ABSTRACT
The Soviets too came forward with a diplomatic initiative. In November 1971, Brezhnev proposed secretly to Nixon a great-power agreement to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all. The War of Attrition cost Egypt the lives of thousands of its young soldiers, the destruction of its cities along the Suez Canal, and an effort of national mobilization greater than any it had ever before known. The Israeli General Staff deluded itself as much as it did the government or the public. Israel’s military leadership paid little real attention to the War of Attrition. Personal rivalries also played a major role in preventing the United States from seizing the opportunities offered by the three-year cease-fire. As in 1969 and 1970, Henry Kissinger could not find any merit in any diplomatic initiative for the Middle East that eminated from William Rogers’ State Department.
