King's Counsel

A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East

By: Jack O'Connell

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Hardcover | 1 May 2011 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
290 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.45 x 1.65 x 0.25

Hardcover

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O'Connell arrives Jordan in 1958, bearing in his pocket the details of a Jordanian army plot against Hussein's life, which he manages to foil. He forms a useful partnership with the king, wisely staying in the background, but in the words of the historian Avi Schlaim, O'Connell knew Hussein more closely than any American official before or since.

Hussein was the West's staunchest ally in the Arab world, and the point of the book is to convey Hussein's long and firm commitment to peace, and his initiatives - not always well-chosen - to achieve it. Washington paid lip-service to Hussein's efforts, but either sat on its hands or sabotaged these plans in pursuit of deeper policy. O'Connell holds nothing back. He was the keeper of many secrets, and a player in the game - giving Hussein, for example, 24 hours advance warning of the Israeli strike on Egypt in 1967. Hussein talked by telephone to Nasser, who didn't believe the information. O'Connell has evidence that the 1967 war was blessed by Lyndon Johnson as a way of destroying Nasser and Egyptian military power. He believes that Henry Kissinger instigated the 1973 war so that he could negotiate a peace. None of the foregoing information appears in any official record, and there is lots more where this came from.

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