The Arab defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War had shattered the peace in Lebanon. After the war, Palestinian refugees fled the West Bank of Jordan and settled in camps in southern Lebanon. From these camps, radical Palestinian guerrillas—chiefly sponsored by Syria—raided northern Israel. In 1968 Israel began a policy of instant retaliation against countries sheltering Palestinian guerrillas. Israel began attacking villages and refugee camps in southern Lebanon and Syria that it suspected of harboring Palestinian guerrillas.
By 1969 Palestinian guerrillas had created a state within a state and become a separate political and military force in Lebanese politics. In May, 1973, renewed fighting broke out between the PLO and the Lebanese army. The Palestinians armed themselves and their leftist Muslim allies with help from Syria, Iraq, and Libya. The Lebanese Christians, afraid that Muslims would take over the country, armed their own militias in defense.
Armed clashes in Lebanon in 1974 and 1975 led to a full civil war. Although it is somewhat a simplification, the conflict was primarily between the Lebanese Front, composed mainly of Maronite Christians, and the Muslim Lebanese National Movement with its Palestinian allies. The civil war posed a threat to Syrian interests, for Syria wished to defend the unity of Lebanon. Communal and religious strife in Lebanon could produce similar conflicts in Syria itself.
Either outcome of the civil war would be disastrous for Syria. If the Maronites were victorious or suffered a limited defeat and set up a tiny state, it would be an anti-Arab, pro-Israeli Christian state. If the National Movement and Palestinians were victorious, Lebanon would become a radical Muslim state that would likely provoke an Israeli invasion and takeover of southern Lebanon. An Israeli presence in Lebanon would threaten southern Syria and its defenses on the Golan front. An Israeli-Syrian war would be likely.
Because Syria saw itself as the strongest Arab supporter of the Palestinians, it initially backed the National Movement and Palestinian alliance. In January, 1976, after a number of Maronite victories, Syria sent Palestinian troops into Lebanon to aid the Muslims. In March, 1976, the Lebanese army began to disintegrate as officers and soldiers mutinied and joined up with Christian or National Movement forces.
The army breakup was a result of its leaders' support of the Maronites and the unwillingness of Muslim soldiers to attack their own communities. With the disintegration of the army, the one institution that could have prevented total anarchy and civil war was gone.
When a March, 1976, cease-fire broke down, Syria became desperate and tried unsuccessfully to get a government of national reconciliation formed. To prevent either side from winning the civil war, in June, 1976, Asad sent Syrian troops into Lebanon against the Palestinian-National Movement alliance. Syria's goals were to prevent the PLO from emerging as a regional power or independent state, to put Lebanon under Syrian protection and dominance, to use Lebanon as a means of confronting Israel, and to strengthen Syria's leadership role in the Arab world.
World History
