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23-570: The Lebanese Front was presided by the former president of Lebanon, Camille Chamoun , and its main participants were Pierre Gemayel , the founder and leader of the then-largest political party in Lebanon, the Kataeb Party , president Suleiman Frangieh , who had just finished his presidential years in office. It also included first class intellectuals, such as distinguished professor of philosophy and eminent diplomat Charles Malik who had been president of

46-596: A cabinet minister during Chamoun's term. Facing unrest in the country, with its epicentre in Sidon at the start of the protests, Chamoun eventually appealed to the United States for help under the new Eisenhower Doctrine , and American Marines landed in Beirut. Moreover, Naim Moghabghab , a close friend and political ally, formed and led a military group to reinforce Chamoun's position. Many battles occurred, mainly in Beirut and in

69-631: A short period only. Dany Chamoun , son of deceased Camille Chamoun, formed a new Lebanese Front, but a week after the end of the Lebanese Civil War in October 1990, Dany was assassinated and the Lebanese Front came to an end. Camille Chamoun Camille Nimr Chamoun OM , ONC ( Arabic : كميل نمر شمعون , romanized :  Kamīl Nimr Shamʿūn , pronounced [kaˈmiːl ʃamˈʕuːn] ; 3 April 1900 – 7 August 1987)

92-632: A significant role in allowing Chamoun to finish his term normally and Chehab to be elected according to the constitutional procedures. On his retirement from the presidency, Chamoun founded the National Liberal Party ( al-Ahrar ). As its leader, Chamoun was elected to the National Assembly again in 1960, much to the consternation of Chehab. He was defeated in 1964 because of changes to the boundaries of his electoral district, which he and his supporters protested as deliberate gerrymandering . He

115-566: Is Syria. They sound like Assad is the latest incarnation of the Crusaders ." Though initially aligned with Syria and inviting the Syrian Army to intervene against the leftist Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its Palestinian allies in 1976, Chamoun later gravitated towards opposition to the Syrians' presence. On 12 March 1980, In Dora, Mount Lebanon , a remote-controlled bomb exploded near

138-514: Is remembered as one of the main Christian nationalist leaders and one of the last significant figures of Lebanon's prewar generation of politicians whose political influence was eclipsed during the war by that of younger militia commanders. List of Prime Ministers of Lebanon This is a list of prime ministers of Lebanon (officially known as President of the Council of Ministers ) since

161-519: The Kataeb Party , became known as the Lebanese Forces (LF). Chamoun was chairman of the Lebanese Front from 1976 to 1978. He was defense minister in the cabinet of Rashid Karami in 1976. In a 1976 diplomatic cable from Beirut, special US envoy L. Dean Brown stated, "If I got nothing else from my meeting with Frangie , Chamoun and Gemayel , it is their clear, unequivocal and unmistakable belief that their principal hope for saving Christian necks

184-598: The United Nations General Assembly in 1958, and Fouad Frem al-Boustani, the president of the Lebanese University . The front also included religious figures such as Father Charbel Qassis, who was later replaced by Father Bulus Naaman the "head of the permanent congress of the Lebanese monastic orders". For a brief while the poet Said Aql was a member. As soon as the war erupted in Lebanon, and before

207-599: The 1970s and 1980s, Chamoun served in a variety of portfolios in the cabinet, including interior minister. That was during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), in which Chamoun and his party participated through the party's militia, the Tigers (in Arabic, nimr means tiger ). In the early stages of the war, he helped found the Lebanese Front , a coalition of mostly-Christian politicians and parties, whose united militia, dominated by

230-546: The Chouf district, where clashes between Naim Moghabghab and Kamal Jumblatt 's men led to bloody fights. The revolt was squashed, but to appease Muslim anger, General Fuad Chehab , who claimed to be a Christian enjoying considerable popularity in the Muslim community, was elected to succeed Chamoun. The American diplomat Robert D. Murphy , who had been sent to Lebanon as personal representative of US President Dwight Eisenhower , played

253-520: The Christian factions of the war. A Christian group called "the Vanguard of Arab Christians" was named as responsible for the attack. Another assassination attempt occurred again on 7 January 1987 which killed 6 people and wounded 40 others when 165 pounds of explosives was detonated as Chamoun passed through East Beirut in the morning. In 1930 he married Zelpha (or Zalfa) Tabet with whom he had two sons, Dany and Dory , both of whom became politicians in

