Arrival of the US Marines Sept. 29, 1982, in front of the MEA planes grounded on the tarmac since June 7. (Credit: L'Orient-Le Jour Archives)
BEIRUT — As US President Ronald Reagan was about to board Marine Force One for the last time in 1989 during George H.W. Bush’s inauguration, he told his press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, that the only regret he had during his tenure as president was the Marine deployment as part of the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon.The deployment came about against the backdrop of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which was tacitly supported by the US, with the stated objective of bringing an end to the conflict and minimizing civilian deaths.It culminated on Oct. 23, 1983, when a truck loaded with 12,000 pounds of explosives detonated outside the MNF’s battalion headquarters in Beirut International Airport.The attack sparked a backlash in a US public wary of foreign interventions in the wake of the Vietnam war. On Feb. 7, 1984, Reagan...
BEIRUT — As US President Ronald Reagan was about to board Marine Force One for the last time in 1989 during George H.W. Bush’s inauguration, he told his press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, that the only regret he had during his tenure as president was the Marine deployment as part of the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon.The deployment came about against the backdrop of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which was tacitly supported by the US, with the stated objective of bringing an end to the conflict and minimizing civilian deaths.It culminated on Oct. 23, 1983, when a truck loaded with 12,000 pounds of explosives detonated outside the MNF’s battalion headquarters in Beirut International Airport.The attack sparked a backlash in a US public wary of foreign interventions in the wake of the Vietnam war. On Feb. 7, 1984,...
