# What was the US military doing in Lebanon in 1958?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-military-doing-in-lebanon-in-1958/1013984>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 7, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-military-doing-in-lebanon-in-1958/1013984 "2025-02-07T00:14:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-military-doing-in-lebanon-in-1958/1013984/1 "2025-02-07T00:14:30Z")

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I was talking to my uncle today, who was in the US Marines from 1956-1958. He said that toward the end of his enlistment his unit was packed and ready to deploy to Lebanon but it got called off at the last moment. What was going on?

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**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-military-doing-in-lebanon-in-1958/1013984/2 "2025-02-07T00:17:10Z")

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Operation Blue Bat,

> **[1958 Lebanon crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Lebanon_crisis#Operation_Blue_Bat)**
>
> Government
> Opposition
> The 1958 Lebanon crisis was a political crisis in Lebanon caused by political and religious tensions in the country that included an American military intervention, which lasted for around three months until President Camille Chamoun, who had requested the assistance, completed his term as president of Lebanon. American and Lebanese government forces occupied the Port of Beirut and Beirut International Airport. With the crisis over, the United States withdrew.
> After the...

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**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-military-doing-in-lebanon-in-1958/1013984/3 "2025-02-07T03:26:01Z")

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Famously, the somewhat overeager-for-practice U.S. forces in Blue Bat decided to re-enact D-Day on a Lebanese beach, only to find that no one in Lebanon was aware that they were in a crisis. The fully laden Marines emerging from the ocean had to pick their way through sunbathers and volleyball players as vendors kept wheeling hot dog carts up to them trying to make sales.

Simply landing a few planes of troops in Beirut and making it known that there were soldiers there would have been more than enough to stave off what turned to be very minor threats of unrest (at the time…).