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276-681: The Front. In 1982, the Lebanese Front promoted Bachir Gemayel for the presidency. He was elected as president by the Lebanese parliament by 58 out of 62 votes from both Christians and Muslims, only to be assassinated three weeks later. During the second half of the 1980s, most of the prominent leaders of the Lebanese Front died (Pierre Gemayel in 1984, both Chamoun and Charles Malik in 1987) and were replaced by other leaders like George Saadeh , Amin Gemayel and Karim Pakradouni . The Lebanese Front then lived for

299-404: The Lebanese Front was formed, many of the future leaders of the Lebanese Front organized their political parties into militias, most notably Camille Chamoun's National Liberal Party , Pierre Gemayel's influential longstanding Kataeb Party, and Suleiman Frangieh's Marada Brigade . The number of men totalled around 18,000, which was a relatively large number given that the total population of Lebanon

322-711: The Lebanese Independence Day. Chamoun was re-elected to parliament, which was then called the National Assembly , in 1947 and 1951. He was frequently absent, however, as he served as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1944 to 1946 and as ambassador to the United Nations thereafter. He was the minister of finance from December 1946 to June 1947. When President Bechara El Khoury was forced to resign because of corruption allegations in 1952, Chamoun

345-539: The NLP. Dany, his wife and two sons were all shot dead in their Beirut apartment on 21 October 1990. In 1984 Chamoun agreed to join the National Unity government as deputy prime minister, which he held until his death on 7 August 1987, at the age of 87. He died of a heart attack at Saint George's Hospital in Beirut. He spent his last months mostly in the care of his protégée Aida Yahchouchi and her husband, Joseph Wehbe. He

368-475: The car of Camille Chamoun. One bodyguard was killed while Chamoun, his driver, another bodyguard and a passerby suffered minor injuries. In 1980, the NLP's Tigers militia was virtually destroyed by a surprise attack from Chamoun's Christian rival, Bachir Gemayel . After Israel's invasion of Lebanon , Chamoun decided to enter a tactical cooperation with Israel to oppose the Syrian occupation in Lebanon. Gemayel

391-546: The constitution. The mood may have been itself indicative of the fact that nine prime ministers formed cabinets under the six years of Chamoun's presidency since Sunni politicians were not always able to justify their association with his politics to their constituencies and popular power base. That fact was evident in the pressures that faced the El-Bizri political base in Sidon , and the longstanding parliamentarian Nazih El-Bizri served as

414-469: Was a Lebanese politician who served as the 2nd president of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. He was one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War . Camille Nimr Chamoun was born at Deir al-Qamar on 3 April 1900 into a prominent Maronite family. He received a law degree from Saint Joseph University . Chamoun was first elected to the Lebanese parliament in 1934, and

437-723: Was elected to replace him. During Chamoun's presidency, Lebanon experienced an economic boom, in particular in the construction, banking and tourism sectors. He implemented a 1954 law on the creation of joint-stock companies and a 1956 law on banking secrecy. According to Fawwaz Traboulsi, Chamoun concentrated power into his hands, blurring the limits of democracy and autocracy. Near the end of his term, Pan-Arabists and other groups backed by Gamal Abdel Nasser , with considerable support in Lebanon's Muslim (particularly Sunni ) community attempted to overthrow Chamoun's government in June 1958 after Chamoun tried to seek another term as president against

460-498: Was elected to the presidency in August 1982, but was assassinated before taking office. Chamoun announced his candidacy, but withdrew one day before the election, after the United States endorsed Amine Gemayel. In 1985, 5 people were killed and 23 injured in a suicide attack during a meeting between Christian parties in the St. Georges Monastery in Beirut which was aimed at the five main leaders of

483-497: Was less than three million. However, the relations among the participants became tense mainly due to Frangieh's pro-Syrian approach. In addition, in 1978, Suleiman Frangieh's son Tony and his family were killed by armed Kataeb militiamen trying to kidnap him acting on orders from Bashir Gemayel , the son of Pierre Gemayel. The incident is known as the Ehden massacre . It was this turning point that prompted Suleiman Frangieh to resign from

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506-474: Was re-elected to the National Assembly, however, in 1968, and again in 1972, Lebanon's last parliamentary election in his lifetime. After the election of 1968, the National Liberal Party held 11 seats out of 99, becoming the largest single party in the notoriously fractured National Assembly. It was the only political party to elect representatives from all of Lebanon's major religious confessions. In

529-435: Was reelected in 1937 and 1943. A champion of independence from France, he was arrested on 11 November 1943 and was imprisoned in the castle of Rashayya , where he was held for eleven days, along with Bishara el-Khoury and Riad Al Solh , who were to become the first president and prime minister , respectively, of the new republic. Massive public protests led to their release on 22 November, which has since been celebrated as

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