Diplomacy as counter-revolution? The ‘moderate states’, the Fedayeen and State Department initiatives towards the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1969–1970

Abstract

Explanations for the Nixon administration's policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict have generally concentrated on US relations with the United Arab Republic and Israel, which are portrayed as the focal points of American strategy in the region. This article argues that the fate of the moderate Arab states, particularly Jordan and Lebanon, also played an important role in motivating the State Department's two major diplomatic initiatives during 1969–70, the Rogers Plan and Rogers Initiative, as well as US diplomatic considerations after the September 1970 civil war in Jordan. US mediation in the Arab-Israeli conflict was at least in part intended to ease pressures on the governments of these countries. For this reason, these initiatives should be considered counter-revolutionary.

Notes

James Stocker received his PhD from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a recipient of the Swiss National Science Foundation's Fellowship for Young Researchers, and has been a visiting scholar at Georgetown University and the American University of Beirut. He currently works as a consultant in Washington, DC.

  [1] Kissinger, Crisis, 11. See also ———, Years of Upheaval, 201–2.

  [2] The author is grateful to an anonymous reviewer for suggesting these categories.

  [3] Ashton, King Hussein, 100.

  [4] Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 199.

  [5] Nixon, RN, 479.

  [6] Yaqub maintains that Kissinger felt that the US should support Israel in order to force the Arab states to give up their dependence on the Soviet Union, while Rogers and the State Department argued that the US must press the Israelis in order to satisfy the Arabs and pull them away from the Soviet Union, both of which arguably concentrate on the UAR. Yaqub, ‘The Nixon Administration and the Arab-Israeli Conflict’, 36–7.

  [7] Daigle, ‘The Limits of Détente’, 66.

  [8] Quandt, Peace Process, 13–15

  [9] See Shlaim, Lion of Jordan, 310.

 [10] This includes several recent works that draw extensively on US archives. Shlaim, Lion of Jordan; Joyce, Anglo-American Support; Ashton, King Hussein.

 [11] Quandt, 86.

 [12] The term ‘blind spot’ is used in Quandt, Peace Process, 173; Christison, Perceptions of Palestine, 144.

 [13] Chamberlin, ‘Preparing for Dawn.’

 [14] Lyndon B. Johnson Library [LBJL], National Security File [NSF], Country File, Box 113, Middle East Crisis Sandstorm/Whirlwind [1 of 2], Telegram, Beirut 11282, 6 June 1967.

 [15] See Podeh, ‘The Big Lie’, 1–23.

 [16] Quandt, Peace Process, 45.

 [17] LBJL, NSF, Country File, Middle East, Box 103, Middle East, [1 of 3], Vol. II, Memo, Rostow to LBJ, ‘Recent Steps in the Mid-East’, 15 Nov. 1968.

 [18] Foreign Relations of the United States [FRUS], Vol. XXIV, Paper, Interdepartmental Group for Near East and South Asia', NSCIG/NEA 69–1B (Revised) Washington, 30 Jan 1969, in Foreign Relations of the United States 3.

 [19] All members except for the representative of the Defense Department agreed with this assessment. Foreign Relations of the United States [FRUS], Vol. XXIV, Paper, Interdepartmental Group for Near East and South Asia', NSCIG/NEA 69–1B (Revised) Washington, Jan. 30, 1969, in Foreign Relations of the United States 3

 [20] National Archives and Records Administration II [NARA], Record Group [RG] 59, Sisco Lot Files [SLF], Box 17, Memo, ‘Next Steps in the Middle East’, 15 Mar. 1969.

 [21] See, e.g., SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron Files 9–12, 1969’, Memo to the President, ‘Jordanian Part of Middle East Settlement’, 16 Sep. 1969.

 [22] National Security Study Memorandum 33, ‘Contingency Planning for the Middle East’, 21 Mar. 1969.

 [23] Quandt, Peace Process, 65.

 [24] Memo, Saunders to Kissinger, ‘Evolution of Positions in US–USSR Talks’, Washington, 31 Dec. 1969, available at www.state.gov/documents/organization/77938.pdf.

