Thesis Statement
In October, a Moslem suicide car-bomb attack on a U.S. marine barrack killed 241 Americans. Although Reagan had insisted that America would never "be intimidated by terrorists" to "cut and run" and that keeping marines in Lebanon was "central to our credibility on a global scale," he withdrew the U.S. marines in February 1984. He later wrote that he regretted sending marines into Lebanon more than any other act of his presidency. Israel evacuated most of Lebanon by June 1985, but continued to occupy a "security zone" in southern Lebanon.
Discussions
The genesis of U.S. ties with the Middle East may be traced to the dawn of the republic, but were characterized by a lack of political involvement in the region. These ties were primarily religious (through missionaries) and philanthropic (through people of goodwill). The period between 1941 and 1945 marked a watershed in the United States' Middle East diplomatic intereourse--a new phase that lasted until the first American military intervention took place in Lebanon in 1958. After World War II, U.S. national security interests remained uppermost in the minds of U.S. policymakers. Strategic goals such as military containment of Soviet interests in the Middle East, preservation of transportation and communication routes, securing a peaceful and stable atmosphere in the region following the creation of Israel, and the growing dependence of the Western world on Arab oil, constituted the main themes in Reagan policy in the region.
The transformation of U.S. diplomatic relationships progressed through different stages. During the inter-war years, American diplomats continued to acknowledge the supremacy of British and French influence in the region. After the war, however, the United States was more willing to accommodate the strong nationalist trends and to recognize that the imperial powers needed to change course.................
