Fouad Chehab

Fouad Chehab
Fouad Chehab
فؤاد شهاب
	Chehab in 1961
3th President of Lebanon
	In office; 23 September 1958 – 22 September 1964
Prime Minister	Khalil al-Hibri; Rashid Karami; Ahmad Daouk; Saeb Salam; Hussein Al Oweini
Preceded by	Camille Chamoun
Succeeded by	Charles Helou
	In office; 18 September 1952 – 22 September 1952 ; Acting
Prime Minister	Himself (Acting)
Preceded by	Bechara El Khoury
Succeeded by	Camille Chamoun
Acting Prime Minister of Lebanon
	In office; 18 September 1952 – 1 October 1952
President	Bechara El Khoury; Himself (Acting); Camille Chamoun
Preceded by	Saeb Salam
Succeeded by	Khaled Chehab
1th Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces
	In office; 1 Agustus 1945 – 22 September 1958
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Toufic Salem
Personal details
Born	19 March 1902; Ghazir, Keserwan District, Ottoman Empire
Died	25 April 1973 (aged 71); Jounieh, Lebanon
Political party	Independent
Spouse	Rose René Poitieux (m. 1926)
Profession	Military officer, politician
Awards	OM, ONC
Religion	Maronite Christianity
Military service
Allegiance	Lebanon
Branch/service	French Army Free French Forces in the Levant; ; Lebanese Army;
Years of service	1923–1946 (France); 1946–1958 (Lebanon)
Rank	Brigadier General (France); Major General (Lebanon)
Battles/wars	Second World War; 1948 Arab–Israeli War Battle of Malkia; ; 1958 Lebanon crisis;

Fouad Abdallah Chehab (Arabic: فُؤاد عبد الله شِهاب / ALA-LC: Fuʼād ʻAbd Allāh Shihāb; 19 March 1902 – 25 April 1973) was a Lebanese general and statesman who served as president of Lebanon from 1958 to 1964. He is considered to be the founder of the Lebanese Army after Lebanon gained independence from France, and became its first commander in 1946.^[1]

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.

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.^[2] 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. He died in 1973, two years before the civil war.

Early life

Born in 1902,^[3] Chehab was the eldest son of Abdallah Chehab and Badiaa Hbeich, and had two younger brothers, Farid and Chakib. 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

Military career (1921–1958)

French Army (1921–1946)

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.^[6]

Commander of the Lebanese Army (1946–1958)

Chehab became Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in 1945,^[3] at which time Lebanon gained its independence upon the end of the French mandate.

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.^[7] 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. Chehab was again defense minister from 1956 to 1957.

The gerrymandering and the electoral fraud of the 1957 parliamentary election, followed by the dismissal of several pro "pan-Arab" ministers, sparked a pan-Arab Muslim revolt which progressed to the 1958 crisis.

Presidency (1958–1964)

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.

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. On the New Year of 1962, 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.^[8]

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. That eventually brought him into conflict with the traditional feudal, confessional, and clan-based politicians, who saw their grip on power diminishing.

In 1964, Chehab, whose presence at the head of the country was still seen by many as the best option for stability and future reforms, refused to allow the Lebanese Constitution to be amended to permit him to run for another presidential term. He backed the candidacy of Charles Helou, who became the next president. Chehab later became dissatisfied with Helou's presidency over the perceived mishandling of the armed presence of Palestinian guerrillas in Southern Lebanon and over Helou's maneuvers to pave the way for the traditional feudal politicians to regain power.

Later life (1964–1973)

Chehab was widely expected to contest the presidential election of 1970, but in a historical declaration, he declared that his experience in office had convinced him that the people of his country were not ready to put aside traditional or feudal politics or to support him in building a modern state. He chose to endorse his protégé, Elias Sarkis, instead. In the closest vote in Lebanese history, Sarkis lost the election to the feudal leader Suleiman Frangieh by a single vote in the National Assembly. The election was regarded as a defeat for the old statesman and marked the end of the Chehabist reforms and era.

