Fortunately, the 1958 crisis was relatively short-lived; Lebanon was spared the con¬sequences of a prolonged war. In the years following the crisis, the country once again enjoyed a brisk growth rate. The economic upturn went hand-in-hand with a rise in the standard of living. In these circumstances, the dynamism of the Armenian community reached new levels: the period was marked by a rich, vi¬brant community life, major improvements in the school system, and a sharp in¬crease in the construction of buildings for community use. But if peace and order had been restored, the situation remained fragile, and the slightest upheaval in the region threatened to bring turmoil. In the late 1960s, with the radicalization of the national movement in the Palestinian diaspora–especially in the Arab countries on Israel’s borders, to which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had fled–the Lebanese found themselves facing a new ordeal. The presence of armed Pal¬es¬¬tinian groups on Lebanese soil had become a fresh source of conflict: should Lebanon give support to the Palestinian cause or drive the armed Pal¬estinian or¬ganizations beyond its borders? The question touched off fierce debate in Leba¬nese society, against the background of the profound social, political, and religious divisions that Lebanon had never, since its creation, managed to surmount.
In these circumstances, communal passions flared,
exacerbated by regional and international conflicts. The state proved incapable of controlling the situation and curbing the proliferating violence. Ultimately, the whole state structure fell apart; in April 1975, the problem of the Palestinian refugees plunged Lebanon into a civil war. Over the next fifteen years, the war took on a regional and then an international character.
The divided Lebanese army was incapable of preventing the rival militias from taking control of the country and working their will on the civilian population. The capital, Beirut, was itself split in two: the eastern part of the city fell into the hands of Christian militias, while the west came ... Read all
The Middle East in Crisis
Alex Manoogian visiting Beirut in 1971. To the right of the podium, the minister Raymond Edde; to the left, looking toward Manoogian, Pierre Gemayel (Arch. B. Nubar/Paris).