How did the United States go from a relatively cautious early supporter of Israel to what Joe Biden once described as a country America would have to invent if it did not already exist? On this episode of the Kianistan Podcast, host Tafhim Kiani speaks with Professor David Gibbs of the University of Arizona, a historian specializing in US foreign policy, foreign interventions, and empire building, for a deep dive into the actual historical evolution of the US-Israel relationship.

Professor Gibbs, whose research spans covert CIA intervention, the breakup of Yugoslavia, and most recently domestic US wealth concentration in his book “A Revolt of the Rich,” challenges the popular assumption that America’s alliance with Israel has always been a fixed, unconditional feature of US foreign policy. He traces Israel’s earliest backers instead to the Soviet Union and then France, before explaining how the trauma of the Vietnam War fundamentally reshaped Washington’s thinking and elevated Israel to its current status as America’s indispensable regional partner.

Central to Gibbs’s analysis is the Nixon Doctrine, the strategic pivot that emerged from Vietnam’s failure, which sought reliable regional proxies, most importantly the Shah’s Iran and Israel, that America could arm heavily rather than fight wars with its own troops. Gibbs carefully unpacks the multiple, overlapping coalitions that cemented this shift: the Israel lobby, the rise of Christian Zionism among American evangelicals, and the broader military-industrial complex that saw Israel’s aggressive military doctrine as a model worth emulating and funding.

The conversation closes with a sober assessment of American decline and multipolarity, and a striking historical parallel Gibbs draws between the aftermath of foreign-backed regime change in Afghanistan and what may be unfolding in post-Assad Syria, a comparison with sobering implications for the wider region.

Key Topics Discussed

Israel’s Original Backers: The Soviet Union and France

Gibbs challenges the assumption that the US has always been Israel’s primary backer, tracing the country’s earliest and most significant military support to the Soviet Union and later France.

• Soviet diplomatic and military support for Israel’s founding in 1948
• Why Israel distanced itself from the Soviet Union after the 1948 war
• France’s role as Israel’s main political and military supplier through the late 1960s
• French assistance in developing Israel’s nuclear program at Dimona

The Vietnam War’s Transformative Effect on US Foreign Policy

Gibbs explains how the trauma of Vietnam discredited a generation of American foreign policy elites and set the stage for a fundamentally new approach to alliances abroad.

• How the 1968 Tet Offensive collapsed public support for direct intervention
• The discrediting of the US foreign policy establishment after Vietnam
• Why Israel emerged as a model of effective, unapologetic military force
• The connection between Vietnam’s failure and Nixon’s search for new proxies

The Nixon Doctrine and the Rise of Regional Proxies

The conversation details how Nixon and Kissinger developed a doctrine built around arming regional allies rather than deploying American forces directly.

• The strategic logic of arming Israel and the Shah’s Iran heavily
• How this differed from France’s earlier commercial-terms arms sales to Israel
• Why Nixon began subsidizing rather than simply selling weapons to Israel
• The precedent set for future American military bailouts of Israel

The Coalition Behind Unconditional US Support

Gibbs unpacks the overlapping domestic coalitions, the Israel lobby, evangelical Christian Zionism, and the military-industrial complex, that together entrenched America’s pro-Israel policy consensus.

• The influence of AIPAC and the broader Israel lobby
• The rise of Christian Zionism during the 1970s evangelical awakening
• How the military-industrial complex benefited from Israel’s arms purchases
• Why this coalition has proven so difficult to dismantle even after the Cold War

The 1973 War and the Precedent of American Bailouts

Gibbs explains how the 1973 war established a lasting precedent in which the US steps in militarily whenever Israel faces a serious battlefield setback.

• How close Israel came to losing the 1973 war before US intervention
• The scale of the US airlift that resupplied Israeli forces
• How this precedent echoed again after the October 7, 2023 attacks
• Why such precedents, once set, prove extremely difficult to break

American Decline, Multipolarity, and the Syria-Afghanistan Parallel

The episode closes with Gibbs’s broader assessment of declining US global power and a pointed historical comparison between Afghanistan’s post-Soviet collapse and Syria’s post-Assad trajectory.