 [25] SLF, Box 27, Folder: ‘Briefing Book – U.S-Soviet Discussions on an Overall Settlement in the Middle East’, Memo, ‘U.S. and Soviet Diplomatic Positions on Selected Issues of an Overall Refugee Settlement’, Undated.

 [26] CIA Records Search Tool [CREST], Memo, ‘Heightened Dangers in the Middle East’, 30 Apr. 1969, #CIA-RDP79R00904A001400030001-5.

 [27] SLF, Box 17, Letter, Sisco to Barbour, 30 Apr. 1969.

 [28] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 604, Folder: ‘Folder: ‘Israel Vol. I [1 of 2]’ [1 of 2]’, Telegram, State 69861, No Subject, 5 May 1969.

 [29] LBJL, NSF, Country File, Middle East, Box 103, Middle East, [1 of 3], Vol. II, Memo, Rostow to LBJ, ‘Recent Steps in the Mid-East’, 15 Nov. 1968; Mahmoud Riad, The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East (London: Quartet Books, 1981), 89–90.

 [30] Digital National Security Archive [DNSA], Kissinger Telcons, Kissinger and Yost, 7 June 1969.

 [31] Sterner, Interview with Joseph Sisco.

 [32] DNSA, Kissinger Telcons, Kissinger and Rogers, 3 Mar. 1969.

 [33] Nixon Presidential Materials [hereafter] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 651, Folder: ‘Middle East [1969]’, Memo, Kissinger to Nixon, ‘The Mid-East Talks with the USSR So Far’, n.d. [March 1969].

 [34] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 651, Folder: ‘Middle East Thru Dec 1969 [1969 – June 70’ [2 of 3], Memo, Kissinger to Nixon, ‘Risks in Surfacing a Specific US Proposal for a UAR-Israel Settlement’, 26 Apr. 1969.

 [35] NPM, NSC Saunders Files, Box 1169, Folder: ‘Middle East – US-USSR Talks – 1 October – 31 December 1969 [3 of 3]’, Letter, Yost to Kissinger, 9 Jul. 1969.

 [36] NPM, NSC Saunders Files, Box 1169, Folder: ‘Middle East – US-USSR Talks – 1 October – 31 December 1969 [3 of 3]’, Letter, Kissinger to Yost, 22 Jul. 1969.

 [37] See Hanhimäki, The Flawed Architect, 90.

 [38] SLF, Box 27, Folder: ‘Memoranda for the NSC (folder 1)’, NSC Interdepartmental Group for Near East and South Asia, ‘Contingency Study of Resumption of Arab-Israeli Hostilities’, 8 Aug. 1969.

 [39] New York Times, 11 Aug. 1969.

 [40] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron File – 9-12/1969’, Memo for the President, ‘Next Steps on the Middle East’, 4 Sep. 1969.

 [41] Korn, Stalemate, 157.

 [42] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron File – 9-12/1969’, Memo for the President, ‘Next Steps on the Middle East’, 4 Sep. 1969.

 [43] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron File – 9-12/1969’, [Draft] Memorandum for the President, ‘Next Steps on the Middle East’, 6 Sep. 1969.

 [44] Korn, Stalemate, 157.

 [45] Korn, Stalemate, 158.

 [46] Quandt, Peace Process, 67.

 [47] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 651, Folder: ‘Middle East (Vol. II) [March – May 1970, 1 of 2]’, Telegram, State 185521, No Subject, 1 Nov. 1969.

 [48] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron File – 9-12/1969’, Draft Telegram, No Subject, No date [November 1969].

 [49] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron File – 9-12/1969’, Action Memo, Sisco to Secretary, ‘Next Steps on the Middle East’, 6 Nov. 1969. In retrospect, this might have been a mistake, since it allowed Nixon to later disassociate himself from the State Department position.

 [50] Korn, Stalemate, 160.

 [51] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron File – 9-12/1969’, Memo, Sisco to Undersecretary, No Subject, 5 Dec. 1969.

 [52] DNSA, Kissinger Telcons, Telcon, Kissinger, Sisco, 4 Dec. 1969.

