ABSTRACT
Central to interpretations of US military intervention in Beirut has been the role of the July 14 military coup in Baghdad. The most powerful redesigned their political-military strategies, and virtually all endured a heightening of domestic political tensions, some reaching deeply into ruling circles. US Embassy reports from Moscow suggested that a Soviet political rather than military response should be anticipated. According to the historians of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, photographic coverage of key targets throughout the Middle East was available. Target intelligence for air strikes was generally adequate and current. With the end of the military phase of that intervention, and expectations that the political settlement the United States was helping to "broker" would yield a neutralist, albeit acceptable, regime, Senate critics remained resolute in their skepticism.
