Bruce Riedel - Beirut 1958: How Americas Wars in the Middle East Began

BEIRUT 1958

How Americas Wars in the Middle East Began

Bruce Riedel

Brookings Institution Press

Washington, D.C.

Copyright 2020

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.

ISBN 978-0-8157-3729-2 (hc)

ISBN 978-0-8157-3735-3 (ebook)

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Composition by Elliott Beard

In loving memory of Alison Riedel

Contents

INTRODUCTION

On July 15, 1958, United States Marines stormed ashore at Beirut, Lebanon. It was the first ever American combat mission in the Middle East. The Marines were assaulting the beach in Beirut to prevent the spread of international communism, according to President Dwight David Eisenhower, who spoke to the nation that day.

I was there, only five years old. My father, who had served in the U.S. Army in Algeria and Italy during World War II, was working for the United Nations. Our family had accompanied him from our previous post in Jerusalem to Beirut. The assignment began as a joyBeirut was then known as the Paris of the Middle Eastbut by July it was in the midst of a deadly civil war. According to what my parents later told me, we came under sniper fire more than once.

For the Marines it was a much more dangerous mission. Offshore the U.S. Navy had more than seventy warships deployed to back them up, including three aircraft carriers. In Germany, the U.S. Army was preparing to deploy to the beachhead a battalion of Honest John rocket launchers equipped with tactical nuclear weapons. Thankfully cooler minds prevailed, and the nukes never arrived.

The Beirut landing came amid a complex regional crisis that had been developing since the beginning of the year, when Egypt and Syria had united. A failed Saudi-backed coup in Damascus led to the sidelining of Americas favorite Arab, King Saud. The Central Intelligence Agency foiled an Egyptian-backed coup in Jordan. Then on July 14, a coup ousted the most pro-Western leader in the region, King Faisal II in Iraq. Eisenhower, usually a very cool decisionmaker, panicked and sent the Marines into Beirut while the British intervened in Jordan.

An American combat military mission in the Middle East was a novelty in 1958. Americans had served in the region, in Iran and other places, during World War II but in logistical roles, helping to get supplies to our allies, including the Soviet Union. America also had built airbases for the U.S. Air Force, including one in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, but they did not engage in combat operations. Beirut was a first.

Six decades later American combat operations in the Middle East are no longer a novelty; they are a constant. Indeed, America seems fated to never-ending wars in the Middle East. American troops have fought in virtually every Middle Eastern country or supported combat operations from within them. The men and women of the U.S. armed forces have given the last full measure of devotion to their country, from Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen to Iran and so on. Their country owes them a debt of gratitude it can never pay.

Some of the combat missions have been absolutely necessary. The defense of Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein in 1990 certainly fits that category. Missions to kill or capture terrorists in the years since 9/11 also have been crucial to the defense of the United States.

But others have been ill-conceived. The deployment of American Marines to Beirut the second time, in 1982, was a poorly thought through peacekeeping mission that turned into disaster for the Marines when a terrorist truck bomb killed 241 soldiers. The second war with Iraq, in 2003, was another disaster, perhaps among the worst foreign policy mistakes in American history.

I have been involved in one way or another with most of these missions; first as an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) following the Iranian revolution and Israels invasion of Lebanon, then on assignment in the Middle East collecting intelligence, then as the deputy director of the Persian Gulf Task Force during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I moved on to work in the White House for four presidents as an adviser on the wars in the region as well as on our efforts to promote peace. I finished my career in the government assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters in Brussels closely following the Iraq war.

At the Brookings Institution, I have written and lectured extensively about Americas wars in the Middle East. In this book I go back to how it began, to the first mission in Lebanon. This book tells the history of how Ike decided to send the Marines to Beirut, how that mission narrowly avoided becoming a quagmire, and how it ended with only one American killed in combat. At the Iwo Jima monument to the Marine Corps, overlooking Washington, D.C., Lebanon 1958 is one of the Corps battles inscribed on the base of the statue. How the Marines got to Lebanon is a fascinating tale of espionage and diplomacy filled with a colorful cast of characters.

I also describe a couple of lessons learned from this first combat mission and how it unfolded that may be useful to future policymakers confronting the challenge of future wars in the Middle East. And there are, indeed, some important lessons to be learned. The Middle East will always provide surprises and unexpected developments; it is always smart to avoid a rush to judgment when they suddenly happen.

My colleagues at Brookings were very helpful with their time and expertise in reviewing this book. My research assistant Israa Saber was particularly helpful in tracking down manuscripts and documents. As always, the Brookings library staff and Brookings Institution Press have been joys to work with. I also benefited from assistance from the Eisenhower Presidential Library and the Eisenhower Farm in Gettysburg, the Office of the Historian at the State Department, and the CIAs Electronic Reading Room. The CIA published an early version of the Saudi coup plot in Syria in its in-house journal Studies in Intelligence . I have been fascinated by the events of 1958 for decades, and countless Americans and Arabs have given me their insights. My wife Elizabeth traveled with me on this journey into the past and made it joyful.

This book was reviewed by the CIA prior to its publication. This does not constitute an official release of CIA information. All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the Central Intelligence Agency or any other U.S. government agency. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. government authentication of information or CIA endorsement of the authors views. This material has been reviewed solely for classification.