When Lebanon tried to hold a presidential election in 1958, the tiny country exploded in civil war. More than a thousand Lebanese were slain, the Soviet Union rattled its rockets, and 14,000 U.S. marines landed to ward off a threatened Communist or Nasserite takeover. Yet last week, when the Lebanese tried another election, the event was as quiet and disciplined as a New England town meeting. After a vote in parliament, President Fuad Chehab peacefully surrendered his office to President-elect Charles Helou. Since Helou means "sweet" in Arabic, newspapers headlined that...
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