ABSTRACT
The basic US attitude toward Third World countries is derived from Wilsonian liberalism and the principle of self-determination of nations and an overt dislike of empire and what it stood for. US policy during postwar period should be viewed as interplay between ideal objectives and pragmatic actions designed to meet practical, and usually pressing, objectives, some of which have achieved an almost permanent status. The same month that Secretary Kissinger called for a World Food Conference, October 1973, the Egyptians launched the fourth Arab-Israeli war on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day, with a devastating surprise attack. The Arab oil-exporting countries retaliated by imposing restraints on oil production and on the supply of oil to those consumer nations that gave support to Israel. During the two-year interval between the outbreak of the war in October 1973 and the convening of Paris negotiations in December 1975, negotiations concerning oil formed, dissolved, and reformed again like eddies in a swift-moving stream.
