In The Iraq War Reader, Murray Waas wrote: “In March of 1982, reports began filtering back to the State Department from the U.S. embassy in Amman [Jordan] that Jordan’s King Hussein was pressing for the U.S. to militarily assist Iraq. Iraq was suffering serious reverses in its war with Iran. The Ayatollah’s forces had leveled many of Iraq’s major oil facilities and were laying seige to Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city and only port. King Hussein urged that the U.S. find some way to help arm Iraq in order to prevent a total victory by Iran.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 31