ABSTRACT
The presidency of Fouad Shihab weathered the threat of the PPS coup, but called for strengthening the Lebanese security services to protect the republic and its vulnerable independence. The collapse of Nasser’s United Arab Republic in 1961 did not eliminate Arab Nationalism and its interventionist impulse, with its radical socialist and pro-Soviet components, from the regional agenda. Lebanon had to be on its guard if it was to weather future political storms.
