And the situation is well in hand as the P.L.O. 's exodus proceeds apace
The ships were just offshore, riding at anchor, gray silhouettes of power in a classic setting of blue sky, bright sunshine and white clouds. At daybreak on Wednesday morning last week, precisely on time, 800 U.S. Marines landed at Beirut Port. Their mission: to assist, with 800 French and 500 Italian troops, in the task of evacuating 7,000 Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas from the Lebanese capital. After the Marines landed, they soon had the situation well in hand. Said White House Spokesman Larry Speakes the next morning: "Everything is going according to plan."
Speakes was referring not only to the arrival of the American forces but to the whole elaborate process of removing the P.L.O. fighters from Beirut. By Saturday at least 6,000 of the Palestinians had been evacuated by sea or land to other Arab countries, and the rest of them were expected to leave by the end of this week.
The Lebanese crisis was by no means over. The country still contained an estimated 60,000 Israeli soldiers and perhaps half as many Syrian troops, and the two armies might yet wage a full-scale war with each other on Lebanese soil. Last week, in fact, sporadic fighting broke out between the Syrians and both the Israelis and the Christian Phalange forces, which are closely aligned with the Israelis. The Lebanese Parliament had elected a new national president, the leader of the Christian Phalangist forces, Bashir Gemayel, who was despised by many Lebanese Muslims as an "Israeli stooge." But the Israeli siege of West Beirut was over, and the domination of Lebanon by the P.L.O. was at an end.
The Marines who disembarked in Beirut quickly took over the port area from the French units that had been there since the previous Saturday. First ashore was the flag-bearer, Lance Corporal James Dunaway, of Hattiesburg, Miss., followed by 200 men of Company E of the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit. A Marine emblem pinned to his shirt, U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib, who had negotiated the agreement between Israel and the P.L.O. that led to the Palestinians' withdrawal, stepped forward to greet Marine Colonel James Mead, commander of the volunteer force.
Mead's men were armed with M-16 rifles, M-60 machine guns, mortars, antitank rockets and antitank missiles. But Mead, 47, a strapping 6-ft. 6-in. Bostonian, assured reporters that he was "not anticipating any use of weapons, because we are here as peace keepers." He added, "Obviously, we'll use whatever we have in the unlikely event that we must defend ourselves. I must defend myself and my men." Mead was also greeted by Colonel Souhail Darghouth, commander of the Lebanese army units in the port area. "Ahlan wa sahlan, "said the Lebanese colonel. Habib, who has known a smattering of Arabic since his childhood, told Mead, "It means you are welcome here."