ABSTRACT
The notion that terrorism might pose a significant threat to the security and interests of the United States developed from the 1970s, with an upsurge of violence against Israel and Israelis in the Middle East and elsewhere. Added to this was an increasing perception that the Islamic Republic of Iran, following the 1979 revolution there, was both sponsoring terrorist groups (such as Hizballah in Lebanon), and also carrying out acts of terrorism itself against exiled dissidents and officials from the previous US-supported monarchical regime. By the early 1980s, terrorism was becoming a direct threat to American citizens. A pivotal event was the bombing – presumed to have been perpetrated by the nascent Hizballah with Iranian support – of American (and French) military barracks in the Lebanese capital Beirut in October 1983. A total of 299 people were killed, of which 241 were Americans. The US and France had been in Lebanon as part of a multinational force originally deployed to facilitate the disengagement of Israel following its military invasion in 1982. They had subsequently stayed on to try to maintain some semblance of stability in the midst of the ongoing Lebanese civil war.
