ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the events that led to the invasion of Lebanon, to evaluate the invasion, or even to summarize the efforts deployed to bring about an acceptable and just settlement. Although Washington knew that Israel sought a pretext for a major "punitive operation," it allowed the March 1978 invasion of south Lebanon to take place and intervened only when the invasion was about to go beyond its major stated objectives. The United States intervened seriously only once: to bring about a cease-fire when Syria's installation of Soviet missiles inside Lebanon gave the war a new strategic dimension. The Lebanese proposed to restrict negotiations with Israel to terms of withdrawal, with appropriate security arrangements within the UN framework, on the basis of the 1949 general armistice agreement between Lebanon and Israel. Instead of accepting this proposal, Washington led the newly elected president of Lebanon to hold a quasi-peace conference.
