A Farewell to Arms

One day last week, the final 80 U.S. combat troops were helicoptered out of Beirut. They had stayed there to protect the U.S. diplomatic mission after President Reagan ordered the withdrawal of the 1,800-man U.S. peace-keeping force. A week earlier, the U.S. had opened a new embassy along the waterfront in West Beirut, more than a mile from the previous embassy site. But no fanfare attended either event. Since U.S. servicemen first arrived in Lebanon almost two years ago, 265 of them have lost their lives in a cause they could never quite explain. In addition, 17 Americans died when a car bomb shattered the old U.S. embassy in April 1983.

American diplomats will commute to the new embassy from a five-story annex in East Beirut, where Christian militias maintain a modicum of security. Fifteen Marines will guard both the new embassy and the annex, but they will stay off the street and out of sight. Those precautions are prudent. Just two days before the American Marines left, a furious gun battle broke out between rival Lebanese militiamen in West Beirut. One of the two people killed was a man trying to rescue the wounded.