ABSTRACT
Until now, efforts to explain the 1961 plot against Chehab have oscillated between two extremes. Some observers, noting the political hostility between the SSNP and the Lebanese state, impute the conspirators’ pre-disposition for ‘violence’ and force to explain the coup plot. Others, equally determined, take a completely different position. From this viewpoint, the coup leaders were men of deep political conviction, concerned about the direction of the country and its future. They planned the coup to vindicate their vision of where Lebanon should be going. Each of these explanations has substance. Yet neither of them remains completely convincing.
