Re: A leaf from history: The prime minister is hanged
Off-topic, but you can read about it here: Indiana University Bloomington
…On September 9, 1970, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger convened a meeting of the Washington
Special Actions Group to discuss the need for a military response to Palestinian radicalism in Jordan. Kissinger
began the meeting by stating, “If we do not get the Fedayeen in Jordan under control, the peace initiative will go by
the board. The President’s instincts are to crush the Fedayeen now.”4 Though President Nixon favored an American
military response to the hostage crisis, logistical restraints in the Middle East and a burdensome financial commitment
to the Vietnam War had severely constrained the United States military’s interventionary capability in the region.
Furthermore, the use of American troops on Jordanian soil threatened to further discredit the authority of the already
embattled Hashemite King. Having ruled out the use of American troops as “militarily impractical,” the Nixon Administration
instead settled on a course that supported Jordanian military action by providing sustained funding and
moral encouragement to the Hashemite king.
Though the United States believed the Jordanian army capable of defeating the Fedayeen militants, the Nixon
Administration was not confident that King Hussein would risk the political repercussions that such a move would
prompt from the Arab community. Richard Helms, the Director of Central Intelligence, expressed his doubt to Kissinger,
saying, “He wants to avoid fighting…He is simply not willing to take on the Palestinians in his Kingdom with
the possible help they would receive from the Iraqis, possibly the Syrians.”6 The determined solution was to use the
visibility of American military power as a means to bolster King Hussein’s confidence and dissuade the prospect of
foreign intervention. This pointed to the Nixon Administration’s developed strategy in Jordan. By maintaining an element
of public and private encouragement for King Hussein’s campaign against the Fedayeen, the United States could
effectively communicate an unyielding commitment to the Middle East and, in effect, influence the outcome of events
in the region…