ABSTRACT
In Washington, the US State Department was not indifferent to unfolding events, but criticism of French colonialism aside, there were considerable differences within the State Department and the Division of Near Eastern and African Affairs as to the viability of Lebanon. Corruption, manipulation, gerrymandering were only some or the criticisms made of the farcical election. In the span of eight years, from 1944 to 1952, US policy in Lebanon evolved in accord with the expansion of American hegemony in the Middle East. In both Lebanon and Syria, the war years were marked by conflicts between Vichy-supported forces and those of Anglo-Gaullist backing. When Sabri Hamadeh proposed the abolition of confessionalism, it was seen as a ploy by one of Lebanon's most powerful landed Shi'i politicians, who was not so much interested in the secularization of politics as in political retribution.
