Fouad Chehab

He was a member of the Maronite Christian family of Chehab, a Dynasty which ruled Mount Lebanon under Ottoman rule until the establishment of the Mutasarrifate in 1842.

His great-grandfather, Hassan Chehab, was the eldest brother of Bashir Shihab II, who ruled Lebanon for 40 years.

Fouad Abdallah Chehab (فُؤاد عبد الله شِهاب / ; 19 March 1902 – 25 April 1973) was a Lebanese general and statesman who served as President of Lebanon from 1958 to 1964.

Born in 1902, Chehab was the eldest son of Abdallah Chehab and Badiaa Hbeich, and had two younger brothers, Farid and Chakib.

Chehab's father Abdallah tried to immigrate to the United States in 1910, but the family never heard from him again.

He was last seen in Marseille and it has been speculated that he died while on a ship transporting him there.

Born in Ghazir to a family that traced its origins to nobility, Chehab joined the French Army in 1919.

He was appointed Prime Minister of Lebanon by the outgoing president Bechara El Khoury, who resigned due to widespread demonstrations against his administration, and tasked Chehab with the role of organizing the next presidential election, in which Camille Chamoun was elected.

In 1921, Chehab joined the French Military School in Damascus, Syria, and graduated as a lieutenant in 1923.

He was promoted to Captain in 1929, and headed the Rashaya casern.

He later studied at the École Supérieure de Guerre in Paris, France, during the 1930s.

Chehab became Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in 1945, at which time Lebanon gained its independence upon the end of the French mandate and military presence.

He is considered to be the founder of the Lebanese Army after Lebanon gained independence from France, and became its first commander in 1946.

In 1952, Chehab refused to allow the army to interfere in the uprising that forced Lebanese President Bechara El Khoury to resign.

Chehab became the Prime Minister of Lebanon in September 1952, and hold the additional portfolio of defense minister.

Chehab was then appointed president with the duty to ensure an emergency democratic presidential election.

Four days later, Camille Chamoun was elected to succeed El Khoury.

Like in 1952, Chehab, who remained commander of the army, refused to allow the military to interfere.

He thus prevented supporters of both the opposition and the government from assuming positions of strategic importance, such as airports and government buildings.

To quell the uprising, Chamoun, with the help of his assistant Tanner Wilhelm Hale, requested American intervention, and US Marines soon landed in Beirut.

Widely trusted by the Muslims for his impartiality and now supported by the Americans, Chehab was chosen as the consensus candidate to succeed Chamoun as president to restore peace to the country.

On taking office, Chehab declared, "The revolution has no winners and no losers".

Following a path of moderation and co-operating closely with the various religious groups, and with both secular and religious forces, Chehab was able to cool tensions and bring stability back to the nation.

Chehab was again defense minister from 1956 to 1957.

The gerrymandering and the alleged electoral fraud of the 1957 parliamentary election, followed by the dismissal of several pro-Arab ministers, sparked a violent Muslim revolt that came to be known as the Lebanon crisis of 1958.

During the 1958 Lebanon crisis between Chamoun and Muslim leaders, he prevented the army from siding with the government or the opposition, and refused any request to do so.

This decision helped keep the army unified and limited losses.

He was elected President of Lebanon in the 1958 election, being considered a "consensus option" both internationally and locally, and succeeded Chamoun.

As President, Chehab is credited for introducing reforms and social development projects and building modern state institutions.

However, his rule was described as autocratic, and saw an increase in the role of military and intelligence in politics.

His political approaches, known as "Chehabism" influenced later presidents Charles Helou and Élias Serkis.

In 1960, two years into his six-year presidential mandate, seeing that the country had been stabilised and having paved the way for reforms, Chehab offered to resign.

However, he was persuaded by members of the Lebanese Parliament to remain in office for the rest of his mandate.

In 1961, he suppressed an attempted coup by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which had been infuriated over his associations with the Nasser regime.

To hinder such future threats, he strengthened the Lebanese intelligence and security services to prevent any further foreign interference in Lebanese internal affairs.

Chehab's rule was a delicate balancing act of maintaining relative harmony between the nation's Christian and Muslim populations.

He followed the path and principles of dialogue and moderation coupled with public reforms, which came to be known as Chehabism.

Generally deeply respected for his honesty and integrity, Chehab is credited with a number of reform plans and regulations to create a modern administration and efficient public services.

He died in 1973, two years before the civil war.

The tensions that were exposed would result in a civil war 17 years later (1975–1991).