One dawn last week one of the world's largest aircraft carriers, the U.S.S. Forrestal, her vast grey bulk towering out of the blue Levantine waters, steamed slowly into Beirut harbor. Hours later a party of Lebanese dignitaries headed by President Camille Chamoun climbed aboard, and the carrier headed back to sea for a demonstration of its capabilities. Among them: tight formations of dive bombers and jet fighters screaming over Beirut's rooftops, lifting away over the snowcapped mountains to the east and fanning out through the Bekaa valley between Lebanon and Syria.
By purest...
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