AMMAN 1970, a MEMOIR by Norvell De Atkine*
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AMMAN 1970, A MEMOIR By Norvell De Atkine* This is the first in a series of memoirs on the Middle East in the 1960s and 1970s. Norvell de Atkine was one of the first Middle East experts trained by the U.S. military. He attended the American University in Beirut, became a U.S. military attaché in Jordan, and spent many years working in the Arab world. I had just completed my studies at the own counsel, and the Shia Muslims kept American University of Beirut (AUB) in themselves as invisible as possible. In a 1970, as part of the US Army Foreign Area preliminary taste of events to follow there Specialist program, when Major Bob Perry, was also bitter antagonism between assistant U.S. army attaché in Jordan, was Palestinian and East Bank Jordanian murdered by Palestinian gunmen— students probably from the Popular Front for the An attentive student could receive a Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) at his home terrific education at AUB from such in front of his wife and children.(1) I was professors as Hannah Battatu, Zeine N. assigned to replace him. Zeine and my mentor Dr. Joseph Malone. I had already been prepared for the Battatu, a meticulous researcher and revolutionary situation I would encounter lecturer, was a Palestinian Marxist who, in Jordan by my three years as a student at despite my disagreement with his ideology, AUB, at the time nicknamed “Guerrilla U”. was a superb and objective lecturer. There were remarkably contradictory Although it did not sit well with the mostly aspects to the experience. On the surface, Arab students, who looked for affirmation the Middle Eastern students were united of their wish for a united Arab world, he around the need for revolutionary change never hesitated to point out that almost and support for the Palestinian cause. every secular ideological movement in the Underneath that surface, however, Arab world was in some way an attempt by conversations demonstrated a student body non-Sunni or non-Arab minorities to attain divided along ethnic lines, with many of a measure of equality with the Sunni Arab the groups despising (or at least distrusting) majority. Why, he asked, were each other. Ironically, the Western students Communists in the Arab world almost were often more pro-Palestinian than the exclusively Christians, Kurds, Jews, non-Palestinian Arab students. Armenians and Shia Muslims? The non-Palestinian Arabs, especially Zeine showed how the forgotten details the Lebanese Sunni seemed to resent the of Middle Eastern history were often the Palestinians for seizing the limelight. The key to understanding the big picture. He Maronite Christians and Greek Catholics also enraged some Arab students with his seethed with resentment. The Greek view that the Arab world had been more Orthodox students appeared obsessed with peaceful and enjoyed better living proving themselves Arabs, too, by their standards under the Ottoman Empire than militant rhetoric. The Armenians tried to during independence. stay out of the fray, the Druze kept their Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 6, No. 4 (December, 2002) 75 Norvell De Atkine Nevertheless, Beirut was a capital city country into a full-scale war with Israel. for the world’s then highly fashionable Another very different perception a short radical movements. New Left gurus from time later was that of the Lebanese everywhere came to observe and praise the Maronite villagers of Mount Lebanon, Palestinian movement. There were huge who, during a visit by myself with a British photos on the school’s walls of Israeli officer from the Trucial Oman Scouts of soldiers killed at the 1968 Karama battle in the Gulf Emirates, expressed admiration at Jordan. Pictures of the latest Palestinian the Israeli success in destroying 13 martyrs were on posters everywhere on the Lebanese airliners. Their opinions walls of Beirut buildings, replaced by their prompted my incredulous British guest to successors every few days. The most plaintively ask, “Are these people Arabs?” common slogan was the ubiquitous “this Ultimately, the stage was actually being generation shall see the sea,” referring to set for a Lebanese civil war in which the the presumably inevitable elimination of PLO was a major participant. In brief, but Israel and a Palestinian march to the bloody, battles in the south, the Lebanese Mediterranean coast there. forces actually won militarily but Nasser’s Among the fascinating characters pressure led to Beirut’s surrender in the shuttling in and around Beirut in those days 1968 Cairo agreement. The Lebanese was the carefully coiffured Leila Khaled, government agreed to let the PLO operate the world’s only two-time aircraft hijacker, against Israel under certain conditions, a PFLP activist wearing the latest London including a Palestinian agreement that their fashions, speaking in English to an soldiers would not carry weapons in admiring