Fuad Chehab (name also spelt
Fouad Shihab, or
Chehab, depending on transliteration from the original Arabic, (March 19, 1902 - April 25, 1973) was the
President of the
Lebanese RepublicLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
from 1958 to 1964.
Born in 1902 to the
Chehab familyThe "Shihabs", or "Chehabs" are a prominent Lebanese noble family. The Chehabs were the traditional princes of the Wadi al-Taym, who traced their lineage to the ancient Quraysh tribe from Mecca. The Chehabs descended from the Maans through the female line. However, unlike the Maans who were Druze,...
, a
MaroniteMaronites are members of one of the Lebanese or Syriac Eastern Catholic Churches, with a heritage reaching back to Maron the Syriac Monk in the early 5th century. The first Maronite Patriarch, John Maron, was elected in the late 7th century...
Christian family of noble ancestry, General Fouad Chehab became commander of the
Lebanese Armed ForcesThe Lebanese Armed Forces is the military of the Republic of Lebanon. It consists of three army branches, an air force and a navy. The motto of the Lebanese Armed Forces is "Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty"...
in 1945, after Lebanon gained its independence and upon the end of the
FrenchThe French Mandate of Lebanon was a League of Nations Mandate created at the end of World War I. When the Ottoman Empire was formally split up by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, it was decided that four of its territories in the Middle East should be League of Nations mandates temporarily governed by...
mandate and military presence.
In 1952, Chehab refused to let the army interfere in the uprising which forced President
Bechara El KhouryBechara El Khoury was the first post-independence President of Lebanon, holding office from 21 September 1943 to 18 September 1952, apart from an 11-day interruption in 1943...
to resign.
Fuad Chehab (name also spelt
Fouad Shihab, or
Chehab, depending on transliteration from the original Arabic, (March 19, 1902 - April 25, 1973) was the
President of the
Lebanese RepublicLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
from 1958 to 1964.
Early career
Born in 1902 to the
Chehab familyThe "Shihabs", or "Chehabs" are a prominent Lebanese noble family. The Chehabs were the traditional princes of the Wadi al-Taym, who traced their lineage to the ancient Quraysh tribe from Mecca. The Chehabs descended from the Maans through the female line. However, unlike the Maans who were Druze,...
, a
MaroniteMaronites are members of one of the Lebanese or Syriac Eastern Catholic Churches, with a heritage reaching back to Maron the Syriac Monk in the early 5th century. The first Maronite Patriarch, John Maron, was elected in the late 7th century...
Christian family of noble ancestry, General Fouad Chehab became commander of the
Lebanese Armed ForcesThe Lebanese Armed Forces is the military of the Republic of Lebanon. It consists of three army branches, an air force and a navy. The motto of the Lebanese Armed Forces is "Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty"...
in 1945, after Lebanon gained its independence and upon the end of the
FrenchThe French Mandate of Lebanon was a League of Nations Mandate created at the end of World War I. When the Ottoman Empire was formally split up by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, it was decided that four of its territories in the Middle East should be League of Nations mandates temporarily governed by...
mandate and military presence.
In 1952, Chehab refused to let the army interfere in the uprising which forced President
Bechara El KhouryBechara El Khoury was the first post-independence President of Lebanon, holding office from 21 September 1943 to 18 September 1952, apart from an 11-day interruption in 1943...
to resign. After the resignation Chehab was appointed Prime Minister with the duty to ensure an emergency democratic presidential election. Four days later,
Camille ChamounCamille Nimr Chamoun was President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958, and one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War ....
was elected to succeed El Khoury.
The
gerrymanderingGerrymandering is a form of boundary delimitation in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral purposes, thereby producing a contorted or unusual shape...
and alleged electoral frauds of the 1957 parliamentary
electionElections in Lebanon gives information on election and election results in Lebanon.- Parliamentary electoral system :Lebanon's national legislature is called the Assembly of Representatives...
