staff mr. president i ask consent in the senate completes his business today it adjourns and convenes for a pro forma session only with no business being conducted on tuesday, april 21 at 4:00 p.m. finally, i ask that when the senate adjourns on tuesday april 21, they convene on thursday april 23 under the order of april 16. so are there objections? without objection so ordered. so there's no further business to come before the senate. i ask it be adjourned in the previous order. so the u.s. senate is back on tuesday at 4:00 p.m. eastern for what could be tentatively a pro forma session. however majority leader mitch mcconnell asked the sessions there could specifically be a voice vote on any coronavirus or legislation we will have more lives senate coverage on tuesday at 4:00 p.m. eastern here on cspan2.

>> hello everyone, thank you so much for coming i'm honored to introduce our author he is a senior fellow and director at the brooking institute. he wrote beirut 1958 how american wars the middle east began he has a real word experience and a profound understanding of the middle east, assassinating and cold war and conspiracies pulmonary and president eisenhower's decision to support marines in beirut. he will be doing a presentation about his book and the topic followed by q&a and book signing. everyone please help me in welcoming bruce. >> guest: i don't think i need this right customer.

>> you do. >> guest: that's good to know. first of all, thank you for coming tonight. on july 15, 1958 at roughly 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon on lebanese time, the second marine regiment landed on a beirut beach that marines came ashore anticipating this would be day that they would be facing a hostile audience. in fact, what they run into was lebanese and other foreign tourists sunbathing on the beach. some of them in the nude or newly invented bikini. i don't have a picture of anyone in a picture of a bikini. but i do have a picture of lebanese rushing to the shore, fascinated by the marines having landed. literally as the marines

charged up the beach, weapons loaded ready to go to war, vendors charge down the beach selling coca-cola, cigarettes, and other lebanese delights. the lebanese turned out in large numbers to see the sites. here you can see taxis pulling up. it was all in the way of a comic opera. everything under me that was deadly dangerous. that marines were landing in lebanon in 1958 in the midst of a very vicious civil war between christians and muslims. the marines expected to go into combat. the lebanese army regarded the marines as invaders, violating the sovereignty and sanctity of lebanon. the muslims sought the marines coming ashore as supporting

their christian enemies and in particular the christian president who is trying to hold onto power for second term. in germany, tactical nuclear weapons were being prepared to be airlifted to the beachhead. the 82nd airborne division, back in the united states, was put on alert in order to reinforce the beachhead. so while there was something of a comic opera approach to it, and very real terms, this could have turned into a disaster. it was the first time u.s. combat troops ever went into a mission in the middle east. our first combat mission. fortunately it turned out well. only one army sergeant who died in the mission. he was killed in sniper fire

the marines were able to leave for a few months i'll come back to that in a little bit. the tradition began with american combat operations in the middle east. of course, as we all know now, subsequent missions did not turn out as happily as beirut, 1958. in fact the second marine intervention in beirut in 1982 turned out a disaster and the death of over 240 american marines. it's useful to look back on this first mission to gain some understanding into what was going on. a few hours after the marines landed, course 3:00 o'clock beirut time is six hours earlier and washington, president eisenhower got on national tv, to explain why he sent marines in the harm's way.

a year before, eisenhower had laid out what's now called the eisenhower doctrine, the first time in american president said to the american people into the the world the middle east is vital to america national interest. no president until then that ever identified the middle east as important or vital to american interests. it's interesting what was laid out is crucial to american interests they said to crucial interest in the middle east one is oil, the second was the middle east was the birthplace of this three realist gins in the context of the cold war, united states could not allow atheistic communism to take over the birthplace of the three great religions. it's very interesting eisenhower 1957 did not identify the defense of israel

as a strategic vital interest of the united states. no subsequent american president for whatever look at it in those ways. on july 15, 1958 was the marines coming ashore, they gave the new explanation as to why they were there. and essentially what he said was that a coup in iraq the previous day the 14th of july in which the most pro- western government in the middle east had been overthrown was a direct threat to american national interest. the four oh government and iraq was in a very violent coup this was exceptionally violent coup. identified the coup as perhaps the starting point of the

entire middle east falling into the hands of the soviet union and international communism. he said if the united states did not respond to the third world war could start in the middle east. as the loss of their rock with this significant is the loss of china to communism in 1948. it is really remarkable statement. it is also completely divorced from the facts on the ground. his statements were -- had very little to do with reality and iraq in the middle east in 1958. he was less than forthcoming. his real concern and 1958 was not communism but this man. he was the charisma attic, young very attractive president of egypt. taken power in the coup in

