Lebanon, U.S. Landing in

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LEBANON, U.S. LANDING IN

LEBANON, U.S. LANDING IN. In May 1958 President Camille Chamoun of Lebanon appealed to the United States for military forces to prevent a civil war. By directive of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. forces landed on Lebanese beaches and secured port facilities and the international airport at Beirut. Only an occasional minor encounter occurred between dissidents and American troops. On 31 July the Lebanese Chamber of Deputies elected General Fuad Shehab as president, but Chamoun refused to resign for several weeks, and Shehab was not inaugurated until 23 September. At that point, the Lebanese army acted firmly to restore and maintain order, and the last U.S. forces departed on 25 October.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alin, Erika G. The United States and the 1958 Lebanon Crisis: American Intervention in the Middle East. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1994.

Korbani, Agnes G. U.S. Intervention in Lebanon, 1958 and 1982: Presidential Decision Making. New York: Praeger, 1991.

Charles B.MacDonald/e. m.

See alsoArab Nations, Relations with ; Intervention .

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