Lanky, affable Career Diplomat Robert Murphy is an old hand at applying diplomacy in the shadow of military force. An ace troubleshooter in France and North Africa during World War II, and later in the Trieste, Korea and Suez crises, Murphy last week moved unobtrusively about Beirut on his assignment as President Eisenhower's personal representative for negotiating a speedy political compromise among the little country's warring factions.
Favored by the pause in the fighting brought about by the marines' arrival, he called on a score or so of Lebanese leaders in both camps. He went into the hills to see Kamal Jumblatt, the Druse rebel chieftain. He talked with the elusive General Fuad Shehab, whose unwillingness to fight the rebels has avoided a civil war—but prolonged the chaos. He regularly saw President Camille Chamoun, who now seemed willing at last to help to find a successor agreeable to the most reasonable of his opponents.
Murphy listened attentively, acting the role of a friendly observer ready to help, but always making clear that the U.S. hopes urgently for a peaceful internal settlement of Lebanon's crisis. The July 24 parliamentary deadline passed for choosing a new President to succeed Chamoun, whose six-year term expires in September. Nonetheless, the Speaker's postponement of elections until July 31 gave promise that a solution might be found.
But despite the landing of foreign troops, despite perhaps as many as 2,000 killed since May, despite an economic depression brought on by the strife, Lebanese politicians were still loath to put aside their petty ambitions and prejudices for the settlement that the vast bulk of their countrymen wanted. At week's end Premier Saeb Salam, self-styled "leader of Beirut rebels," who keeps a sign on his sandbagged command post, "Appointments 9 to 1 and 4 to 7," announced that the elections ought not to be held as long as Chamoun remained President, and "aggressor" troops remained on Lebanese soil. But other rebels disavowed his remarks.
Presumably Murphy might yet promise withdrawal of U.S. forces at a given future date if all sides get together, name a candidate, call off the three-month strike, and let the country return to normal. Against that day, which President Eisenhower again promised last week "just as soon as the U.N. can act effectively to ensure the independence and integrity" of Lebanon, Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold expanded his Observers Group to 200 and laid plans to increase the number of border watchers to at least 1,000. Said Murphy: "We are making progress. I think there is a good possibility that a President will be elected this coming Thursday."