| Description | Folder of material on Adams' mission to Amman between 8 - 23 September 1970, chronicling his journey to Jordan on behalf of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) to negotiate the release of hostages held by Palestinian hijackers, as well as press coverage and photographs of his return to the UK. Includes his original handwritten diary (in two notebooks) and a 52-page copy of a typed transcript: the diary begins with his flight to Beirut and arrival in Amman (9 September) where he met Walid Khaled, brother of the imprisoned terrorist Leila Khaled whose release was one of the hijackers' demands. Subsequent entries cover his meetings with other members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Arab Liberation Front, fighting between the Jordanian army and the PLO in Amman - including shelling and shooting at Adams' hotel - his visit to the airfield where the hijacked planes had landed (10 September), the destruction of the planes (12 September), meetings with the British and Dutch ambassadors (14 September), as well as details of progress with the negotiations, personal reflections on the danger he was facing and his motives for being there and pursuing journalism, and a record of the chaos and destruction in Amman as the fighting escalated prior to his evacuation on 23 September. Other papers in the file include handwritten letters, telegrams and postcards sent by Adams to his wife, local, national and international newspaper cuttings about the release of the hostages and Adams' return to the UK, photographs of his arrival at the airport, plus various handwritten and typed notes or communications. There is also a brief exchange of letters on these events in response to an enquiry from a researcher in 1993. |