1952. he was an extraordinary speaker and arabic able to lift an audience with his words. he also survived literally being onstage, having someone shoot a ebola adam and he never stopped speaking. this is charismatic to the nth degree. he was the winner of the 1956 suez crisis which egypt essentially defeated the united kingdoms france and israel. eisenhower leaned to egypt over the others nonetheless he came out of that a winner. in february of 1958 syria and egypt had united together and the united republic today

we've kind of forgotten our nationalism as a motivating factor. in the 1950s the idea of one arab nation from the gulf to the ocean, from oman to morocco was one of the most powerful ideologies in the world. he was at the center of that. it is ironic because he was in many ways a protége of the cia in the 1950s. the cia did not put him in office but even before, the cia was in contact. the cia identified him and arab nationalism as a way of the future. united states wanted to be on the wave of the future and saw our nationalism is a very effective counter to communism in the middle east.

individual associated with this policy, it's the one here holding his hand in the picture here. roosevelt was of course from the roosevelt family he was born in argentina's most famous to americans as the man who put the shop back in power and 1953 went most was removed from power and iraq. that's what he is famous for. he is famous he was the initial person who dealt with him. he very shortly after taking power, asked the cia for money and order to buy arms. he's a military general is the hero of the 1948 war against israel. one of the things he wanted to do is reward the egyptian army by building up the military capability. the cia gave him a very small

stipend, three to $5 million depending upon the source which would not buy you very many arms. he spent the money on building a radio tower for his radio station, the voice of the arabs. back in the 1950s radio was the equivalent of twitter today, the memes of communicating with people. this is the tower he built. it is known in egypt as a roosevelt erection. [laughter] i will not go further than that. the relationship between the united states and the soviet union is soured over the years. he went to the russians and to their czechoslovakian puppet regime in order to get weapons. that really soured relations. by 1958, relations between the united states and egypt, the united arab republic deterred

significantly. in february of 1958 egypt and syria united in response to that the two monarchies and iraq and jordan had an alternative. the federation of arab monarchies. on march 3, 1958, the king of saudi arabia here in the middle between richard nixon and dwight eisenhower, told the american ambassador in saudi arabia that a plot was underway to overthrow the syrian government and break up that united republic. forty-eight hours later the syrian intelligence service said they'd broken up a plot to assassinate that was being spearheaded by the king. not only did they have evidence they intended to assassinate him by blowing up

his airplane, they had the canceled check signed by the king to the plot makers message to self, don't sign the checks. if you're going to over throw a regime. by 1958 he had become ike's favorite alternative to eisenhower. the king of saudi arabia, defender of the two holy mosques, was a much more moderate pro-western version. the eisenhower administration hoped they could use him to counter the president. a year before, the king had come to the united states, he was the first saudi king to ever visit the knighted states. his visit was planned for nine days. it ended up lasting 12 days.

the king said he'd bring 80 people with him he brought almost 200. there are so many saudi's the delegation that they could not all fit and blair house. they literally set up tents on lafayette square to house the rest of the saudi group. must've been a sight. i would like to say he was wined and dined obviously was not wind. he was given great profile by the eisenhower administration. the failure of his plot to assassinate him resulted in a severe throwback within the saudi oil royal family. in a matter of days they were stripped him of all this power and gave it to the crown prince. he stayed in power as king but he was essentially powerless after that. he was much less favorable to the united states. that was one big setback for the united states.

shortly "after words", the lebanese civil war began and i'll come back to that in a minute. that was another setback to american influence. lebanese president was one of the few arab leaders who publicly endorse the eisenhower declaration. the cia covered a plot to kill king hussein, he was in his 20s. inexperienced king. it's running a country whose 80% palestinian who has no support from the monarchy. the cia uncovered the plot by tapping the phone of the jordanian defense attaché who was in washington who was plotting against egyptian counterparts overthrow the king. in late june of 1958, the cia

gave all of the information to the jordanians and they arrested the plot makers. the king turned to his brother-in-law, the king of jordan, and asked him, you can see the two of them how remarkably young they are back in 1958, the two of them agreed iraq would send a brigade of the iraqi army to a mod to help stabilize the jordanian situation. unfortunately, the brigade they selected was filled with plotters who were preparing a plot against the king. the plot succeeded on the 14th of july, 1958 was a very,

