1968_4_arabisraelwar

UNITED STATES AND UNITED NATIONS / 149
financing some development projects already under way. Soon thereafter
Washington also resumed its annual $27 million support of the Jordanian
budget. Some Congressmen, Representative Edward J. Gurney (Rep., Fla.)
among them, opposed resumption of aid before Hussein agreed to make peace
with Israel, broke with Nasser, and promised to reject offers of Soviet military
aid made during his visit to Moscow in October. However, the administration
believed the carrot to be more effective than the stick, and underscored
Washington's desire for warm and close relations with Jordan during
Hussein's visit in November. Officials cited the allegedly more moderate and
conciliatory tone of Hussein's remarks about Israel as evidence that Jordan
shared the United States' own deep concern for peace and stability in the
region. Hussein reportedly agreed to maintain his pro-Western stance, and
rejected Soviet offers of military aid.
United States Role in the Middle East Arms Race
In 1967 the administration encountered growing congressional opposition
to supplying military equipment to underdeveloped countries that were likely
to use them not to resist Communist aggression, but to fight their neighbors.
The June war found American weapons used on both sides: the Jordanian
army used United States-supplied Patton tanks and artillery in its June 5
attack on Israeli cities and settlements, and, when Hussein had failed to heed
Israeli appeals to stay out of the war, the Israeli army also used American
tanks in their counter-attack.
In July Representative Lester L. Wolff (Dem., N.Y.) revealed that among
the Arab officers the United States was continuing to train, were 12 Sudanese,
8 Iraqis, and one Syrian, whose countries had broken diplomatic relations with
the United States. In view of these countries' close ties with the Soviet Union,
he regarded this as "a flagrant violation of our national security." Protests
by the House Armed Services Committee and by such prominent senators as
Karl E. Mundt (Rep., S. Dak.), moved the Pentagon in August to suspend
training of such officers. The Sudanese and Iraqis were allowed to complete
their courses to prevent "undue hardship. 1 ' The Defense Department stated
that most of the approximately 500 Arab officers to be trained in the United
States during the 1967-68 fiscal year would come from Libya and Saudi
Arabia, where the United States had military installations and oil interests;
the others from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. The training program
was intended "to encourage and strengthen these moderate Arab states,"
to provide "a useful offset to Soviet influence in the Arab military establishments,"
and to expose future Arab military leaders, having "a key role" in
many Arab states, to "United States military doctrine and to the democratic
way of life in the United States." Sixty-one Israeli officers were being trained
under the program.
Legal obstacles imposed by Congress and opposition in principle prevented