Skip to main content

Evenings With History Series Discusses Jordan’s King Hussein

UALR history professor Clea E. Bunch will present “Attack at Samu: A New Perspective on Hussein’s Reconciliation with Nasser” as part of the Evenings with History series at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. 3rd St. in Little Rock.In 1967, King Hussein of Jordan abandoned his traditional moderation and sought a military alliance with Egypt’s Nasser. This presentation will re-examine Hussein’s decision based on examination of recently declassified correspondence from the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and concludes that rather than a rash or abrupt move, the alliance with Nasser represented a repositioning forced by the Israeli attack on the Jordanian village of Samu in November, 1967.

The king ultimately concluded the Israeli government betrayed him, and when the United States refused to provide security guarantees, he turned to Egypt as the only viable solution to ensuring the security of the Jordanian State.

The Evenings with History series is sponsored by The University History Institute, which is a nonprofit organization of private citizens interested in history and supporting UALR.

An individual can subscribe to the series for $50 annually, which includes admission to all six lectures. A joint subscription to the series, at $90 annually, offers savings of $10 to couples and friends.

At $250 annually, a Fellow of the Institute receives the previous benefits, plus an invitation to special presentations for fellows exclusively, including private evenings with noted authors. The institute also offers a life membership at $1,000 that can be paid in installments. Subscriptions and donations to the institute are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Subscribers to the series help support historical research. Presenters donate their time, and the University History Institute uses all proceeds from the series to encourage research at UALR. In recent years, annual institute grants, made possible by the Evenings with History series, have made major purchases of historical research materials for UALR.

For more information, contact the UALR History Department at 501-569-3235.