very violent plot. the brigade was moving through baghdad in the early morning, hours with ammunition which was very unusual and instead of heading towards jordan at head to the palace of the defense ministry. datelined the entire royal family up against a wall and machine-gunned all of them. in their bodies were dragged through the streets it was really ugly. the prime minister of iraq who is been the defective leader for the country was founded a day later and he was similarly executed on the spot and dragged through the streets. it was a very, very violent and stunning below to american interests in the little middle east pretty of a series of events that are all building up here. on the 14th of july, comes the coup and iraq. the coup was led by this man,

cost him, nobody knew who this guy was. he was a complete unknown the egyptians didn't know who he was the americans did know who he was the russians didn't know who he was. he was a complete unknown factor. the coup plotters may or may not have been pro- egyptian. people on the streets and iraq demonstrated immediately that their sympathies were with him you see this pictures in july 14 with the streets holding up pictures, the tanks that overthrew the government and pictures had all over them which was not a big stretch to come to the conclusion this was in fact an injection sponsored coup. the lebanese at that point were also in the midst of a

civil war. this gentleman was the prime minister i'm sorry he was the president of lebanon in the 1950s. lebanon then and today is a highly sectarian government. his base that christians are the majority of the people even by 1958 that was no longer true. that was the government that was imposed on lebanon by the french or the colonial masters of the 20s and 30s. the president had to be a christian, the prime minister mostly him and the speaker initiate muslim. the president only serves one term. in 1958 was obviously seeking a second term, everybody knew it. that resulted in the civil war it was messier than that actually the patriarch of the church which is the dominant christian church and lebanon

supported the muslim rebel so there very confused situation and intricacies of this are far more than most americans, even most americans within a knowledge of the middle east wanted to get into. on the afternoon of the 14th of july eisenhower convened his national security council. and he turned to the director of central and intelligence allen dulles to give an appraisal of the situation. remember, the eisenhower administration we had unusual seen that the secretary of the state, was the brother of the director of intelligence. something like that has never happened again in american history. allen dulles presented the most bleak picture you could possibly imagine.

he said that coup and iraq was egyptian inspired it would lead to the overthrow of the lebanese government, the jordanian government and very quickly in time sooner than later to overthrew saudi arabia, kuwait and the gulf states. the entire region would fall into the hands within a matter of days unless america did something. his brother, john foster dulles said if it falls to not sir, that means it falls to international communism. and the middle east in the world's oil supplies will be in the hands of the soviet union. all of this was a baloney. first of all, it was not at all clear that coup and iraq was egyptian inspired. and while he did take arms of the soviet union was not exactly the client of the soviet union.

eisenhower panicked and short. very interesting to read his memoirs. in his memoirs he said he felt he had to do something. now eisenhower, the hero of d-day, may be the greatest american general of the 20th century was smart enough to realize, unlike some of his successors that with iraq is really, really hard thing to do. but invading lebanon is really, really easy to do. because the united states has a large fleet in the eastern mediterranean. when this 2000 marines went ashore on july 15 were backed up by 70 ships including three carrier battle groups. it was that goliath and a midget battlefield.

by invading lebanon, they were going to the defense, the united states was doing something to prevent it from sweeping the region. his very popular in lebanon. when he first went to syria after the murder of merger of the two countries in 1,958,350,000 lebanese came to damascus to hear him speak. this is a country who had little lesson one at a half-million people. that's an awful lot of people to get in their cars, trucks, buses and go to another country to hear speech. the civil war that broke out in the spring of 1958, pitted the muslims with some christians, that united arab republic, syrian government supported the rebels and lebanon, provided them with arms and assistance. that was undisputed.

shimon asked repeatedly for the united states intervene on his behalf. until the 14th of july, 1958, eisenhower did not. of the 14th he finally agreed and the marines followed. not sir, for his part, was in yugoslavia at the time. he flew to moscow which the cia discovered quickly which reinforced the paranoia that he was really in the hands of the russians. the russians and egyptians agreed the really important events in the middle east in july 1958 was not what was going on in beirut, it was a sideshow. the important issues what was going on in baghdad and they decided to let events play themselves out while they frantically tried to find out who was running the new government in baghdad.

