ABSTRACT
The preoccupation to assure Lebanon's role as a transit state free of political challenge led to the direct intervention in Lebanon's domestic politics by US oil company executives. The Progressive Socialist Party platform included redistribution of large feudal estates, calculated to involve no more than some ten to twenty major landholders in Lebanon. In December, Trans-Arabian Pipeline (TAPLINE) officials in Washington conceded that the company was in a particularly adverse situation with respect to Lebanon. It is difficult to exaggerate the policy implications of the role assigned Saudi Arabia as political and commercial "defendant" of ARAMCO-TAPLINE and US government interests—or, under the circumstances, the significance of Lebanon's alignment with Saudi Arabia. Far from supporting any of Lebanon's reformist parties, however, the Embassy was satisfied to report that as a result of the 1953 elections the Chamber had been emptied of the political opposition represented by progressive socialist party members, supporters of the previous regime, as well as Communist Party supporters.
