Word: glubb
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...center of these clutching pressures was the slim, short, 20-year-old youngster who is King of Jordan. The British used to call Hussein (rhymes with Biscayne) "a nice little King." Now, since he peremptorily fired Britain's Lieut. General John Bagot Glubb as head of the Arab Legion, they are not so sure. Neither, apparently, is Hussein...
Hussein was content to let others run the government. Glubb Pasha, trusted and devoted servant of old King Abdullah, kept the Israeli border quiet and the Legion hotheads in check. Elderly politicians left over from Abdullah's day swapped ministerial posts like musical chairs, and one ministerial clique won the name in Jordan of "the Mau Mau" for the rapacity of their treasury raids. Young Hussein exercised his royal functions unpredictably, showed up at his office erratically, was royally late for appointments with distinguished visitors. Once he encouraged a "purging committee" to clean up the government, paid surprise visits...
...Jordan, which has not enough money to build its own roads, to equip itself with a first-class jet air force. Once he turned to senior officers and asked: "Why can't we attack? If there's a war, let's march on Tel Aviv." General Glubb patiently took him on a tour of the 350-mile Israeli frontier to show him how much the Legion's 20,000 men had to defend against Israel's 250,000-man army...
...Prime Minister said: "None of us know the reason." But his question, according to Glubb, was: "Can you leave Immediately?" Glubb asked what he meant by immediately. The Premier's answer: "Say at 4 o'clock this afternoon. We will give you an airplane." Glubb balked at that. "No, sir," he said. "I have lived here for 26 years, and I cannot leave at two hours' notice." The Premier suggested: "You can leave your wife behind." They compromised on 7 a.m. the next...
...People's Choice. By sacking Glubb, Hussein made himself King before his subjects in fact as well as in title. Overnight he was the hero of the Palestinians. Newspapers hailed him as "the new Sala-din." When he toured the refugee centers, frenzied crowds tore off his red-checkered headdress and bore him through the streets shouting: "Long live Hussein-with his sword we will go to war!" Legionnaires shouted: "Back to Palestine!" "It was the first time in the history of the Hashemite family that one of them stood up to the British," said a former Hussein critic...