the situation on the ground in beirut was extremely dicey on the 15th and 16th. the lebanese army which is mostly christian officers, mostly muslim troops regarded the intervention as an invasion, a violation of their sovereignty. they were prepared to fight back. the american ambassador on the scene, robert mcclintock would advise eisenhower not to send the troops, over and over again. including on the 14th. he came up with a brilliant solution for it he went to the commander of the lebanese army, a christian and said why don't we pretend that you have invited the americans to come in to help stabilize the situation. and that the americans are not here as an intervention, but they are here as the guest of

the lebanese army as their host. he went along with this fiction. for the remainder of the americans deployment in beirut, technically the marines are being escorted from place to place by patrols of the lebanese army. it was fiction, but it avoided a showdown. mcclintock also got the assistance of the undersecretar undersecretary, was number three in the state department was sent out by eisenhower with instructions to tell mcclintock to get on the program. program is to support shimon. he said this is stupid. i am going to support the ambassador's efforts to try to defuse the conflict and together, under the secretary of state, robert murphy and

mcclintock began engaging with the various lebanese powers. this is not a particularly good picture of them. shimon is on the self on the far side. what they agreed is that he would be removed from office and the general would become the next president of lebanon. this was in fact what noss had wanted from the beginning. so in effect the american intervention in lebanon in 1958 accomplished what egypt wanted all along it was getting rid of shimon and replacing him. of the wisdom of mcclintock, mercy and above all eisenhower, they agreed in the end that this was a smart way out. one g.i. was killed in the intervention by sniper fire from the muslims.

but by october 25, 1958 the last american troops in the intervention had got home. the civil war was over and operation blue. [inaudible] , was a success story. in one case this is all about the eisenhower. eisenhower in his eight years in power avoided sending troops into combat. he got us out of the korean war, he did not intervene in the struggle between mainland communism and for most he generally avoided sending troops into combat. which is understandable. as a general, eisenhower never fought in combat himself. but he saw the results of combat, much more than most people did. he knew he wanted to avoid that. july 14, 1958 is the one time

in those eight years when he essentially panicked and decided to do something else. murphy went on to baghdad, he met with qassem, he realized he was at nationalist and did not want to be upon egypt or the soviet union he was mostly interested in running his own country. there are several things to learn from this episode. i will just focus on one. that middle east is very unpredictable place. anybody who tells you what's going to happen in the middle east tomorrow, does not know what they're talking about. all kinds of surprises come up all the time. and many of the time they are very, very unpleasant surprises for the united states of america. the lesson is, don't panic. let it play out, give it some time, see what happens. don't necessarily reach the worst conclusion overnight.

don't jump to the worst possible outcome. give it a little bit of time to play out. i have one more thing to say about all this before i take your questions. one of the reasons i wrote beirut 1958 is because i was there. i was five years old. that is me and the really cute cowboy outfit, that's my elder brother trying desperately to say i have no idea who this person is, i have no relationship to this person i never went to see this person in my life. my father was with the united nations, we had been posted to jerusalem when i was two years old. then we move to beirut in 1957. beirut in the 1950s was called the paris of the middle east and it literally was. it was the most open and fun place to live in the entire region.

they wrote his sated right on the mediterranean with the mountains of lebanon right behind it. you literally could go swimming in the morning and skiing in the afternoon, or the other way around. of course with the civil war began, it all went pretty sour quite in a hurry. in the end, my father stayed, my mother, brothers and i were evacuated to that really hard spot, naples, italy where we stayed with the american fleet until the civil war would wind down and then we went back in. that's my personal account of the story. with that i would happy to be take your questions or comments. [applause]

>> this is obviously a question with a complicated answer that you may not get their entirety here. why do you think the civil war resolved when their negotiations were the leaders in the 70s and 80s was much longer and much more bloodier? >> guest: that's a very good question. partly, it was you had a mediator in the united states who after an awkward beginning, to put it mildly, then shifted focus. mcclintock, in particular, had already established a great network of ties with the various lebanese, muslim, shiite leaders and was able to use that to his advantage and then negotiations. i think even more importantly, 1958 lebanon was not part of

the israeli conflicts. the palestinian movement that we know, plo, had not developed yet. the palestinians were just refugees in lebanon, they did not have a real political profile. once you got to the post- 1967 era, the palestinian community of lebanon had staked out its own position in the conflict was lebanon was a battlefield between the arabs and israelis bringing in the syrians, saudi's, everybody else. much, much more complicated to come up with a solution. >> i want to thank you for great presentation and all of you coming tonight we will do a signing appear as well. thank you guys. [applause] thank you. [applause]

this is me in my first situation. [inaudible] [laughter] there you go. [laughter] >> coming up tonight on c-span2, the communicators features a look at tv broadcasters and the coronavirus response. : : : television has changed since c-span began one years ago but our mission continues to provide unfiltered view of government. already this year we brought you primary election coverage,

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