The communist countries and the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, based on Hungarian archival documents

الملخص EN

During the first days of the Six-Day War in June 1967, the Arab world was severely defeated.

This defeat also signified the failure of Egypt's and Syria's allies : the Soviet Union and the Socialist countries.

Hungarian political leaders continued to offer their support to the Arab nations affected by the Israeli aggression; however, they also criticised certain Arab politicians (Syrians and the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization - PLO) for their extremist, reckless and often demagogic statements.

International public opinion was mixed : some elements were sceptical about support for the Arabs as they were badly defeated in a short time, in contrast to the heroic fight by the Vietnamese in the early 1950s.

Hungarian archival records (reports of the embassies in Damascus, Moscow and Cairo), and the documents of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP) were used for research of this article to clarify Hungary's position.