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Empathy and the Lebanese Civil War of 1958 in the USA
Abstract
This article examines the role that empathy played during the US intervention in the Lebanese civil war of 1958, also known as Operation Blue Bat. Through deep readings of public texts, it explores how a minority of Americans empathized with Lebanese opponents of President Camille Chamoun. After the arrival of US forces, Lebanese anti-Chamounists made their voices heard and feeling felt in the USA via global information providers, enacting cultural interventions. Lebanese dissent was headline news, engendering empathetic processes that reoriented US ways of feeling, thinking, and acting. By using empathy as a point of entry into historical intercultural relations, this article unearths how genuine transnational understandings were socially formed during a moment of conflict. Ultimately, it argues that a focus on empathy gives foreign relations scholars an avenue that eschews nefarious Orientalist binaries and their powers in the process.
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Author and article information
Notes
Eid Dib, “An Appeal to Americans,” National Guardian, August 11, 1958, 2.
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Carolyn Pedwell, Affective Relations: The Transnational Politics of Empathy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 6.
According to a poll conducted by Princeton Review Service, 73% of 136 Americans interviewed approved Eisenhower's decision to intervene in the Lebanese civil war of 1958. Letter from Kenneth Fink, July 17, 1958, Central File, General File, GF 122-DD (1), Box 883, File: 122-EE Middle East Situation 7/14/58, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library [henceforth, DDEL].
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Mideast Mirror 10, 19 (May 11, 1958), 11 and 15.
Fahim Qubain, Crisis in Lebanon (Washington, DC: Middle East Institute, 1961), 48–49; Fawwaz Traboulsi, A History of Modern Lebanon (London: Pluto Press, 2007), 133–134; and Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism, 87–97.
Sami E. Baroudi, “Divergent Perspectives among Lebanon's Maronites during the 1958 Crisis,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 15:1 (2006), 5–28.
Caroline Attié, Struggle in the Levant: Lebanon in the 1950s (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), 154–184; Ann Hughes, “'Impartiality’ and the UN Observation Group in Lebanon, 1958,” International Peacekeeping 9:4 (2002), 2–20; and Qubain, Crisis in Lebanon, 89.
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Amahl Bishara, “Watching U.S. Television from the Palestinian Street: The Media, the State, and Representational Interventions,” Cultural Anthropology 23:3 (2008), 488–530; “Street Fighting Rages in Beirut as Rebels Strike,” New York Times, June 15, 1958, 1; “Army Tanks Fire in Beirut Strife; U.S. Warns Aides,” New York Times, June 16, 1958, 1.
Mideast Mirror 10, 29 (July 20, 1958), 11; The Arab World, July 15, 1958, 3–4.
Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism, 211; Camille Chamoun, Crise au Moyen-Orient (Paris: Gallimard, 1963), 423.
Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism, 213; Dwight Eisenhower, “Special Message to Congress on the Sending of United States Forces to Lebanon,” July 15, 1958, The American Presidency Project (online), consulted on May 12, 2011; and Dwight Eisenhower, Waging Peace, 1956–1961 (Garden City: Doubleday, 1965), 273–274.
Roger Spiller, “Not War But Like War”: The American Intervention in Lebanon (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, 1981), 44; Beirut to Washington, December 2, 1952, Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Lebanon: Internal and Foreign Affairs, 1950–1954, reel 13, NARA II; Beaulieu to Secretary of State, April 6, 1960, RG 25, Box 7751, File 12375–40 pt. 1.2, Library and Archives Canada [LAC]; Email Correspondence with Jihad Khazen, February 19, 2016.
Mideast Mirror 10, 29 (July 20, 1958), 15; Miles Copeland, The Game of Nations (1970), 239; David Gray, The U.S. Intervention in Lebanon, 1958: A Commander's Reminiscience (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, 1984), 25; Mideast Mirror 10, 29 (July 20, 1958), 15; M. S. Agwani, The Lebanese Crisis, 1958 (1965), 293.
Editorial Note, July 15, 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. 11, 242–243; “How Middle East Intervention Was Interpreted Here and Abroad,” National Guardian, July 28, 1958, 7; “Critics in Senate Deplore Landing,” New York Times, July 16, 1958, 1.
