THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR: EISENHOWER, RELIGION, AND FOREIGN POLICY

Tensions were high in the Middle East in July 1958. Egypt and Syria had recently merged to form the United Arab Republic (UAR) under the pan-Arabist leadership of Gamul Abdul Nasser, who had threatened to destroy Israel in revenge for the 1956 Suez Crisis. On July 14, 1958, a group of Iraqi army officers overthrew and then murdered the pro-Western King Faisal II, in what appeared to be a step towards Iraq's also joining the UAR. The Maronite Christian president of Lebanon, Camille Chamoun, whose Muslim-majority army also was pressing for Lebanon to join the UAR, heard reports that Iraqis and Syrians were infiltrating his country to promote the UAR movement. In response to the rumors, Chamoun urgently requested President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send troops to Lebanon to help stabilize the Christian-led but majority-Muslim state. Eisenhower immediately ordered the US Marines, who already were in ships just off the coast of Lebanon, to undertake an amphibious landing.