Customer Reviews

No Victor, No Vanquished: The Arab-Israeli War, 1973

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This book offers an excellent a/c of the reasons, preparations, engagements of the war in great detail. Fast moving and pack with details. A most exciting read. Historical yet graps you like a thriller! A must for every Middle East Library

O'Ballance has it right. Unlike other American and European (not to mention Israeli) accounts on the October '73 War, Edgar was really very neutral and fair. Yes, Israel was in deep trouble from the beginning of the war till its end. While Egypt lost 500 tanks, Israel's loss of 1,000+ tanks sounds very reasonable, especially since the Syrians lost 1300-1500 tanks. Israel's loss of over 200 war planes is also very reasonable, while the Arabs lost nearly 400 aircraft. Neither was victorious nor neither was vanquished was because neither side admitted defeat, so both sides' claim of victory wasn't quite correct, but the fact stays that the Arabs fought the best of this war. I really wish that all Western references regarding this war were as just and logical.

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Mr. O'Balance did an impressive effort documenting this war. The majority of the books written about this subject are either biased or full of fiction. In his methodology writing this book, Mr. O'Balance follows an objective, yet balanced technique to present an honest and fair historic accounts of this war as we lived it 30 years ago. The fast pace and the in-depth handling of all the subjects contained in this book makes it an excellent reference for any military thinker about how to progress in terms of weapon system technologies, strategic planning, and modern-day warfare.
In short, well done Mr. O'Balance!!!!!!!

After some hesitation and mainly perplexed by some reviewer's intentions I didn't by the book. Then, feeling left out from one of the most important events in the world in the 20th century, I decided to check out the book from public library. To my surprise, Mr. O'ballance, as military writer, proved to be the only man with the `right story' as we all lived it hour by hour at that time. After 30 years, nothing he told in the book was proved to be otherwise.
Mr. O'ballance has kept it true, honest, and professional yet exciting and fast paced. Had he influenced any event or narration other than just quoting the war's participants themselves, he could have declassified his work as " history", to become may be "fiction". Based on what he set himself to do, from the military stand point, he excelled.
But a war any war, isn't simply about military action alone! In fact, a war is always caused by something and is set out to achieve something! . And no matter what! If the cause is not justifiable and the achievement is not been reached, yes there is NO VICTOR and NO VANQUISHED. But that was not the case in 1973, bridging between the first a few pages in the book and the last few ones. Along, with simple analysis of the war at that time, one could easily say that Mr. O'ballance's work is not complete, as it covers only a narrow aspect of the war, the Military action. Adding together the political, economical and international outcome of the war, along with military one. One could see that, on the personal level or national level, there was YES VICTOR, and YES VANQUISHED!.

Well, whenever I get down about buying books that don't live up to their reputation I can think back on No Victor, No Vanquished and smile. I just couldn't put this one down after I started it, and it far defied all expectations. The narrative is detail rich but flows well and has excellent organization. All its maps and photos make it invaluable. I saw that a reviewer said it was dated and it actually is even though you can't tell from the web page. O'Balance put it out in 1978 and it has been reprinted several times since. What I liked best about it is that it is a meticulous military account that incorporates all the behind the scenes political mischief between Kissinger, the Russians, the Arab block and Europe. You won't be able to think about Moshe Dayan the same way once you finish it. One nugget that made me laugh was that the US, in a move to contain costs, discontinued spy-satellite use in the Middle East which harmed us immeasurably. I always get a kick from those who think our CIA is a nefarious dark empire because this completely contrasts with reality.

In my collection of Yom Kippur books I bought this because I liked the maps of the Bar Lev line. This books information is dated and it relies on highly dubious sources of information(having been written soon after the war and quoting Egyptian sources, that were not open to scrutiny). We must recall that the Egyptian media was telling the Egyptian people that hundreds of Israeli planes had been shot down in the Six day war, so the authors reliance on figures that are inaccurate "more then 200" is not exceptable.

Nevertheless this book adds to the scholarship on the Yom Kippur war. I recommend this book if you are trying to dig up all the books ont he war, if you are looking for only one book I would guide you towards Harzogs "War of Atonement" or the slightly biased London Times "Yom Kippur War".

Perhaps because the book was written so shortly following the war, thus being incapable of a full and true account, or perhaps because of simple bias, this book has so many flaws as to be impossible to articulate in this short space. Nevertheless, I will try.

1. It is a poorly written historical account. The thrust of Mr. O'Ballance's thesis, it would appear, comes down to a matter of "he said-she said" taken to the Nth degree (if anyone reading this has read the book, you know exactly what I mean). Nearly every sentence is constructed thusly: "The Israelis claim....but an Egyptian colonel told me....". The book drones on like this forever. Any historian worth his salt would have at least made an effort to reconcile any differences. And Mr. O'Ballance consistently gives greater credence to the pronouncements made by dictatorial Arab regimes rather than to the democratic Israel.

2. There is a clear, irrefutable anti-Israel bias here. The Israelis are frequently referenced as "arrogant" and willing to lash out at "any Arab country that gets out of line", forgetting, it would seem, that Arab countries have been trying to destroy Israel since May 14, 1948, and have always been the aggressors in each Arab-Israeli war. In addition, any Israeli success in the war is ascribed to "luck", or to ineptitude somehow beyond the control of the Arabs. Contrariwise, Arab successes are treated as heroic stands of bravery in the face of superior Israeli weaponry (American-supplied, he never fails to remind us. We hear the U.S.S.R. was ferrying thousands of tons of tanks and ammunition to the Arabs, but it's hardly consequential in Mr. O'Ballance's view).

3. Mr. O'Ballance has the audacity to claim, in the book's first pages, that Anwar Sadat was "elected"! An absurd statement at any time, to be sure, but to continue by referring to both him and the blood-soaked, murderous dictator Assad of Syria as "President Sadat" and "President Assad" is beyond the acceptable norms of Western historical discourse and research.

I'm sorry to disappoint, but if you're looking for an honest account of the Yom Kippur War, as well as a good read, this is NOT the book to get. You'll simply develop a headache.