 [53] NPM, NSC Saunders Files, Box 1169, Folder: ‘Middle East Settlement – US –USSR Talks, 1 October – 31 December, 1969 [2 of 3], Memo, Saunders to Kissinger, ‘Where We Stand in the Middle East’, 22 Oct. 1969.

 [54] NPM, NSC Saunders Files, Box 1169, Folder: ‘Middle East Settlement – US –USSR Talks, October 1 – December 31, 1969 [2 of 3], Memo, Saunders to Kissinger, ‘Where We Stand in the Middle East’, Oct. 22, 1969

 [55] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 651, Folder: ‘Middle East Thru Dec 69 [1969 Thru June 70] [2 of 3]’, Memo, Kissinger to Nixon, ‘The Middle East: Where We Stand’, 11 Nov. 1969.

 [56] Memcon (US), Washington, 27 Sep. 1969, in ‘Soviet-American Relations: The Détente Years, 1969–1972,’ 77–78. Telegram, Ambassador Dobrynin to Soviet Foreign Ministry, Washington, 23 Oct. 1969, in ‘Soviet-American Relations: The Détente Years, 1969–1972,’ 98.

 [57] DNSA, Kissinger Telcons, Kissinger, Nixon, 25 Oct. 1969.

 [58] DNSA, Kissinger Transcripts, Minutes of the Meeting of the National Security Council, 10 Dec. 1969.

 [59] DNSA, Kissinger Telcons, Sisco, Kissinger, 15 Dec. 1969.

 [60] FRUS, XXIV, Memo, Sisco to Rogers, ‘Assessment of Rabat Arab Conference’, Washington, 6 Jan. 1970, 56ff.

 [61] Quandt, Peace Process, 70–1; Korn, Stalemate, 177–82.

 [62] Nigel Ashton, King Hussein: A Political Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 140.

 [63] Daigle, ‘The Limits of Détente’, 132–3.

 [64] Quandt, Peace Process, 71.

 [65] Cited in Daigle, ‘The Limits of Détente’, 136–7.

 [66] Korn, Stalemate, 201–2.

 [67] Korn, Stalemate, 201–2

 [68] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron 9-12/1969’, Action Memo, Sisco to Secretary, ‘Orientation Trip to the Middle East’, 28 Mar. 1970.

 [69] Quandt, Peace Process, 72.

 [70] New York Times, ‘Sisco Drops Jordan Visit After Anti-U.S. Riots’, 17 Apr. 1970, 2.

 [71] Kissinger, White House Years, 573.

 [72] NARA, RG 59, Records Relating to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Box 8, ‘POL 13–10, Fedayeen Correspondence’, Draft Paper, No title, no author, no date [late 1969].

 [73] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 621, Folder: ‘Lebanon Vol II, 1 Feb 70 – 31 Dec 70’ [2 of 2], Telegram, State 37959, ‘Possible USG Contacts with Fedayeen’, 14 Mar. 1970.

 [74] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 625, Folder: ‘Middle East – General Vol III (Feb 70-May 70), Memo, Sisco, ‘Current Appraisal of Arab-Israel Situation’, 28 Apr. 1970.

 [75] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 625, Folder: ‘Middle East – General Vol III (Feb 70-May 70), Memo, Kissinger to Nixon, ‘Some Reflections After Mid-East Trip’, 12 May 1970.

 [76] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 651, Folder: ‘Middle East (Vol. II) [March – May 1970, 1 of 2]’, Report, ‘Diplomatic Options – Arab-Israeli Impasse’, 7 May 1970.

 [77] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 621, Folder: ‘Lebanon Vol II, 1 Feb 70 – 31 Dec 70’, Telegram, Beirut 4011, No Subject, 22 May 1970.

 [78] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 621, Folder: ‘Lebanon Vol II, 1 Feb 70 – 31 Dec 70’ [2 of 2], Telegram, State 79537, ‘Arab Ambassadors Appeal Re Phantoms’, May 23 1970.

 [79] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron 9-12/1969’, Memcon, No author [Sisco], No Subject, 22 May 1970.

 [80] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 645, Folder: ‘Middle East – General Vol II Feb 70 – May 70’, Memo, ‘NSC Policy Review of the Middle East’ [No Date, No Author Given].

