S. provided important intelligence from a spy plane (SR-71 Blackbird). Thanks to the spy plane pinpointing where the enemy forces were gathering, Israel could pound those forces from the air and in time -- thanks also to U.S. military equipment being shipped to Israel -- the war was won by Israel. But the OPEC nations knew how much the U.S. depended on Arab oil supplies; as Rudiger Graf writes in the peer-reviewed journal Diplomatic History, the use of an embargo to punish America and the Netherlands was "…watershed in history, signifying the growing dependency of industrialized nations on foreign oil and a power shift in the global economy" (Graf, 2012, 185). The "oil weapon" had never been used by Muslim nations against the West, and the point was to for America and other "…economically powerful countries to comply with their political demands" (Graf, 185).

Meanwhile the embargo caused gasoline prices in the U.S. To skyrocket to $3.00 and up to $5.00, and that was for those who could find stations that had enough gas. Long lines in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and elsewhere were the rule, and in many instances the service station would not sell gas to...

Another system was set up that allowed cars to fill up on even numbered days (or odd-numbered days) depending on the license plate numbers. President Richard Nixon set price controls so gas stations could not gouge, although some did, because the panicky situation led drivers to be willing to pay high prices for gasoline. The crisis ended in March, 1974, when a settlement was negotiated between OPEC and the U.S.; but Americans who were affected by that embargo learned to distrust the Arab states more than they had previously, and hence the political and social issues between the West and the Muslim nations continued to escalate.
Works Cited

Graf, Rudiger. "Making Use of the 'Oil Weapon': Western Industrialized Countries and Arab

Petropolitics in 1973-1974." Diplomatic History, 36.1 (2012): 185-208.

History Learning Site. "The Yom Kippur War of 1973." Retrieved April 26, 2013, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk. 2013.

Souder, Elizabeth. "Fueling the Frustration: Get used to higher gas prices, experts say, but don't expect long-term shortages." Dallas Morning News.…