What are facts about the prime minister in 1973?

Answer 1

This depends on the country. Re-ask your question or see related questions.

Canada: Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada in 1973.

UK: Edward Heath was the Prime Minister of the UK in 1973

Answer 2

The Prime Minister of the UK in 1973 was Edward Heath, a Conservative who had been in office since June 1970. Before becoming PM, he had served as MP for the Bexley constituency since 1950, and variously as Labour Minister, Industry Secretary and Lord Privy Seal under the governments of Harold MacmIllan and Alec Douglas-Home in the late '50s / early '60s.

He took Britain into membership of the EEC in 1973 and was also in office during the Superpower crisis over the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War that October, one of the most dangerous episodes of the Cold War. Syria and Egypt launched a joint offensive against Israel during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, in an attempt to regain the land they had lost in the Six Day War six years earlier. The two Arab nations were winning the war (following fierce tank battles in the Sinai Desert and keeping Israeli troops pinned down on the Golan Heights), and the USA began making suggestions that it may intervene to support the Israelis. The Soviet Union responded by saying that if that happened, they would come in to support the Arab states. Eventually a ceasefire was agreed following UN diplomatic intervention- it was proposed that the conflict zones be placed under the control of a UN peacekeeping force, but it turned out that this force would have been made up very largely of Israeli and American troops, which was totally unacceptable to the Russians. They became very bellicose, and the oil-rich Gulf states stopped supplying the West with oil in solidarity with their Arab neighbours, which provoked an oil crisis in Britain, Europe and the US during which there was brief petrol rationing.

The US President, Richard Nixon, was already up to his eyes in the Watergate scandal, as well as having to withdraw American troops from Vietnam, so was prone to behave impetuously and responded by declaring a nuclear alert, placing all strategic US nuclear forces on DEFCOM III alert and delegating the resolution of the crisis to his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. Kissinger and Heath collaborated over the best way to respond to the Soviet threat, which was complicated by the malfunction of some American military spy technology- it finally ended when Syria and Egypt withdrew after regaining some lost territory.

Heath was also in office during the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland the previous year, when 13 peace marchers were shot dead by British paratroops. This provoked the IRA into beginning attacks on civilian targets on the British mainland, and in '73 they bombed The Old Bailey court building plus a number of other places. He also had to preside over the economic slump endured by Britain in the early '70s, which he did not handle very well- the nation was wracked by financial crisis, rampant inflation, unemployment, industrial disputes and power cuts, inlcuding a huge strike on the part of the mineworkers and steelworkers. Heath responded to this by introducing swingeing cuts in public spending, a 3-day working week, and a confrontational stance in relation to the trade unions. In April '74 he called an early general election in an attempt to get re-elected and strengthen his position against the strikers, but the plan backfired and he lost to the Labour Party, which saw Harold Wilson returned to office as PM.

Heath was never again Prime Minister, although he emerged again into the public eye during the build-up to the Gulf War in 1990, when he along with US Senator Jesse Jackson negociated the freeing of Western hostages being held captive by Saddam Hussein as a 'human shield' (although Jackson subsequently tried to sideline Heath's contribution, and made out that it was all his own achievement).

Heath had a hatred of Margaret Thatcher, whom he saw as having dishonoured the Conservative Party by dragging it down from being a paternalistic, respectable organisation into one based on ruthless selfishness, greed and irresponsibility.

His main hobby was sailing, and he entered a number of international sailing competitions in his yacht 'Morning Cloud III'. He had served in the army in WW2, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Unmarried, it was rumoured that he was homosexual, although this was never officially confirmed.

He died at the age of 89 on 17th July 2005, soon after the death of another former British PM, James Callaghan. He was cremated, and his ashes interred at Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire.

Answer 3

Edward Heath was the UK Prime Minister in 1973. He was the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965-75 and Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974.