throng of students. Another Lebanese cities. Within a few months, visitor was Tom Hayden, the high priest of however, all the conditions were forgotten the American radical “New Left” making and fedayeen could be seen strolling along the obligatory pilgrimage to a Beirut Beirut’s main streets carrying AK-47s. refugee camp. My favorite character, In December 1967, while on a visit however, was the son of the Egyptian from Lebanon to the Ghor Valley, I ambassador to Lebanon. His father was witnessed first-hand the tinderbox known by everyone as the “high environment existing between Jordan and commissioner” of Lebanon, because, as Israel. Retaliating for a cross- river Gamal Abdel Nasser’s representative, he fedayeen raid, the Israelis strafed a column manipulated the country at will (or was of Jordanian troops killing several and perceived to do so). Nevertheless his son, knocking out an M-88 tank retriever in the who spoke in American slang and middle of the road. Soldiers and civilians associated almost exclusively with pointed toward the sky and talked about American students, spoke of the Arabs as if “American” airplanes, though I tried to they were an alien race. Among others explain they were French-made Mysteres. representing the bewildering and byzantine Since no one seemed ready to pick up the nuances of Arab society and politics was bodies left in the road, myself and a fellow our Christian Palestinian family doctor American officer loaded a couple of them who came early one morning in December, into our small compact car and took them 1968, to visit my wife suffering from to a nearby police station. hepatitis, and in a state of elation related All of this prepared me for my arrival in the details of an Israeli commando attack Amman in late June 1970. The first thing I on Beirut Airport conducted the night saw when the plane landed reflected the before, convinced that it would pull the current situation in that city. There were 76 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 6, No. 4 (December 2002) Amman 1970, A Memoir two visa control and customs checks: one roadblock and held in a cage for several by Jordanian officials and another by PLO days. representatives. There were indeed two Numerous American-owned governmental authorities coexisting in an automobiles had been stolen by the gangs uneasy, confrontational relationship. Most often linked to Palestinian political groups of Amman and a large slice of northern that did as they pleased in Amman. The Jordan were controlled by various usual technique was to come to the door Palestinian fedayeen factions. Their Toyota and demand the keys to the car. Every trip trucks with machine guns mounted in the to and from the embassy was an anxious back constantly patrolled the streets of the journey. We were constantly stopped at capital. fedayeen checkpoints. Young 14 and 15 While my Jordanian army colleagues year-old members of the Ashbal youth repeatedly told me in the following weeks group manned roadblocks and scrutinized that there was Palestinian-Jordanian our identity cards in a leisurely and antagonism, the officer who was my insolent manner before waving us on. counterpart explained he had to change into Though their weapons were loaded, they civilian clothes to go to his home in the obviously did not know much about how to Ashrafiyah district of Amman to avoid handle them. being harassed, or worse, by youths in his The behavior of the armed fedayeen mostly Palestinian neighborhood. angered the rank and file of the Jordanian Aside from the tumultuous political army and antagonized much of the civilian situation, the U.S. embassy was also in population, including a segment of the chaos. The previous U.S. ambassador, Palestinian residents. The disdain was Harrison Symmes had been declared mutual. Palestinian West Bankers referred persona non grata by King Hussein in May to Jordanian East Bankers as “al-hufa” (the 1970 and the embassy itself was leaderless. barefoot ones), to imply they were This action by the King was taken in vain backward and illiterate. For their part, attempt to placate the increasingly strident Jordanian officers blamed Palestinian demands of the Palestinian militants, much forces for the 1967 defeat and resented the in the same manner as the dismissal of PLO’s claiming the 1968 battle of Karama Glubb Pasha to placate Arab nationalists in as a victory when most of the fighting had 1956. Dependents had already been been done by the regular army. Referring evacuated. With little or no guidance to 1967, the director of Jordanian army coming from the embassy’s senior staff, a operations claimed, “The Palestinians ran few of us devised our own escape and like rabbits.” evasion plan should we be overrun. The Palestinian relationship was Every day there were rumors of the particularly bad with a small but vital part regime’s impending collapse and incessant of the Jordanian military structure, the threats against Americans in the Arab news Circassians and Chechens.