Word: haig
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...only point on which Haig and the Israelis publicly disagreed was the planned sale of five American AW ACS, radar early-warning aircraft, to Saudi Arabia. The Israelis fear that the AWACS, which are capable of tracking aircraft up to 250 miles away, would be used to spy on their own air force. Said Eban: "The WACs would lay Israel naked to Arab eyes in the sky." Haig argued that arming Saudi Arabia was necessary to ensure overall security in the Persian Gulf and that Riyadh would be required to agree not to use the planes against Israel. Nevertheless, supporters...
...official dinner hosted by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Haig poked some fun at his own troubles within the Administration. In a toast to Shamir, Haig told the guests that he had been puzzled by exactly what it meant to be "vicar" of foreign policy. Cyrus Vance told him it meant being alone with the President three times a week. Henry Kissinger said it meant that when he was alone with the President and the hot line rings, the President tells Mr. Brezhnev, "I'm busy now. Can you call back later...
...better than that," Haig told the crowd. "When I'm in the Oval Office and the hot line rings, the President frowns, looks at me and says, 'It's for you.'" The crowd roared with laughter. Then, with exquisite timing, Haig added to even louder laughter: "Unless it's a crisis. Then the Vice President gets...
...Amman, Haig made little headway in his talks with King Hussein. A longtime opponent of the Camp David accords, Hussein refused to confer privately with Haig and insisted on including his advisers in the two-hour meeting; as a member of Hussein's court put it, "The King wanted witnesses." The Jordanian ruler bluntly told Haig that "Israeli intransigence" on the Palestinian problem posed the greatest threat to peace and called for Israel's total withdrawal from occupied Arab land. "We see two dangers-Soviet as well as Israeli expansionism," said a Hussein adviser. "If the Americans want...
...Haig also received a less than enthusiastic response from Saudi leaders. In Riyadh, Haig met for 3½ hours with Crown Prince Fahd, Minister of Defense Prince Sultan and Foreign Minister Prince Saud; he also spent an hour with King Khalid. The Saudis were clearly pleased by the Administration's willingness to sell them the five AWACS, but they politely disagreed with Haig's contention after the talks that a "convergence of views" had occurred. Declared Foreign Minister Saud: "The kingdom of Saudi Arabia regards Israel as the principal cause of instability and insecurity in the region...