Exactly 40 years ago, Arab nations cut off oil supplies to the United States in response to American support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The action had a dramatic and lasting effect, but not exactly the effect the oil sheiks hoped for.

Instead of crippling the U.S., the embargo unleashed an exceptional American response that has resulted in our having more energy, less pollution, and a stronger world economy.

“James Schlesinger was sitting at his desk in the Pentagon when the Saudi oil minister’s cable arrived: ‘According to his Majesty King Faisal,’ it read, ‘I am instructed to cut off all oil supplies to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and to your forces in Europe,’” Darren Goode reports for Politico. “The trauma of 1973 has shaped every presidency since then, and the U.S. is still absorbing its lessons. Each administration in the past four decades has called for achieving U.S. energy independence, and each has been lambasted for failing to come up with a national strategy for weaning the nation off foreign oil.”

Some leaders have sought to encourage domestic oil production, some have sought to develop alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar.

“Some, like Schlesinger, draw a different lesson: The U.S. ended up with an energy strategy that’s working — but the government didn’t create it,” Goode contends. “American petroleum fields are booming now, thanks to new techniques for tapping into shale, and the U.S. is poised to overtake Russia as the world’s top oil and natural gas producer. Oil imports are falling while cars and homes are greener and more efficient.”

The oil embargo opened U.S. markets to foreign cars.

“In 1972, all import brands combined held just a 13 percent share of the U.S. market,” explains James Treece for Crain News Service. “That shot up to a then-record 15.8 percent in 1975. They never looked back. It wasn’t just the Japanese; German brands also got a boost when their small but powerful engines got a second look from shoppers.”

After a sputtering start in their efforts to compete (remember the Cadillac Cimarron?), American automakers soon learned to build smaller cars that appealed to buyers.

“The original round of downsizing brought a passel of lousy cars,” Treece notes. “But the push to trim weight and boost fuel economy brought a wave of technology innovations that continues, including turbocharging, lightweight materials, front-wheel drive, eight-speed transmissions, direct fuel injection and many others. And as innovation flourished, the shape of vehicles changed. The behemoth station wagon disappeared, replaced by the minivan.”

The goal of the Arab nations was to weaken America through the embargo.

That goal was never achieved.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, oil historian Daniel Yergin said the strength of American industry was proven in that crisis.

“A lasting lesson of the crisis years is the power of markets and their ability to adjust to disruptions, if government allows them to,” he wrote.

America emerged from the crisis stronger than before.

That’s a good lesson for the crises of today.