Office of the Historian

361. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson1

Washington, December 10, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • Response to King Hussein’s Military Equipment Request

We can’t come close to meeting Hussein’s $200 million request. We don’t have the money, and that big a program would ruin Jordan’s promising economic development.

So Secretary McNamara has designed a small package to tackle Hussein’s main problem—his army’s morale.2 It includes only $4.7 million (reprogrammed from existing appropriations) on top of $3.5 million already in Jordan’s FY 1967 military aid program. Instead of enlarging his forces, it would help him improve pay, mobility and organization to tide him over the present crisis of confidence with the army.

This offer probably won’t satisfy Hussein. We see it as the starting point for a tough series of negotiations over our whole aid program. We may have to give a little, but before we do we’d send former Ambassador Bill Macomber to try to talk Hussein back to reason.

If you approve this approach, Secretary McNamara will go over the package with Hussein’s army commander at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday. Secretary Katzenbach also requests your approval of the attached message from him to Hussein explaining the rationale for the package.3 We feel the Secretaries should handle this initial response, since you’ve already sent the King one message4 and may have to step in again later.

No matter what we do, the Israelis and their friends will object. But we’re just cleaning up the mess Israel’s raid created and we’ve taken Israel’s military concerns into account. Our JCS says this small package will not affect the military balance on Israel’s borders. If you approve, State and Defense will brief key Members of Congress on the [Page 707] program, and we’ll tell the Israelis what’s involved as soon as we’ve told the Jordanians.

I recommend you approve.5

Walt
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Jordan, Vol. III. Secret. The memorandum, filed as an attachment to Rostow’s December 12 memorandum to the President (Document 361) was apparently drafted by Wriggins, who sent it to Rostow with a December 10 covering memorandum.↩
  2. Material concerning the proposed aid to King Hussein is attached to a December 9 memorandum from Hoopes to McNamara, on which the Secretary indicated his approval. (Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 70 A 6648, 381 Jordan)↩
  3. The proposed letter from Katzenbach to King Hussein, undated, is attached to a December 10 memorandum from Katzenbach to the President, attached to this memorandum.↩
  4. See Document 346 and footnote 4 thereto.↩
  5. The President did not check either the approval or disapproval line but wrote: “Check this out thru UN & Goldberg.”↩