Word: syrians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Nixon calmly listened to our report and approved the recommendations while incongruously holding a bowling ball in one hand. It was one of the few occasions that I saw Nixon without a coat and tie. He said that whatever was done must succeed; he was determined to stop the Syrian attack...
...united on approving Israeli air attacks; there was a difference of opinion as to Israeli ground operations. I did not think the issue required an immediate resolution. Israeli mobilization would take at least 48 hours. And Israel could not afford not to mobilize because it could not permit a Syrian victory, whatever our reaction. Thus we had a breathing space-if the King could hold on-during which pressures on Syria would mount, perhaps to the point where the crisis resolved itself...
...could be ended only by full Syrian withdrawal from its "liberated zone" in northern Jordan. Nixon finally decided that Sisco could inform Israel that the U.S. agreed to Israeli ground action subject to consultation prior to a final decision...
What started out as an imminent Jordanian collapse was beginning to reverse itself. Tuesday, Sept. 22, brought good news. The Jordanians, emboldened by our moves and by the fact that the Syrian air force (under a general named Hafez Assad) pointedly stayed out of combat, were beginning to attack Syrian tanks around Irbid from the air. The estimate was that Syria had lost 120 tanks. The Iraqi forces [17,000 of them were still encamped in east Jordan three years after the Six-Day War that had brought them there] remained inactive. Egypt informed us that the Soviets had made...
That is why, even though a Syrian withdrawal was probable, I pressed for an augmentation of our forces in the Mediterranean. Sept. 23 would be critical. If the Syrian forces did not withdraw-if, for example, they simply dug in-the point of maximum pressure would pass. Israel would either intervene with the attendant consequences or we would be seen to be bluffing. Then the war might start up again-or else the Syrians would maintain a "liberated zone" in Jordan, mortgaging the King's survival. Four more destroyers were therefore authorized to head for the Mediterranean; two attack...