{"title":"Martin Smisek","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the thought-provoking world of Martin Smisek. Explore themes of identity, belonging, and the human condition through his insightful and compelling works. Start your reading journey here.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"czechoslovak-arms-exports-to-the-middle-east-volume-1-book-martin-smisek-9781914377198","title":"Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East Volume 1","description":"Eager to fully use its excess arms manufacturing capacities to earn as much hard currency as possible, communist Czechoslovakia became one of the principal arms suppliers to the Middle East during the Cold War.After the end of the Second World War, Czechoslovakia became an integral part of the Soviet Bloc which was heralded by the communist coup d'état in February 1948. Before that date, however, the communist-led government in Prague had already decided, with backing from Moscow, to provide the newly established State of Israel with armament, which subsequently led to the violation of the UN arms embargo. These arms - infantry weapons and fighter aircraft - played a crucial role in the subsequent 1948 Arab Israeli War. As well as armament, the Czechoslovak Army also trained the initial cadre of personnel for the Israeli Air Force and Israeli paratrooper forces. When it became clear that Israel would not become a communist country, solid relations between the two states were disrupted by the Czechoslovak government. From then onwards, the leadership in Prague concentrated on deliveries of military hardware to Israel's Arab opponents.Jordan obtained Czechoslovak infantry weapons in 1956 and Amman expressed interest in arms supplies and military assistance from Czechoslovakia in subsequent years. This volume also contains information related to minor deliveries of Czechoslovak weapons to other states in the Middle East such as Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and to various Palestinian factions.The first volume of this mini-series details the general development of the Czechoslovak arms industry post-1945 as well as detailing the principles, organization and history of arms export from communist Czechoslovakia whilst also outlining the training of foreign military personnel in Czechoslovakia. Subsequent volumes will discuss other major Arab clients in the Middle East and North Africa. Using declassified original documentation, this is the most comprehensive account of Cold War Czechoslovak military involvement in the Middle East ever published.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49738691510545,"sku":"NGR9781914377198","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1914377192.jpg?v=1751631648"},{"product_id":"czechoslovak-arms-exports-to-the-middle-east-volume-3-book-martin-smisek-9781915070791","title":"Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East Volume 3","description":"During the Cold War, communist Czechoslovakia was one of the largest arms exporters to the Middle East among the Soviet Bloc countries. The third volume of this mini-series describes the history of arms exports from Czechoslovakia to Egypt including related military assistance. Although Egypt had expressed interest in buying Czechoslovak arms just before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, no deliveries were made as Prague fully supported the nascent Jewish state. The situation began to change from July 1950 when Czechoslovakia banned exports of its weapons to Israel. These developments culminated in September 1955, when the first huge Czechoslovak-Egyptian arms deal was concluded. As a proxy of Moscow, Prague delivered impressive quantities of armaments and ammunition together with spare parts, logistics, and support equipment. At the same time, Czechoslovak military instructors and advisors were also sent to Egypt. A crucial role was played by a group of Czechoslovak Air Force personnel, whose task was to provide the tactical and combat training for two Egyptian fighter squadrons equipped with MiG-15bis jets prior to the Suez Crisis in 1956. At the same time, Egyptian military specialists were trained at the facilities of the Czechoslovak People's Army. However, from the end of the 1950s, there was a significant reduction in the supply of military hardware from Czechoslovakia because Prague was unwilling or unable to supply the state-of-the-art weapons required by the Egyptians. The focus of Czechoslovak-Egyptian military cooperation in the following years was therefore limited to the establishment of the Military Technical College in Cairo and various military repair facilities around Egypt. The situation in the supply of Czechoslovak armament to Egypt began to change gradually again in the mid-1960s as the Czechoslovak arms industry commenced the production of a new generation of weapons developed by domestic industry or provided under Soviet licence. A huge boom in arms deals occurred after the Egyptian defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. During the following years, Czechoslovakia supplied Egypt with OT-62 armored personnel carriers, T-55 tanks, MiG-21F-13 fighters and L-29 Delfin jet trainers, which subsequently took part in the fighting of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. A further major turning point came in the mid-1970s with the deterioration of Soviet-Egyptian relations and following instructions from Moscow, Prague was forced to abruptly stop supplying arms to Egypt in 1976. Using declassified original documentation, this is the most comprehensive and meticulous account of the Czechoslovak military involvement in the Middle East during the Cold War that has ever been published and is extensively illustrated with photographs and original color artworks.