109. Transcript of a Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and the Director of the United States Information Agency (Shakespeare)1
K: At least you know how to get my attention.
S: Do you want me to read it to you—they have alerted all the wire services that at 6:00 Chicago time they will be coming out with a big story.2 This is what the President said to the editors and broadcasters—“If the Syrians or Iraquis intervene in Jordan there are only [Page 268] two of us to stop them, the Israelis or us. It will be preferable for us to do it. The Russians are going to pay dearly for moving the missiles in. The Israelis are going to get five times as much as they would have if the missiles would not have moved. We are embarking on a tougher policy in the Middle East. The Sixth Fleet is going to be beefed up. I was having an argument with Kissinger who thinks we blew it in Jordan. We will intervene if the situation is such that our intervention will make a difference.” Chicago Sun Times is saying as a lead that it was learned today from high sources that the U.S. will intervene in Jordan if the Syrians or Iraquis move. I know what the editors were told, but I don’t know how they will write it.
K: What does he mean that I thought we blew it in Jordan. I have been raising hell with him along the lines that we have been behaving and that Jordan was about to blow.
S: This is a senior man’s notes of what the President told them.
K: Was Lisagor there?
S: I don’t know. We will get this around the world in just a few minutes.
K: I think the Secretary of State is going to have a bloody heart attack.
S: We passed this along to State—Rogers and Sisco.3
K: God help us. Those fools at State think I am putting him up to it. It doesn’t give me any pain.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Chronological File, Box 6, September 12–17, 1970. No classification marking. Also printed in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. XXIV, Middle East Region and Arabian Peninsula, 1969–1972; Jordan, September 1970, Document 261.↩
- “They” is in reference to the editorial staff of the Chicago Sun-Times. On September 17, while in Chicago, the President met with the paper’s editorial staff. According to Kissinger, who described the incident in his memoirs: “Nixon had just learned of the outbreak of civil war in Jordan. Though usually his self-discipline was monumental, it could be breached by emotion at moments of high tension. Charged up by the news and the military movements he had just approved, Nixon proceeded to tell the amazed editors that if Iraq or Syria intervened in Jordan only the Israelis or the United States could stop them; he preferred that the United States do it.” Kissinger continued, “It was too much to expect that such sensational news could be kept off the record. The Sun-Times ran the exact quote in an early edition. Though it was then withdrawn when Ziegler insisted on the off-the-record rule, this only heightened its foreign policy impact.” (White House Years, pp. 614–615) See also “U.S. Held Ready to Intervene,” Washington Post, September 18, 1970, p. A1.↩
- Kissinger called Rogers at 7:29 that evening. According to the transcript of their conversation, Rogers noted that Loomis “says the wire services have put out the word to keep the wires open so they are probably going to give it a good play.” (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Chronological File, Box 6, September 12–17, 1970)↩