ABSTRACT
While the Palestinians were marching down to the pier, firing their weapons in heroic retreat, Bashir’s supporters were hustling parliamentary votes to have their man elected President of Lebanon. On August 23, 1982, Bashir Gemayel became Lebanon’s seventh holder of that office by a vote of fifty-seven to five on the second ballot. Chamoun put up a token candidacy but did not pursue it seriously. Just as Syria had controlled the election of Sarkis six years before, Israel got its reward on this occasion. Several deputies did have to be dragged in to make a quorum, but with Lebanon’s largest army, Bashir’s own Lebanese forces, and the IDF invasion force surrounding the Fayadīah military academy where the session was held, the result was a foregone conclusion. The United States sent 800 Marines to assist the Palestinian departure, and the Lebanese army began taking up their abandoned positions. The election of Bashir appeared to sanction the new Israeli-imposed government of Lebanon. The Palestinians were out; the Israelis were satisfied; and American Marines had come ashore in Lebanon for the first time since 1958. News correspondents posted to Lebanon even took well-earned and long-awaited vacations. Surely the war was about to end.
