THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 13 JUNE 1970

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005977508
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: June 13, 1970

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The President's Daily Brief
13 June 1970
27
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
13 June 1970
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
King Husayn, his army, and the fedayeen are reassess-
ing the situation in Jordan. (Page 1)
Hostility toward the US is growing in other Arab
states. (Page 3)
North Vietnamese infiltration continues. (Page 5)
Some changes in the Cambodian Government may-be pend-
ing. The Communists continue to harass the Cambodian
Army. (Page 6)
Brezhnev is going to Bucharest to sign the Soviet-
Romanian friendship treaty. (Page 8)
South Vietnamese dockworkers have scheduled a strike
for Monday. (Page 9)
UN observers are forced to abandon two more of their
posts along the Suez Canal. (Page 9)
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JORDAN
An uneasy calm has settled over Amman and
most of Jordan, punctuated from time to
time by sporadic incidents triggered off
usually by small, undisciplined groups of
fedayeen bent on looting. Both sides seem
to be conscious of the fragility of the
present truce.
We present in the following paragraphs our
preliminary assessment of the situation in
Jordan.
Whatever authority rises :from the shambles in
Amman in the next few days and weeks, it is not
likely to be one on which either the Arab world or
the West can rely.
Husayn will miss the support and the stiffening
Of the military commanders he was forced to dismiss,
and the army may find itself divided among those
still determined to crush the fedayeen and those
either sympathetic to Palestinian aspirations or
unwilling to stand between the fedayeen and the Is-
raelis. The army in general and the elite units in
particular have .probably incurred popular resentment
because of their indiscriminate shelling of the
refugee camps.
A small but militant fedayeen group-George
Habbash's Popular. Front for the Liberation of Pales-.-
tine (PFLP)--has succeeded in defying the vastly
larger forces of both the King and the "moderate" ,
fedayeen organizations, bringing on exactly the kind
of bloodbath both sides had been anxious to avoid
in previous government-fedayeen confrontations. .The
PFLP has gained considerable short-run prestige and
political power as a result.; whether it can command
the foreign subsidies and support that Yasir Arafatls
more respectable politicking has produced is some-
thing else. The shadowy Habbash and his fanatical
followers will certainly be emboldened, .and more
than ever will be a force to be reckoned with in
Amman, in the other Arab capitals, and abroad.
(continued)
1
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The debacle has been a major setback for Yasir
Arafat, who has sought tirelessly to establish a
single fedayeen authority under his command. His
willingness to settle for terms less stringent than
the PFLP's, and his cooperation with the Jordanian
Army in trying to enforce the terms, have badly -
tarnished his image and made a mockery of his claim
to speak for a united Palestinian movement. Arafat
Will try to catch up with the militants who have run
away with his movement, but he cannot run too far
without losing, his more conservative--and wealthier--
supporters.
None of Jordan's Arab neighbors has appeared
anxious to take advantage of the 'situation, and
most have tried to moderate it. Whether this re-
straint will continue depends, as does so much else,
on what kind of regime the Jordanians and the Pales-
tinians patch together in Amman. The 20,000-odd ,
Iraqi troops in northern Jordan provide a ready-made
intervention force, but many of its officers are
there because they are distrusted by the Baghdad.,
regime.
Israel, of course, is watching events closely.
Tel Aviv has relied on Husayn and his army to re-
strict fedayeen cross-border activity to tolerable
limits. If this restraint disappears, as seems -
likely, the Israelis will do their own policing of
the frontier, even if they have to occupy parts of
the East Bank.
Intervention by either Syria or Iraq would be
opposed by Israel, and the Israeli Air Force would
go into action against any sizable body of foreign
troops moving into Jordan.
The events of the past week have turned one of
the last islands .of relative stability in the Middle
East into quicksand, The United States may have
lost anyone in Jordan with whom to. negotiate an Arab-
Israeli cease-fire, and the Israelis may have to.
turn more of their military attention to their east-
ern front.
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FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
ARAB STATES
Broadcasts from Cairo and Damascus accuse the
US of instigating the Jordanian Army to smash the
Palestine liberation movement and the fedayeen or-
ganizations. The chief source has been the Voice
of Fatah in Cairo, which has also accused the gov'-
ernment.of Jordan of coordinating its repression
of the fedayeen with "the Zionist forces" and of
seeking "the help of the US Sixth Fleet.' These
accusations feed on the atmosphere in the Arab world
brought about by controversy over the Phantom air-
craft.
Cairo and .Damascus broadcasts are widely heard
in the Middle East, and the known close relationship
between the US and King Husayn will make the present.
propaganda more credible to Arab listeners. Grow-
.ing sympathy for the fedayeen Cause and the general
tension raised by the hardening Israeli military.
posture are additional factors that build popular.
hostility to Americans and to US-owned interests in
the Arab states. Any serious incident involving
Americans Might therefore be the catalyst. for re-
leasing a violent outburst of anti-American acts.
(continued)
3
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Pro-fedayeen demonstrations in Beirut could
lead to a situation Similar to that in Jordan... A
group of fedayeen sympathizers, said to have been
led by the PFLP, forced their way into the Jordanian
Embassy yesterday and set it afire. Earlier in the
day slogan-shouting demonstrators marched through
the streets of the Lebanese capital demanding the
overthrow of King Husayn and the establishment of d
Jordanian republic. Other fedayeen groups', mean-
while, were saidto have begun digging trenches:
around the refugee tamps in Lebanon and .emplacing
weapons.
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NORTH VIETNAM
More southward movement in the infiltration
pipeline has been detected. On 11 June, a major
station in the northern end of the,systeM radioed
that five groups amounting to at least 1,800 men
would be passing through during the next week.
Only part of the message was intercepted; addi-
tional groups could have been listed in the missing
section.
- Two of the groups, about 650 men, are headed
for the provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien in
northern South Vietnam- Two others, 670 men, prob-
ably are en route, either to. the DMZ area or to
southern Laos. -Details on the fifth group are in-
complete, although it appears to be part of the
regiment previously reported to be moving south
(see The President's Daily Brief of 10 and 4 June).
About 3,300 North Vietnamese .troops have
entered the pipeline so far this month--
a relatively large number for the rainy
season.
5
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Cambodia: Current Situation
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