ABSTRACT
In July 1958, close to 15,000 marines landed in Beirut, while some 11,000 air sorties were flown over Lebanon. In the weil-known instance of Anglo-American intervention in Iran, the objective was to bring down the prime minister who had endorsed the 1951 nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The circumstances surrounding the Anglo-American response to Iranian oil nationalization inspired political intervention by US oil interests in Lebanon in the fall of 1952. Collaborative intervention involved an entente cordiale with its members, but that did not preclude disputes over power and profit. The coup in Baghdad led to the finalization of the decision to separate Anglo-American interventions in Jordan and Lebanon, while consolidating cooperation farther east. The cold war was offered as the rationale for US intervention, and the impact of US policy in Lebanon was a secondary affair.
