The Arab oil countries, making war against Israel, embargoed oil to the United States for giving arms aid to the Israelis. Torn between national origins and multinational exigencies, the major oil companies obeyed orders to embargo oil to their own country and boost prices five-fold to all (making huge short-term profits in the interval before they were, in turn, expropriated). The effect was to raise world oil prices to undreamed of levels, precipitate our energy shortage, fuel the fires of inflation, tip international trade balance into worldwide recession,, and drive everybody to seeking our substitutes for oil.