A Letter From The Publisher: Oct. 5, 1970

ANYONE who has ever served on a Navy ship knows the all too familiar experience of being ordered out of port on short notice, racing to a featureless coordinate at sea, and then circling for days without ever knowing all of the reasons why. There was no uncertainty at all among the sailors and airmen of the Sixth Fleet ships that steamed watchfully in the eastern Mediterranean all last week. They knew from TIME'S cover story on the outbreak of civil war in Jordan (see cut), as well as from other sources, that Washington...