In Israel and the West it is called the Six Day War. In the Arab world, it is known as the June War, or simply as ""the Setback."" Never has a conflict so short, unforeseen and largely unwanted by both sides so transformed the world. The Yom Kippur War, the war in Lebanon, the Camp David accords, the controversy over Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in West Bank, the intifada and the rise of Palestinian terror: all are part of the outcome of those six days of intense Arab-Israeli fighting in the summer of 1967. Michael B. Oren's Six Days of War is the most comprehensive history ever published of this dramatic and pivotal event, the first to explore it both as a military struggle and as a critical episode in the global Cold War. Oren spotlights all the participants--Arab, Israeli, Soviet, and American--telling the story of how the war broke out and of the shocking ways it unfolded. Drawing on thousands of top-secret documents, on rare papers in Russian and Arabic, and on exclusive personal interviews, Six Days of War recreates the regional and international context which, by the late 1960s, virtually assured an Arab-Israeli conflagration. Also examined are the domestic crises in each of the battling states, and the extraordinary personalities--Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Hafez al-Assad and Yitzhak Rabin, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin--that precipitated this earthshaking clash.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
A great book marred by a bad audio edition:
I wish I knew how to just review the medium in which a product is delivered. This is an excellent book, detailed, written by somebody who clearly loves to write, impartial or when not impartial, thoughtful, as one can get in a book dealing with such a contentious topic. The book justly made the reputation of its author, and I enjoyed reading it so much that I got it on audio. Whoops. What a mistake. I am a stickler for getting details right, and I dislike pretense. Unfortunately, the actor behind the... more info
Required Reading to Understand Today's Front Pages:
The author is Israel's current ambassador to the United States and an American educated scholar of high ability. As such, he will have a key role in deciding what Israel will do in response to the looming nuclear threat from Iran. As this book shows, Mr. Owen is acutely aware of the numerous influences that both motivate and constrain Israel in using force to defend herself from perceived existential threats. The 1967 War was the most serious threat to Israel's safety and existence since 1948. How the... more info
The most comprehensive book published on the conflict:
Michael B. Oren's Six Days of War is probably the most comprehensive book published on Israel's 1967 conflict with the Arab world to date. Painstakingly researched and scrupulously fair, Oren's strength is dealing with the causes and effects of the war. He discusses every diplomatic move and counter-move that the belligerent countries and their superpower allies (the U.S. and U. S. S. R.) made, and how those decisions impact Middle East policy to this day. Oren is noticeably weaker when discussing the... more info
Never buy from The Book of Your Dreams:
The company "The Book of Your Dreams" sent me a used "Six Days of War" book with 50 pages completely missing! I've contacted them several times and gotten no response. Obviously they are a scam operation of some kind. Don't make the same mistake I did.
