Letter to Israeli PM Eshkol Discouraging Retaliation
for Terror
(March 21, 1968)
President Johnson wrote to Israeli
Prime Minister Levi
Eshkol in an effort to forestall
Israeli retaliation for terrorist attacks
launched from Jordan.
Dear Mr. Prime Minister:
I want personally to emphasize the importance I attach
to the messages Under Secretary Katzenbach and Ambassador Barbour have
today delivered to you and your representatives. We deplore as much
as you do the recent terrorist actions against Israeli lives and property.
I am firmly convinced, however, that a military reprisal against Jordan
would be a major miscalculation. Such action would have destructive
consequences for our common hopes for peace and for the future of Our
own as well as your position in the Near East.
In the interest of both
our countries, I strongly urge that no
action of this kind be taken.1
I am making a strong approach at this time to King
Hussein for a maximum effort to bring terrorism to a halt.
Sincerely, Lyndon B.
Johnson
1President
Johnson's message arrived in Tel Aviv
3 hours after Israel launched early morning
military operations against Jordan on
March 21. Units of the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) moved across the Damiya
and Allenby bridges at 5:30 a.m. to attack
terrorist bases in the Karameh area north
of the Dead Sea and the Safi area south
of the Dead Sea. IDF aircraft supported
the actions of the ground forces. Ambassador
Barbour delivered the President's message
even though military operations had begun
in order to reinforce U.S. opposition
to Israeli military reprisals. (Telegram
2983 from Tel Aviv, March 21. ibid) Prime
Minister Eshkol telephoned Barbour later
in the day to say that although the President's
message had come after operations against
Jordan had begun, he had responded to
it by doing everything he could to localize
and limit the operations and to ensure
that civilians were not harmed. He justified
the operations as a necessary reaction
to terrorism and expressed the hope that
they would help to stabilize the situation.
Barbour reiterated the U.S. view that
military retaliation to terrorism only
exacerbated the problem. (Telegram 2991
from Tel Aviv, March 21; ibid.)
Sources: Foreign
Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, V. 20, Arab-Israeli Dispute
1967-1968. DC: GPO,
2001. |