is drowning in Watergate; the Soviet Union arms the Arabs but clings to détente. Chile lives under Pinochet's junta, Portugal fights in Africa, and in Indochina the war goes on without the Americans. Victory, truce or an oil shock – it is yours to decide.
Real history stays a strong tendency: what happened later is planned for its date – until your actions change the world.
You govern: the orders are the state's.
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The world on 6 October 1973
At two in the afternoon on 6 October 1973, Yom Kippur, Egyptian guns open up on the Israeli strongpoints along the Suez Canal, and thousands of soldiers cross in rubber boats; water cannon wash breaches in the sand rampart and engineers throw bridges across. At the same hour Syrian tanks roll onto the Golan Heights. Israel, its reservists at prayer in the synagogues, is caught by surprise: its intelligence judged war unlikely to the last. A Soviet-made missile umbrella shields the Egyptians from the Israeli air force.
Since the Six-Day War of 1967 Israel has held the Sinai, the Golan, the West Bank and Gaza. Egypt's president Anwar Sadat, Nasser's successor, fights not for victory but to break the deadlock; Hafez al-Assad's Syria wants the Golan back. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia has warned that oil may become a weapon, and in two days OPEC meets the oil companies in Vienna to demand new prices.
In Washington President Nixon is drowning in Watergate, and his new Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, conducts détente with Moscow. The Soviet Union armed Egypt and Syria but does not want to risk détente. The world beyond the Middle East is restless: Chile has lived three weeks under Pinochet's junta, Portugal fights in three African colonies, and in Indochina the war goes on without the Americans after the Paris Accords. How the war in Sinai ends will decide not only Israel's fate but the price of oil everywhere.