ABSTRACT
In late 1957, the Syrian Ba'thist leaders, recognizing their inability to bring the country under their control and fearing that continued chaos would benefit the Communists, approached Nasser about a union. From the end of World War II to 1958, Iraq remained firmly under the control of the Hashimite monarchy and its agents. The experiences of the military regimes of Qasim and the Arif brothers revealed the difficulties of establishing reformist governments in Iraq. The hostility between the government and the Kurds has featured strongly in Iraqi history, and like the question of Pan-Arabism. Jordan in the late 1960s seemed an anachronism, existing in the Arab heartland as a free-enterprise monarchy allied to the West. But Jordan was also intricately engaged in Arab affairs as a member of the Arab League, a direct neighbor of Israel, and the dwelling place of the world's largest concentration of Palestinians. These factors would color Husayn's decisions during the June War.
