WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Jordan 's King Hussein sent a secret message to President Richard Nixon in 1970 pleading with him to attack Syria , according to declassified documents released Wednesday by the former president 's library . President Nixon works at his desk in the Oval Office in a June 1972 photograph . The papers are among about 10,000 documents released by the Nixon Presidential Library , some of which offer harbingers of present-day events , such as concerns about terrorism and Saudi Arabia . Library director Timothy Naftali said the documents describe challenges such as how to get the Saudis more involved in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict , how to get them more engaged against terrorism , how to address the Arab view that the United States always sides with Israel and how to build up moderate Palestinians to counter extremists . A 1973 diplomatic cable cites this objective : `` isolate and undermine terrorisms [ sic ] and commandos [ sic ] by establishing another , more stable and respectable Palestinian political entity and political personality . '' Documents detail U.S. efforts to persuade Saudi Arabia to move away from Fatah , the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization , because U.S. officials believed the PLO was supporting the terrorist-linked , anti-Israel group Black September , referred to as BSO . The document , a U.S. State Department telegram from the embassy in Jeddah to Washington reads , `` BSO and Fatah [ are ] now linked together in vicious effort to create chaos and uncertainty . One might wonder whether central objective BSO conspiracy was not to erase any slight progress toward Middle East peace . '' The document release was intended to coincide with Mideast peace summit among Palestinian , Israeli and other Mideast leaders in Maryland , Naftali said . The Nixon White House also was adjusting to Israel 's acquisition of a nuclear weapon . `` We are declassifying the records today that laid the basis for Richard Nixon 's decision in 1969 to accept the fact , a fact of life , that Israel had a bomb , a nuclear device , '' said Naftali . `` That , of course , is very important with what 's going on in Annapolis . '' `` Even though it is clear from the documents that the United States government did not encourage Israel to acquire a nuclear deterrent , it became a fact of life , '' Naftali said . `` There are materials here that show how our government , 30 years ago , dealt with this very , very difficult problem . '' Rather than openly declare itself as a nuclear power , Israel still maintains a strategic ambiguity over its nuclear weapons capability . In 1970 , as King Hussein dealt with threats by both Palestinian refugees in his country and Syrian military forces crossing Jordan 's border , the king asked `` the United States and Great Britain to intervene in the war in Jordan , asking the United States , in fact , to attack Syria , '' Naftali said . `` Syria had invaded Jordan and the Jordanian king , facing what he felt was a military rout , said please help us in any way possible . '' The telegram indicates that Hussein himself called a U.S. official at 3 a.m. to ask for American or British help . `` Situation deteriorating dangerously following Syrian massive invasion ... , '' the document said . `` I request immediate physical intervention both land and air ... to safeguard sovereignty , territorial integrity and independence of Jordan . Immediate air strikes on invading forces from any quarter plus air cover are imperative . '' The library has withheld the Nixon documents from public access until Wednesday and have been reviewed for release and/or declassified , Naftali said . Nixon served as president from January 20 , 1969 , to August 9 , 1974 , when he resigned under political pressure during the Watergate scandal -- the only U.S. president to do so . He died in 1994 after suffering a stroke at the age of 81 . E-mail to a friend .
Telegram : King Hussein wanted U.S. support on invading Syrian forces in Lebanon . The White House urged Saudis to distance from PLO 's Fatah organization . They also discuss Israeli acquisition of nuclear weapons . Documents among the papers released Wednesday by Nixon Library .