During my first assignment in Indonesia, I showed my bosses that I was willing to create the inflated economic forecasts they desired. As a reward, they promoted me to chief economist (even though I held only a B.S. in Business Administration and at the time was the company's sole economist), gave me a raise, and sent me to the Middle East. I had already written reports on Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, but my research had been conducted at libraries and through interviews with people from those countries working for us in Boston. This first trip was a short one to get to know Iran and prepare a more in-depth analysis of its energy sector. Charlie Illingworth, who had been my project manager in Indonesia, suggested that I stop over for a couple of days in Beirut. At that time, the city's reputation as a playground was still intact. It would be, he told me, an ideal place to relax, catch up on the time zone changes, and familiarize myself with Middle Eastern culture. He knew someone at the embassy there who would show me around.
Lebanon had enjoyed a golden age following the end of World War II. Agriculture and small-scale industry flourished. Beirut developed into a wealthy, cosmopolitan city, the center of Middle Eastern banking and trade. As I read about the country prior to my departure date, I was intrigued to find frequent comparisons to both Switzerland and Paris. I was amazed to learn that ski resorts dotted the mountains outside Beirut, a Mediterranean city I had visualized as sitting on the edge of a desert. And that the cabarets and art galleries rivaled those of Paris.
I also read about Lebanon's shadow side; it stretched back into history and seemed to turn darker with each passing moment. Tensions between religious factions had smoldered for centuries. The coastal regions were ruled by Maronite Christians. The Druze sect of Islam dominated the southern mountains, while orthodox Sunnis governed the fertile Bekaa Valley. Most of the Maronites were Syrian, a fact that created additional tensions among Arab Muslims. Despite these specific characteristics, I discovered that Lebanon was a sort of microcosm for the Middle East.
Europe had coveted Lebanon since the time of the Crusades. Attempts to colonize it continued through the centuries. Claiming a mandate to protect Christian communities, French troops invaded in the late 1700s. Paris assumed the patronizing role characteristic of imperial powers and dispatched its soldiers several times during the 1800s. In 1926, France formed the Lebanese Republic, which was administered under the French Mandate of Syria. In 1940 the French rulers in Beirut declared allegiance to the Nazi- controlled Vichy government. With France soon occupied by Germany, the Vichy authorities in 1941 allowed Germany to move aircraft and supplies through Syria to Iraq, where they were used against British forces. The United Kingdom, fearing that Nazi Germany would gain full control of Lebanon and Syria by pressuring the weak Vichy government, sent its army into Syria and Lebanon.
Nationalistic fervor swept many countries during World War II. Lebanon gained full independence on January 1, 1944. A National Covenant accepted by the two most prominent Christian and Muslim leaders, Bishara al-Khuri and Riyad el Sulh, apportioned political power among the nation's various communities. Drawing on the 1932 census that calculated Christians at 54 percent of the population, it mandated that the president would be a member of the majority, the Maronite Christians, while the less powerful prime minister would come from the Sunni population and the speaker of the legislature would be Shi'a; the commander of the army would be a Maronite. Many Arabs, feeling that the twelve-year-old census was archaic and that Muslims in fact outnumbered Christians, were outraged at this arrangement that tipped the scales in favor of the Christians in Lebanon—and the West in general.
Arabs also suspected that newly created Israel was not all that it appeared to be. The only country ever mandated by the U.N. and a place that Jews called their "promised land," Israel was offered as a sanctuary after the horrors of Hitler. The Arabs, like Americans and Europeans, were told that the atrocities committed against the Jews necessitated the creation of such a state. The suffering of the Jewish people, the traumas of their lives under fascism, were indisputable. There could be no question that the world owed them something better. But in order for this to happen, millions of Palestinians were told they had to give up their homes. Turned overnight into refugees, they flooded into Lebanon and every other Middle Eastern country.
The Palestinian influx confirmed that the 1932 census was irrelevant; there could be no doubt that Muslims now outnumbered Christians in Lebanon. The realization that the National Covenant was being used as a political weapon was further proof for Muslins that there was a second, more sinister purpose behind the creation of Israel, that it was a servant of empire, an armed outpost for the victors of World War II, designed to control Middle Eastern oil. Lebanon, they suspected, was being groomed to support Israel and its allies; the Christian leadership established by the National Covenant was part of a sinister plot.
Lebanese Arab resentment erupted into a Muslim rebellion in 1958. U.S. politicians blamed "communist terrorists." Washington accused Moscow of fomenting this uprising, although it was backed by Syria more than the U.S.S.R. President Eisenhower sent in the marines. U.S. forces occupied Lebanon for only a brief period, from May until October, but their presence confirmed Arab suspicions that Washington was determined to keep the Christians in power. The U.S. president's willingness to interfere militarily had a profound long-term impact on Muslims throughout the region.
Lebanon was also incensed by Washington's aggressive interference in nearby Iraq. During the late 1950s and early 1960s the popular Iraqi president Abdul Karim Qasim grew increasingly defiant toward the United States and the United Kingdom. He demanded that foreign oil companies share the profits they reaped from Iraqi oil with his people and threatened to nationalize them if they did not comply. When EHM efforts failed to bring Qasim around, the CIA hired an assassination team that included a young man who had not yet completed his schooling: Saddam Hussein. The team opened fire on Qasim's car. They riddled it with bullets, but only managed to wound him. Saddam was
shot in the leg and fled to Syria. In 1963, President Kennedy made a fateful decision; he ordered the CIA to join MI6 (British intelligence) on a mission to accomplish what the assassins had failed to do. They executed Qasim by firing squad on Iraqi television. After that, an estimated five thousand people were rounded up, accused of communism, and executed. Within a few years Saddam was brought back and installed as head of national security; his second cousin became president.34
During this same period the demographics in Lebanon were changing radically. Muslim populations expanded faster than the Christian. In the late 1960s, they demanded revisions in the National Covenant. However, Maronites refused, continuing to dominate the government. The threat that Washington would send in troops once again to support the Christians was underscored when the United States reinstated the military draft and built up its armed forces around the world.
Geopolitics also changed. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel seized parts of Jerusalem, Syria, and Egypt. The Arab world was outraged. Support for Palestinian militants grew. The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) used refugee camps in southern Lebanon to stage attacks on Israel.
By the time I headed for Beirut in 1973, the last semblance of stability was unraveling. Yet, like most Americans who did not speak Arabic and therefore communicated only with or through men educated in American or British schools and whose success depended on our continued presence in their country, I was extremely naive. I could read about the dark history of places like Lebanon; I understood that there were deep-seated antagonisms between Arabs, Christians, and Jews; but I had been trained to believe that capitalism would work miracles. I had recently been promoted. I was flying first class, staying in the best hotels, and dining at the finest restaurants— frequently accompanied by beautiful women. Along with all the other U.S. businessmen, consultants, and government officials, and the "experts" at the World Bank and the IMF, I was confident that we were making great strides toward democracy and progress throughout the Middle East.