Images of long lines of cars waiting for fuel date back to 1973, when fuel was scarce. The Arab-Israeli war shifted US foreign policy towards the Middle East. The Nixon administration saw that Israel's refusal to withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967 would provoke the Arab OPEC countries, causing serious consequences. Oil-exporting countries accused the US of supporting Israel and imposed an embargo to gain greater leverage in post-war peace talks.

The embargo placed severe stress on the US economy, which was increasingly dependent on foreign oil. As a result, prices quadrupled, inflation rose, the dollar devalued, and a global recession loomed.

In response to these pressures, Nixon understood the need to increase domestic production, reduce dependence on imports, and ease the pressure of fuel shortages.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic Alliance began to show cracks. European allies and Japan, after building short-term oil reserves, faced a dilemma: they needed to support the US for energy security but also distance themselves from US policy to avoid angering Arab countries. This strategy risked higher prices and recession in the long run.

Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger understood that, for the Arab countries, the end of the embargo and peace in the Middle East were closely linked: they initiated parallel negotiations with the major oil-producing countries and with Egypt, Syria, and Israel to reach an agreement on Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Diplomacy led to the First Egypt-Israel Disengagement Agreement on January 18, 1974. It was not a definitive peace agreement, but it was sufficient to end the embargo. It exposed the complex challenges facing US policy: reconciling support for Israel with preserving relations with the oil-producing countries. Furthermore, the loss of bargaining power of US oil companies, the increased exploitation of Texas oil fields, and the instability of the dollar aggravated the ongoing economic crisis. Thus, the US was forced to adopt new strategies: national energy conservation, the creation of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a 55-mph speed limit on highways, the imposition, by the subsequent Ford administration, of fuel economy standards, and the creation, at Kissinger's suggestion, of the International Energy Agency.