• Evidence of accelerating US decline under both Biden and Trump
• How the war in Ukraine and Gaza have undermined America’s global moral standing
• Parallels between Afghanistan’s 1990s collapse into civil war and Taliban rule and Syria’s current uncertain transition
• The risk of destabilization “blowback” affecting the very powers that enabled regime change

Major Takeaways

• Israel’s earliest and most significant backers were the Soviet Union and then France, not the United States, contradicting the assumption of a permanent US-Israel alliance.
• The trauma of the Vietnam War fundamentally reshaped US foreign policy, elevating Israel as a model of effective, unapologetic military force under the Nixon Doctrine.
• A coalition of the Israel lobby, evangelical Christian Zionism, and the military-industrial complex entrenched unconditional US support for Israel from the 1970s onward.
• The 1973 war established a lasting precedent of direct US military bailouts for Israel, repeated again after the October 7, 2023 attacks.
• Both the Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict are accelerating a broader decline in US global power and moral credibility.
• Gibbs draws a sobering parallel between Afghanistan’s post-Soviet collapse and Syria’s current uncertain trajectory following Assad’s overthrow.

About Professor David Gibbs

David Gibbs is a professor of history at the University of Arizona specializing in US foreign policy, covert intervention, and empire building. His research spans Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the breakup of Yugoslavia, with a particular focus on CIA covert operations. His most recent book, “A Revolt of the Rich,” examines the domestic politics of American wealth concentration and its connection to foreign policy militarism.

• US foreign policy and covert intervention history
• The US-Israel relationship and the Nixon Doctrine
• American wealth concentration and domestic politics
• Comparative analysis of foreign-backed regime change

About Kianistan Podcast

Kianistan Podcast, hosted by Tafhim Kiani, is a geopolitics interview show dedicated to giving listeners the full historical arc behind today’s conflicts rather than a headline-length version of events. The show frequently invites historians and foreign policy scholars to trace how a current crisis actually came to be, often revealing that today’s alliances and enmities have far more complicated, and far older, roots than most coverage suggests.

This episode’s deep dive into the decades-long evolution of the US-Israel relationship is a prime example of that mission: rather than treating the alliance as a given, the conversation excavates its actual origins and the shifting domestic and international forces that built and sustained it. Kianistan Podcast remains committed to this kind of patient, historically grounded storytelling.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was the United States always Israel’s main military supporter?

No. Professor Gibbs explains that the Soviet Union backed Israel’s founding in 1948, and France was Israel’s primary political and military supplier through the late 1960s, before the US took on that role under the Nixon Doctrine.

What is the Nixon Doctrine?

The Nixon Doctrine was a strategic shift following the Vietnam War that emphasized arming regional allies like Israel and the Shah’s Iran heavily rather than deploying US troops directly in future conflicts.

What role did evangelical Christians play in US support for Israel?

Gibbs explains that the 1970s evangelical revival gave rise to Christian Zionism, a theological movement that became a significant political force reinforcing unconditional US support for Israel.

How does Gibbs compare Syria to Afghanistan?

Gibbs draws a cautionary parallel between Afghanistan’s descent into civil war following the fall of its Soviet-backed government and Syria’s uncertain trajectory after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

Conclusion

Professor David Gibbs’s conversation on the Kianistan Podcast offers a rigorously researched corrective to the assumption that America’s alliance with Israel has always been a fixed and inevitable feature of world politics. By tracing the relationship’s origins through the Soviet Union, France, and finally the Nixon Doctrine, Gibbs reveals just how contingent and constructed this “special relationship” actually was.

His closing analysis of American decline and the troubling parallels between Afghanistan’s and Syria’s post-intervention trajectories leaves listeners with a clear-eyed, historically grounded framework for thinking about where US foreign policy in the Middle East may be headed next.

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