Beirut 1958

From today's vantage point, it is difficultalmost impossible, evento recall that one U.S. military intervention in the Middle East turned out positively. It happened six decades ago, in a very different era, but lessons learnedfrom then remain relevant today.

In July 1958, U.S. Marines stormed the beach in Beirut, Lebanon, ready for combat. They were greeted by vendors and sunbathers. Fortunately, the rest of their missionhelping to end Lebanon's first civil warwent nearly as smoothly and successfully, thanks in large part to the skillful work of American diplomats who helped arrange a compromise that ended the war. Future American interventions in the region would not work out quite as well.

Bruce Riedel's new book tells the now forgotten story of the first U.S. combat operation in the Middle East. President DwightEisenhower sent the Marines in the wake of a bloody coup in Iraq, a seismic event not only for that country, but eventually for the entire region. Eisenhower feared that the coup, along with other conspiracies and events that seemed mysterious back in Washington, threatened American interests in the Middle East. His response, and those of others, were largely driven by a cast of fascinating characters whose espionage and covert actions could be grist for a movie.

Although Eisenhower's intervention in Lebanon was unique, certainly in its relatively benign outcome, it does hold important lessons for today's policymakers as they seek to deal with the always unexpected challenges in the Middle East. Veteran analyst Bruce Riedel describes the scene as it emerged in the early 1950s, and he urges Washington to recall some of the key lessons from that time: Don't rush to judgment when surprised by the unexpected, and don't assume either the worst, or the best, especially in the Middle East.