Six Days of War: A Talk With Michael Oren

By AVIYA KUSHNER

The Six-Day War was a shock to the world, and historian Michael Oren has spent twenty years trying to understand how and why the war turned out the way it did. His massive book, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East makes use of once-secret documents that are finally available to historians, but Oren goes an important step further – he conducted dozens of interviews with Arab, Israeli, Palestinian, American, Soviet, and European personalities.

That personal touch is evident on every page of the book, as Oren describes the quirks of the players, and how individual traits – pride, humility, and fear – affected the modern Middle East. In a time when the dispute over territory is the stuff of daily headlines, this serious, hefty work by a fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem think tank, is all the more significant. Aviya Kushner talked with Michael Oren about the book and the myriad connections between the Six-Day War and the current crisis.

Q: How can understanding the details of the Six-Day War help us understand the current conflict in Israel?

Well, the obvious connection is the territories, which today are so violently disputed. Other long-term ramifications with profound impact were that the war was the death knell for Arab nationalism, and it opened the door for the new idiom of Islamic extremists.

The Six-Day War ends the interstate conflict, and returns it to one that is principally of Israeli Jews against the Palestinians. It's not an accident that the PLO was inaugurated in 1968.

It also inaugurates the US-Israel relationship. Before that, it was France. After all, the US said "maybe we should have this powerhouse democracy on our side."

Q: Your book lists interviews with Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians, and Soviets – along with the expected Israelis and Americans. How did you go about these interviews? Were these people willing to talk about their war experiences, and why?

Each interview was different. The Jordanians are proud of their performance in the Six-Day War. They felt they fought valiantly against greater numbers, and they held their ground while other Arabs ran. So they're more than happy to talk to me.

Egyptians are more willing to talk now than in the past, because they felt their leadership betrayed them in the Six-Day War. My Arab research assistant conducted those interviews, because at the time it was dangerous for Israelis to travel there.

In Syria, there is not one book on the Six-Day War. They just say Israel occupied it. And my assistant did those interviews, too. The Israeli, American, and Soviet interviews I did myself, over a period of several years.

Q: Do you think timing helped you, as most of these interviews were conducted in the relatively peaceful late 1990s, decades after the Six-Day War?

I think 35 years is a healthy distance. Even people who may have had regrets about their performance, or misgivings about their country's performance, can now talk. I was able to interview the former head of the KGB for two-and-a-half hours. I interviewed Rechavam Ze'evi – "Ghandi" (Ze'evi's nickname in Israel) – a week before he was murdered. Some people were too old to talk, but people generally do want to talk. I can count on one hand those who turned me down.

Q: What were some of the surprises you uncovered as you worked on the book?

The extensive Arab war plans, Operation Dawn from the Egyptians that almost got off the ground, the nature of American diplomacy, the impact of Vietnam on the whole thing, the backstabbing and hesitation in Israel, the discussions within Israel. For me, a person pretty well-versed in the Six-Day War, a person who had read 200-300 books on the war, there were many surprises.

Q: I was intrigued by your portrayal of former President Lyndon Johnson. Was that a reflection of your surprise at Johnson's true role?

I grew up in the 60s. Johnson for us was the ultimate bad guy. We had a number of unrepeatable phrases that used to rhyme with LBJ. When you research, you get to know people intimately – you read their mail. You come to like some people and hate others. I came to almost love LBJ.

LBJ was a warm, very intelligent man, quite shrewd in international affairs. A man from Texas hill country – a redneck who surrounded himself with Jews and loved Israel.

Q: Were those Jewish advisers to Johnson holdovers from Kennedy's administration?

Some were holdovers, like the Rostow brothers, but some weren't.

Q: Speaking of the surprises, you discuss the impact of Vietnam on Israel. How did the Vietnam War affect the fate of Israel?

First of all, Vietnam shaped Russian policy toward the Middle East, which in turn shaped US policy. There was a triangular relationship then -- Israel, Vietnam, and Johnson. One reason LBJ was on the Kennedy ticket was his attitude toward Jews. LBJ expected Jews to support his policy on Vietnam, since he thought the Viet Cong were terrorists. He was totally disappointed in the attitude of American Jews. A button popular at the time read "you don't have to be Jewish to be against Vietnam." This drove Johnson to his wit's end, and by the1967 crisis, he was quite embittered.

LBJ wanted to come to Israel's aid. He had a secret plan for US ships to break open the Straits of Tiran, but then he found out that not one single US Senator was willing to support it. And the reason for that was the imbroglio in another foreign country, Vietnam.

It wasn't that the Senate was anti-Israel. It was just Vietnam or the Middle East.

Q: Was LBJ the architect of current US policy toward Israel?

In many ways, yes. He was the first to sell Israel arms, and the father of resolution 242.

Q: In your introduction, you mention the revisionist histories of the Six-Day War. Were those books a motivating factor for you in writing this book?

Unquestionably. I come to this book after well over twenty years involved in the struggle between self-styled new historians and practitioners of responsible histories, most of them Israeli, who try to prove that Israel was "born in sin." They write that there were regular Arab overtures for peace and that Israel was guilty of everything.

I have spent 20 years combating this and trying to write a more balanced history. I think that if we tell the truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict, we will conclude that Israel had a just case. It made mistakes, of course, but overall it is a just case.

Q: How did you first come to Israel? I understand you've lived in Jerusalem for a long time.

As far back as I can remember, I wanted to live in Israel. At the first opportunity when I was fifteen, I ran away from my parents' house in New Jersey and went to live on a kibbutz. I went to college in America, then got an MA and a PhD, then worked in the Israeli Foreign Ministry. I made aliya in 1979, but I was here before that.

Q: What's next for you?

I have a lot of projects – two books in the next two-and-a-half years. One book is about the Suez crisis, and one is about the 200-year history of American involvement in the Middle East.

I also have another hat on. I'm publishing my second novel, and I have an option on a film script. So there's a lot going on.

 

Reprinted with permission from the AVI CHAI Bookshelf, where birthright israel alumni can order free books and periodicals.