Seated in the oak-paneled office of his limestone palace on one of the barren hills overlooking his ramshackle capital of Amman, the slim, 21 -year-old King of Jordan spoke slowly, in a voice deep and rich for one so young. "I feel I am stronger than ever now. I have the support of my army and my people, in spite of all the efforts to break up my country. We realize now that the propaganda campaign and the internal crisis were the responsibility of international Communism and its followers." The King paused. In his paper-white face the dark eyes seemed unnaturally large. His slight frame, draped in a rakish tan gabardine suit, was slumped under the heaviness of fatigue; he had scarcely slept in four days. Yet he talked confidently, in the manner of a man who had learned some bitter lessons of human perfidy and folly, but had found that he could make his way. That same day he had gained a historic commitment from the U.S.. and got his security forces ready for devastating street riots that might be hurled against him by men made restless by circumstance, made passionate by Cairo's and Moscow's radios.
Hussein, a boy who became a man in the public enactment of his will for survival, had gambled all to keep his royal inheritance. He was fighting to hold his disintegrating country from crack-up —and last week, by guts, by guile and by fortune's turn, he was winning.
It was a wild enough scrimmage just in Jordanian terms. All the fearful forces of Middle East hatred, fury and greed had taken sides in the struggle; the overshadowing powers of East and West themselves joined in. Hussein was surrounded by foes within and friends without, and by foreign "friends" who were in fact his deadliest menaces because they egged on the domestic foes.
Satchel of Scorpions. Ever since Britain gave up Jordan last year, Hussein's neighbors have crowded close in the name of Arab "unity"—to help themselves. At the time of last fall's invasion of Egypt, Syrian, Iraqi and Saudi Arabian troops moved into Jordan to "protect" it; the Syrians and Saudis are still there.
Egypt's Nasser intrigues with Jordan extremists to join an Arab federation which Nasser would head. The Syrians hanker to see Jordan joined in a Greater Syria. The Saudis lay claim to Jordan's Aqaba area, now being evacuated by the last of the British hussars. The Iraqis, poising 10,000 picked troops at H3, the pipeline pumping station just over the northeastern border, aim to see Jordan merge with its fellow Hashemite kingdom if it merges with anybody. And the Israelis, with the best army and most troublesome border of all the neighbors, stand ready, at the first sound of breaking-up noises from the east, to advance to the Jordan River, a natural frontier some 30 miles beyond their present boundary.
What kept the wolves from gratifying their appetites was the fear that their feast might be disputed, and that in the fight for the spoils someone else might run off with the best chunks. At a certain point last week. Jordan's weakness became its strength: neighbors who coveted it found common cause in recognizing that an artificial nation was better than chaos. But above all. what saved the Kingdom of Jordan was the courage of the young King, an often irresolute monarch who at this crucial moment stood firm.