“Most Folks Back Use of Marines in Lebanon But Some Disapprove,” Wall Street Journal, July 16, 1958, 1.
Mideast Mirror 10, 29 (July 20, 1958), 16; July 16, 1958, As-Siyassa, 1 and 8; Beirut to Washington, July 16, 1958, Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Lebanon: Internal and Foreign Affairs, 1955–1959, reel 4, NARA II.
El-Khoury to Washington, July 17, 1958, General File, GF 122-D (1), Box 883, 122-EE MIDDLE EAST SITUATION 7/14/58, DDEL; Message to Washington, July 17, 1958, General File, GF 122-D (1), Box 883, 122-EE MIDDLE EAST SITUATION 7/14/58, DDEL; Mideast Mirror 10, 29 (July 20, 1958), 17.
Mideast Mirror 10, 29 (July 20, 1958), 16.
“Little Lebanon is Cosmopolitan,” New York Times, July 16, 1958, 12; Dwight Eisenhower, “Statement by the President Following the Landing of United States Marines at Beirut,” July 15, 1958, The American Presidency Project (online), consulted on May 12, 2011.
“Most Folks Back Use of Marines in Lebanon But Some Disapprove,” Wall Street Journal, July 16, 1958, 1; MGM News of the Day 29, 295 (1958), J. Fred McDonald Collection, Motion Picture Room, Library of Congress [LOC]; Sam Pope Brewer, “Beirut Welcomes Marines,” New York Times, July 16, 1958, 1; 200 Universal International News 31, 57 (1958), J. Fred McDonald Collection, Motion Picture Room, LOC.
“Themes and Variations,” Wall Street Journal, August 20, 1958, 8.
“Rebels React Verbally,” New York Times, July 16, 1958, 12; “1700 Marines Land,” Washington Post, July 16, 1958, A1.
Baroudi, “Divergent Perspectives among Lebanon's Maronites,” 5.
Krznaric, Empathy, 34–43.
“How Middle Eastern Intervention Was Interpreted Here and Abroad,” National Guardian, July 28, 1958, 7.
As-Siyassa, July 17, 1958, 1 and 8; and Al-Hayat, July 18, 1958, 1. Also see Maurice Jr. Labelle, “A New Age of Empire? Arab ‘Anti-Americanism', U.S. Intervention, and the Lebanese Civil War of 1958,” The International History Review 35:1 (2013), 54–56.
Hanson Baldwin, “The Marines’ Landing,” New York Times, July 16, 1958, 10; Congressional Record, July 16, 1958, 13942.
“Briefing the Middle East Situation,” Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, v. 10, July 16, 1958, 528–542.
Congressional Record, July 17, 1958, 14134–14136; Wall Street Journal, July 21, 1958, 6; Letter, July 22, 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. 11, 365; Wall Street Journal, July 24, 1958, 8; and Washington Post, August 14, 1958, A6.
An-Nahar, July 17, 1958, 1; As-Siyassa, July 17, 1958, 1 and 8; Al-Hayat, July 18, 1958, 1; An-Nahar, July 18, 1958, 1; Beirut al-Massa, July 18, 1958, 1 and 6; and As-Siyassa, July 18, 1958, 1 and 8.
“Stirring the Mideastern Brew,” New York Times, September 5, 1958, 26; “Rebel Chief Calls Cease-Fire,” Washington Post, July 17, 1958, A1.
“What Are We Doing Anyway?” Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1958, Central File, Official File, OF 116-SS Middle East Situation (1), Box 597, DDEL; “Letters to the Editor,” Washington Post, July 23, 1958, A16; “Why the U.S. and Britain Are Trying to Suppress the UAR,” National Guardian, July 28, 1958, 1; “Greed and Grab,” Liberation 3:5–6 (1958), 3; “And Afterwards, What?,” Wall Street Journal, July17, 1958, Central File, General File, GF 122-DD (1), Box 884, DDEL; Olivia La Guardia, “Lebanon Action Questioned: Use of Marines Feared Likely to Bring Charges of Imperialism,” New York Times, July 17, 1958, 26; J. Stuart Innerst, “Letter to the Editor,” Washington Post, July 21, 1958, A8.
Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism, 1–2.
