BYK = The Brave Young King aka Hussein of Jordan

John E. Merriam, a former Foreign Service Officer who was the Second Secretary of the American Embassy Amman, Jordan during1957–1958, is completing a manuscript of a novel about lives and events in that time when I was briefly King Hussein's friend as well as second secretary of our embassy in Amman.

His observations of Hussein ibn Talal ibn Abdallah:

Struggling to save himself, Hussein shed the trappings of British rule, took up revolutionary Arab nationalism, and finally allied Jordan with the United States. The American connection saved him and sustained Jordan for decades by enabling Hussein to pay the Arab Legion, secure the Jordanian dinar, and foster substantial and unexpected economic growth. This arrangement, unique among US ties to the developing world of the time, was the bedrock of his survival and his emergence as an Arab statesman. No account of his life should overlook it, certainly not an American one.

In this short period Hussein gained his reputation for courage, and was dubbed in the British Foreign Service, per Nigel Ashton, "the Plucky Little King." At this time, too, Hussein gained an earlier, and very American, title in Washington when, over the phone from a golf course in Georgia, President Eisenhower agreed with Secretary of State Dulles that something needed to be done "to help the Brave Young King," a name that stuck for years among foreign service officers in the Office of Near Eastern Affairs and a score of US embassies in the Arab world. In early 1957 Hussein got his first annual tranche of $20 million and proudly we had our "BYK."

The English called his PLK, the Plucky Little King.

Ten Years Ago

King Hussein of Jordan confessed to his countrymen, in a candid speech to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Six Day War, that he considers his decision to fight alongside other Arab nations was a costly mistake.

When war broke out on June 5, 1967, the Sandhurst-trained monarch rejected the offer from Levi Eshkol, the Israeli Prime Minister, that no action would be taken against Jordan if it stayed out of the conflict. Instead, the King told the United Nations mediator: "They started the battle. Well, they are receiving our reply by air."

In remarks published yesterday showing the honesty that has become the hallmark of his diplomacy, the King, 61, said: "In reality, it was probably our duty to try to prevent this country from being part of that battle."