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49741445562641,"sku":"NGR9781915070791","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53606077628689,"sku":"NIN9781915070791","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1915070791.jpg?v=1751631538"},{"product_id":"czechoslovak-arms-exports-to-the-middle-east-volume-2-book-martin-smisek-9781915070784","title":"Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East Volume 2","description":"After the end of the Second World War, Czechoslovakia became an integral part of the Soviet Bloc which was heralded by the communist coup d'état in February 1948. Eager to fully use its excess arms manufacturing capacities to earn as much hard currency as possible, communist Czechoslovakia became one of the principal arms suppliers to the Middle East during the Cold War.Following faltering attempts by Syria to purchase small arms and ammunition from Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s, successful orders were placed in the early 1950s enabling the Syrian Arab Army to build an armoured force around a core of ex-German armoured vehicles of Second World War vintage. These orders were to be followed up later with more for weapons of Czechoslovak and Soviet design that would form the backbone of the Syrian army and air force, including modern artillery, armoured vehicles, small arms, ammunition, and aircraft. The deals were not limited to material items and much training was also supplied, with some contracts even demanding specific named individual trainers.This volume of Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East is more than just the story of the material items, it tells the story of how the equipment was incorporated into the structure of the Syrian armed forces, how it would be employed through the tumultuous second half of the twentieth century and how some items remain in service to the present day in the current civil war.Using declassified original documentation, this is the most comprehensive account of Cold War Czechoslovak military involvement in the Middle East ever published.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49741481279761,"sku":"NGR9781915070784","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1915070783.jpg?v=1751632767"},{"product_id":"czechoslovak-arms-exports-to-the-middle-east-volume-4-book-martin-smisek-9781804512241","title":"Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East Volume 4","description":"During the Cold War, communist Czechoslovakia was one of the largest arms exporters to the Middle East - at least among the Soviet Bloc countries. The fourth volume of this mini-series describes the history of arms export from Czechoslovakia to Iran, Iraq, the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen), and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) between 1948-1989.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the early 1950s, and on demand from Moscow, Prague invested heavily in the development of a domestic arms industry, aiming to supply its products to other members of the Warsaw Pact. Within just a few years, Czechoslovakia launched the license production of numerous Soviet military aircraft and heavy weapons. Accompanied with the massive military build-up of the entire Warsaw Pact, this brought the economy to the brink of collapse, prompting Prague to search for export customers outside the Soviet bloc - at a time when numerous developing countries in the Middle East were on the search for arms. This combination resulted in the use of the spare capacity of the Czechoslovak arms industry for the production of small arms, heavy infantry weapons, artillery and anti-aircraft guns, armoured vehicles, huge amounts of ammunition, and training aircraft for the Empire of Iran (later the Islamic Republic of Iran), Iraq, the Imamate (later Arab Republic) of Yemen (North Yemen), and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen). Arms exports were accompanied by the training of Iraqi and Yemeni military personnel both in Czechoslovakia and at home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUsing declassified original documentation from the archives of the former Czechoslovakia, this is the most comprehensive - and most thoroughly illustrated - account of the Czechoslovak military involvement in the Middle East during the Cold War published to date, and is a unique source of reference.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49745355014417,"sku":"NGR9781804512241","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1804512249.jpg?v=1751630914"},{"product_id":"czechoslovak-arms-exports-to-the-middle-east-volume-5-book-martin-smisek-9781806720286","title":"Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East Volume 5","description":"During the Cold War, communist Czechoslovakia was one of the largest arms exporters to the Middle East among the Soviet Bloc countries. This volume of the Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East mini-series describes the history of arms deliveries from Czechoslovakia to Algeria, Libya and Morocco, including related military assistance. Between the 1950s and 1980s, Czechoslovakia supplied arms to Arab states in North Africa. In Algeria, the first covert deliveries to local anti-French rebels served commercial purposes, with obsolete weapons being exchanged for US dollars. The unsuccessful delivery aboard the merchant ship Lidice, which was detained by France in 1959, caused a diplomatic crisis with Paris. Though Prague later sent free shipments hoping for political ties, Algerian purchases remained limited until the late 1980s. In Morocco, cooperation was brief yet intense (1967-1968), involving armoured vehicles and their spare parts, with a maintenance facility built later. However, collaboration ended shortly after. Libya's 1969 coup marked the beginning of Czechoslovakia's peak in arms exports. By the early 1980s, Libya had acquired large amounts of military equipment and hosted hundreds of advisors under Operation LitomyÅ¡l - the largest foreign deployment of Czechoslovak troops during the Cold War. This volume tells the story of Czechoslovak military involvement in Libya up to 1979, to be completed in Volume 6 of the miniseries. Using declassified original documentation, this is the most comprehensive account of the Czechoslovak military involvement in the Middle East during the Cold War ever published. Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East, Volume 5: Algeria, Libya and Morocco 1948-1989 is extensively illustrated throughout with original photographs and specially commissioned colour artworks.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53364177994001,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53364178551057,"sku":"NGR9781806720286","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781806720286.jpg?v=1778580479"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-martin-smisek.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}