, followed by the dismissal of several pro-
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
ministers, sparked a violent
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
revolt. It came to be known as the
Lebanon CrisisThe 1958 Lebanon crisis was a Lebanese political crisis caused by political and religious tensions in the country. It included a U.S. military intervention, leading to the easing of tensions.-Background:...
of 1958, with the tensions that would result in the long civil war 17 years later (1975-1991) already exposed. Like in 1952, Chehab, still commander of the army, refused to allow the military to interfere. He thus prevented both the opposition and the government partisans from taking places of strategic importance, such as airports and government buildings.
Presidency
To quell the uprising, President Chamoun, had requested
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
intervention, and
MarinesThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
duly landed in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
. Widely trusted by the Muslims for his impartiality and now supported by the Americans, Chehab was chosen as the consensus candidate to succeed Chamoun as President and bring back peace to the country. On taking office, Chehab declared, "The revolution has no winners and no losers". He followed the path of moderation and cooperated closely with the different religious groups and with both secular and religious forces, managing to cool down all the tensions and bring back stability to the country.
In 1960, two years into his 6-year presidential mandate, seeing that the country had been stabilized and having paved the way for reforms, Chehab offered to resign. However, he was persuaded by the members of the Lebanese parliament to remain in office for the rest of his mandate. In 1961, he suppressed an attempted coup by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and to hinder such future threats, he strengthened the Lebanese intelligence and security services preventing any foreign interference in internal affairs.
Chehab’s rule was a delicate balancing act to maintain harmony between the nation's
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
and
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
population. He followed the path and principles of dialogue and moderation, coupled with public reforms which came to be known as
Chehabism. Generally deeply respected for his honesty and integrity, Chehab is credited with a number of reform plans and regulations to create a modern administration and efficient public services. This eventually brought him into conflict with the traditional feudal, confessional, and clan based politicians who saw their grip on power diminish.
In 1964, Chehab, whose presence at the head of the country was still seen by many as the best option for stability and future reforms, refused to allow the
ConstitutionThe Constitution of Lebanon was adopted on 23 May, 1926.The most recent amendment of the Constitution was for the Charter of Lebanese National Reconciliation , in October, 1989....
to be amended to permit him to run for another presidential term. He backed the candidacy of
Charles HelouCharles Helou was President of Lebanon from 1964 to 1970.Born in Beirut, Helou was the scion of a powerful Maronite family from Baabda. He graduated with honours from St. Joseph's University in Beirut in 1929, and went on to complete a Law degree in 1934...
who became the next president. Chehab later became dissatisfied with Helou's presidency over the perceived mishandling of the armed presence of
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
guerrillas in Southern Lebanon and over Helou's maneuvers to pave the way for the traditional feudal politicians to regain power.
Chehab was widely expected to contest the presidential election of 1970, but in a historical declaration he said that his experience in office convinced him that the people of his country were not ready to put aside feudal traditional politics and support him in building a modern state. He chose to endorse his protégé
Elias SarkisElias Sarkis was the President of the Lebanese Republic from 1976 to 1982.-Early career:Born in Shabbaniah, Sarkis graduated with a Law degree from Saint Joseph University in 1948. After joining the judicial corps in 1953, he became a judge with the Accounting Department...
instead. In the closest vote in Lebanese history, Sarkis lost the election to the feudal leader
Suleiman FrangiehSuleiman Kabalan Frangieh, last name also spelled Frangié, Franjieh, or Franjiyeh, , was President of Lebanon from 1970 to 1976...
by a single vote in the National Assembly. The election was regarded as a defeat for the old statesman and marked the end of the
Chehabist reforms and era.
The first months of the Frangieh mandate saw the dismantling of the country’s intelligence and security services built by Chehab. They were feared and accused of still having a strong hold on political life. But this allowed rapidly multiple foreign interferences in the internal affairs of the country, soon manifesting as a Palestinian militarily presence in 1973 and the start of civil war in 1975. Fouad Chehab died in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
in April 1973 at the age of 71.
Succession
In 1976, Elias Sarkis, the
Chehabist heir, was unanimously elected as President of the country in a hope to stop the civil war that had erupted and to reunite the nation. But such an attempt was too late as the Palestinian, Syrian, Israeli and other international direct interferences had by then taken full control of the political and security powers in the country. Without the support of domestic strong security services, Sarkis failed to create any impact or succeed in any of his initiatives.