Fay Reisfelt to John Baldwin, July 17, 1958, Central File, General File, GF 122-DD (1), Box 884, File 122-EE (6), DDEL; “Let the Arabs Unite!” The Christian Century 75, 31 (July 30, 1958), 869; Nicholas Roosevelt, “Military Intervention Opposed,” New York Times, July 19, 1958, 14; H. Mertz Jr., “Middle East Reactions,” Washington Post, July 17 1958, p. A14.
“Only 26 Held for Chamoun,” New York Times, July 18, 1958, 7; Sam Pope Brewer, “Chamoun Backers Shift to Opposition After U.S. Landing,” New York Times, July 18, 1958, 1.
“Beirut Aide Denies Parliament Opposition,” Washington Post, July 19, 1958, A4; J. Paul Cotton, “Compulsion in Lebanon,” New York Times, July 25, 1958, 18; Letter from Joan Beidler, July 18, 1958, Central File, General File, GF 122-DD (1), Box 884, File 122-EE 5, DDEL.
Report, July 18, 1958, RG 59, Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Lebanon: Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs, 1955–1959, reel 4, NARA II; Joseph Evans, “Mideast Debate,” Wall Street Journal, July 21, 1958, 6.
“Readers Look At U.S. Troops in Mideast,” Wall Street Journal, July 21, 1958, 6; Charlton Oghburn Jr., “Middle East Eruption,” Washington Post, July 21, 1958, A8; Edwin Wakin, “Lebanon,” The Nation, July 19, 1958, 30; C.L. Sulzberger, “Lessons of Logic and Its Lack,” New York Times, July 19, 1958, 14.
“Lebanese Mood,” Wall Street Journal, July 21, 1958, 1; “Lebanese Girls Man Rebel Battle Posts,” Washington Post, July 26, 1958, A6.
Sam Pope Brewer, “Lebanon Situation Far From Solution,” New York Times, July 20, 1958, E4; “The Lebanese,” Wall Street Journal, July 22, 1958, 10.
Mideast Mirror 10, 31 (August 3, 1958), 2.
MGM News of the Day 29, 299 (1958), J. Fred McDonald Collection, Motion Picture Room, LOC; 200 Universal International News 31, 61 (1958), J. Fred McDonald Collection, Motion Picture Room, LOC.
Gendzier, Notes from The Minefield, 336–337.
“In the Wake of Lebanon's Election,” Wall Street Journal, August 1, 1958, 4; “Letters to the Editor,” Washington Post, August 1, 1958, A18; “What Now?,” The Nation, August 2, 1958, 44.
Said, Orientalism (1978).
P.L. Prattis, “Those Arabs Again,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 2, 1958, 4; Horace Cayton, “World At Large,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 2, 1958, 6; “Picking Ourselves Up,” The New Republic 139, 5–6 (August 4, 1958), 3–7.
Mideast Mirror 10, 32 (August 10, 1958), 6; “Footnotes of History,” Washington Post, August 3, 1958, E1.
“1800 Marines Begin Lebanon Withdrawal,” Washington Post, August 14, 1958, A16; Mideast Mirror 10, 33 (August 17, 1958), 15.
Mideast Mirror 10, 37 (September 14, 1958), 22; “More U.S. Marines Will Leave Lebanon,” New York Times, September 11, 1958, 1; Sam Pope Brewer, “Two Capitols Report,” New York Times, September 7, 1958, E4.
Sam Pope Brewer, “Two Marine Units Leaving Beirut,” New York Times, September 15, 1958, 3; “Understanding Arab Psychology,” Washington Post, August 24, 1958, E4; “As Others See Us,” Washington Post, September 19, 1958, A20.
Dwight Eisenhower, “Message to the United States Forces Withdrawing from Lebanon,” October 18, 1958, The American Presidency Project (online), consulted on April 2, 2011; “As American Troops Leave Lebanon,” New York Times, October 12, 1958, SM8; Sam Pope Brewer, “Major U.S. Units Leaving Lebanon,” New York Times, October 20, 1958, 5; “More Troops Leave Lebanon,” Washington Post, October 20, 1958, A4.
Mideast Mirror 10, 42 (October 19, 1958), 3; An-Nahar, October 26, 1958, 1; “Journey's End,” Wall Street Journal, October 29, 1958, 14.
Robert Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors (Garden City: Doubleday, 1964), 408–409.