 [81] SLF, Box 17, Folder: ‘JJS Chron File – 9-12/1969’, Memo, Sisco to Secretary, ‘NSC Meeting on Next Steps in the Middle East’, 9 Jun. 1970.

 [82] Sterner, Interview with Joseph Sisco.

 [83] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 645, Folder: ‘Middle East – General Vol II Feb 70 – May 70’, Memo, Kissinger to Nixon, ‘The Middle East’, 16 Jun. 1970. Authorship and date information in Memo, Saunders to Kissinger, ‘Next Step in the Mid-East – Papers for the NSC’, 4 Jun. 1970.

 [84] National Security Decision Memorandum 66, ‘Next Steps in the Middle East’, 18 Jun. 1970.

 [85] See Memcon, Apr. 9, in ‘Soviet-American Relations: The Détente Years, 1969–1972,’ 144.

 [86] Memcon (US), 23 Jun. 1970; Memcon (USSR), 9 Jul. 1970, in See Memcon, Apr. 9, in ‘Soviet-American Relations: The Détente Years, 1969–1972,’, 165, 73–7.

 [87] Yaqub, ‘The Nixon Administration and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1969–73,’ 42.

 [88] DNSA, Kissinger Telcons, Kissinger, Rogers, 28 Jul. 1970.

 [89] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 621, Folder: ‘Lebanon Vol II, 1 Feb 70 – 31 Dec 70’ [2 of 2], Telegram, Beirut 6282, ‘US Peace Initiative’, 30 Jul. 1970.

 [90] Joyce, Anglo-American Support for Jordan, 49.

 [91] Quandt, Peace Process, 76–77.

 [92] The story of the Jordan crisis has been told many times and does not bear repeating here in detail. See, inter alia, Kissinger, White House Years, 594–631; Hersh, The Price of Power, 234–49; Quandt, Peace Process, 76–85; Chamberlin, ‘Preparing for Dawn’, 197–233.

 [93] See, e.g., Shlaim, Lion of Jordan, 233–7.

 [94] DNSA, National Security Council, National Security Study Memorandum 103, ‘Future Options in the Middle East’, 26 Sep. 1970.

 [95] NPM, NSC Saunders Files, Box 1156, Folder 8, Telegram, State 166458, No Subject, 8 Oct. 1970.

 [96] NPM, NSC Institutional Files, Box H-048, Folder 3, Memo, No Title, 13 Oct. 1970.

 [97] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 646, Folder: ‘Middle East – General, Vol VII [1 of 2]’, Memo, Eliot to Kissinger, ‘Documents for Senior Review Group Meeting – October 26, 1970’, 23 Oct. 1970. The minutes for this meeting remain classified.

 [98] NPM, NSC Country Files, Box 646, Folder: ‘Middle East – General, Vol VII [1 of 2]’, Draft Paper, ‘U.S. Policy Towards the Palestinians’, 22 Oct. 1970.; NPM, NSC Institutional Files, Box H-048, Folder: ‘SRG Meeting on Future Mid-East Options – Monday, October 26’, Memo, Kennedy and Saunders to Kissinger, ‘SRG Meeting on Future Mid-East Options – Monday, October 26’, 24 Oct. 1970.

 [99] NPM, NSC Institutional Files, Box H-048, Folder: ‘SRG Meeting on Future Mid-East Options – Monday, October 26’, Memorandum, ‘The Palestinian Problem: Options in an Arab-Israeli Settlement’, 4 Nov. 1970.

[100] NPM, NSC Institutional Files, Box H-049, Folder: ‘Senior Review Group Middle East, 11-13-70 [2 of 2], Memo, ‘Analytical Summary: Palestinian Options’, 6 Nov. 1970.

[101] NPM, NSC Country Files, Israel, Box 608, Folder: ‘Israel Vol. VII, October 1- November 30, 1970 [1 of 2]’, Action Memo, Saunders to Kissinger, ‘Telegram for Clearance on Palestinians’, 19 Nov. 1970.

[102] Sterner, Interview with Joseph Sisco.