Jordan (((Aggression)))

Raid on Samu (1966) - In response to the deaths of three Israeli soldiers from landmines the Israelis sent in a large Invasion Force including tanks and followed by aircraft. in an act of collective punishment the IDF forced everyone into the Town Square to watch as they demolished their houses some 125 in all. CIA document: ''King Hussein had made a sustained effort to avoid provocations to Israel this has involved such steps as preventing Arab sabots from Crossing from Jordan into Israel and keeping his armored forces east of the Jordan River these measures have been politically unpopular at home and have subjected him to criticism from other Arab states. the recent raid involved an infantry Brigade supported by armor aircraft and artillery it resulted in about 50 deaths half of them Jordanian soldiers and in the destruction of about 150 buildings. he is aware that retaliation carries the risk of an expanded conflict which could involve the bulk of his army a process in which the latter would almost certainly be defeated. the Israeli raid seems illogical and miscalculated to us.''

National Security adviser, Walt Rostow: ''Retaliation is not the point in this case this three th000 man raid with tanks and planes was out of all proportion to the provocation and was aimed at the wrong Target. in hitting Jordan so hard the Israelis have done a great deal of damage to our interests and to their own. they've wrecked a good system of tacid cooperation between Hussein and the Israelis continuing this kind of cooperation will be all but impossible now which stung for the US even more when considering we've spent $500 million to Short him up. we might begin putting out the line with our Jewish friends here that the US can't go on supporting Israel's interests in the Middle East unless the Israelis themselves show some intent over the long run to reach an accommodation with the Arabs.''

Washington responded to the Samu incident by speeding up delivery of f104 aircraft to Jordan. rostow acknowledged that: ''No matter what we do the Israelis and their friends will object but we're just cleaning up the mess that Israel's rate created and we taken Israel's military concerns into account.''

Rostow told Johnson: ''Their December rate on Samu precipitated our emergency military assistance to Jordan costing us about $9M. While we made no commitment to match exactly for Israel what their action at Samu forced us to in Jordan, ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Goldberg under continuing pressure in New York feels strongly we should do nearly that. (pressure from New York, a euphemism for the lobby) The Israelis considered Goldberg an asset and even referred to him by a code name, Minasha.