ABSTRACT
Lebanon's participation in the struggle to prevent the creation of new state was minimal, and in March she signed a truce with Israel. The civil war of 1958, when compared to that of 1975-76, appears in retrospect as merely a Fronde, in some respects comical. Syria, as an independent entity, came into being simultaneously with Lebanon, and in resistance to the same French hegemony. With Shihab's accession to the presidency, an atmospheric change occurred in the Lebanese polity, or so it appeared. A greater weight was given to the military, and to state-induced progressiveness, this in place of unbounded laissez-faire, both economic and political. Toward the end of 1970 there occurred three dramatic events, each in its own way fateful for the future of Lebanon. One was the elimination by King Husain of the armed presence of the Palesti nians, the second was the election of Sulayman Faranjiyya as president, and the third was the death of 'Abd al-Nasir.
