ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of the Reagan Administration’s response to two terrorist incidents which resulted in crises for the administration during their foreign policy initiatives in Lebanon. These incidents are the suicide truck-bomb attacks against the US embassy in Beirut on April 18, 1983 and the US Marine Battalion Landing Team barracks, at Beirut international airport on October 23, 1983. The chapter examines the relationship between the intelligence community and its consumers and how intelligence affects decision making during crises. It discusses the crisis management principles of limiting objectives and limiting the means in the pursuit of those objectives. The chapter explores the remaining crisis management principles and the role of intelligence in relation to these principles and the case studies. Collecting intelligence with regards to terrorist organisations and their intentions is one of the most difficult tasks that intelligence services have to deal with.
