Office of the Historian

261. 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

Washington, September 17, 1970, 6:55 p.m.

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. This is what the President said to the editors and broadcasters— If the Syrians or Iraqis intervene in Jordan there are only two of us to stop [Page 729] them, the Israelis or us.2 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 Iraqis 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?3

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.

K: God help us. Those fools at State think I am putting him up to it. It doesn’t give me any pain.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Box 30, Chronological Files. No classification marking.↩
  2. See William Quandt, Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967 (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1993), p. 102. Quandt notes that Nixon met twice with editors of Chicago newspapers and expressed his willingness to commit U.S. forces in Jordan if Syria or Iraq intervened in the conflict to assist the fedayeen.↩
  3. Peter Lisagor was the Washington Bureau Chief for the Chicago Daily News. ↩