The first months of the Frangieh mandate saw the dismantling of the country's intelligence and security services, which had been built by Chehab. They were feared and accused of maintaining a strong grip on political life. That, however, allowed rapidly increasing multiple foreign interference in the internal affairs of the country, soon manifesting itself into a Palestinian military presence in 1973 and the onset of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Fouad Chehab died in Beirut in April 1973, at the age of 71.

Personal life

Chehab was married to Rose René Poitieux, a French national.^[9]

Legacy

Image

Chehab is seen as the greatest president of the country by several politicians such as Raymond Eddé,^[10] journalists such as Samir Atallah and Jihad Al Khazen,^[11]^[12] and commentators such as Ziad Rahbani.^[13] Sheikh Maher Hammoud said that he is the only pre-Taif president who deserved major executive powers.^[14]

Honors

In 2008, the council of ministers named him as one of the "men of independence".^[15] The Jounieh municipal stadium was renamed "Fouad Chehab stadium" in 1994.^[16]

In 2016, his house in Jounieh was established as a museum. The project reportedly cost $1.5 million.^[17]

National decorations


Ribbon	Description	Ref.
	Commander of the National Order of the Cedar	^[18]
	Grand Officer of the National Order of the Cedar
	Grand Cordon of the National Order of the Cedar

Foreign decorations

Ribbon	Description	Ref.
	Order of Civil Merit of the Syrian Arab Republic - First class	^[18]
	Order of Civil Merit of the Syrian Arab Republic - Excellent
	Palestinian Commemorative Medal
	Military Grade of the Order of the Two Rivers - Second Class
	Commander of the Order of the Renaissance
	Croix de Guerre TOE
	Grand Cordon of the Order of the Star of Jordan

References

^ Reich, Bernard (1990). Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-26213-5.
^ ""المارونية السياسية" بين نموذجين: شمعون وشهاب (3)". 180Post. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Factbox". Lebanonwire. 25 May 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
^ "President Fouad Shehab | Official Website of the Lebanese Army". www.lebarmy.gov.lb. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
^ "فؤاد شهاب -أمير فقير أصبح رئيساً للجمهورية". monthlymagazine.com. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
^ الجوادي, د محمد. "فؤاد شهاب الجنرال اللبناني الذي سبق المشير سوار الذهب في تجرده". www.aljazeera.net (in Arabic). Retrieved 1 September 2021.
^ "الوزراء المتعاقبون على وزارة الدفاع الوطني" [Successive ministers of the Ministry of National Defense]. pcm.gov.lb (in Arabic). Government of Lebanon. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
^ "January - The Syrian Social Nationalist Party Military Coup". monthlymagazine.com. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
^ "GEN. FUAD CHEHAB, LEBANESE LEADER". The New York Times. 26 April 1973. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
^ "هل تتقدّم السياسة على القانون هذه المرة أيضاً؟". الأخبار (in Arabic). Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ "سمير عطا الله - التحامل ضد العسكر". الشرق الأوسط (in Arabic). Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ "لبنان يحتاج حكماً محايداً". LebanonFiles. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ "فنان لبناني: حزب الله عليه تسليم سلاحه، وحماس من صنع إسرائيل، والحريري الأقل فساداً في لبنان". النهضة نيوز (in Arabic). 14 June 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ "قراءة في مذكّرات الرئيس أمين الجميل [2]: عن تجربة خالية من المراجعة والمحاسبة الذاتية". الأخبار (in Arabic). Retrieved 25 August 2021.
^ Document Fouad Chehab website
^ "مجمع فؤاد شهاب الرياضي-جونية". 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
^ "عرب 48". موقع عرب 48. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Fouad Shehab | الموقع الرسمي للجيش اللبناني". www.lebarmy.gov.lb. Retrieved 2 March 2024.

External links

Official website (in English, Arabic, and French)
Fouad Chehab Foundation
فؤاد شهاب، داعية التحديث ورجل الدولة

Political offices
Preceded by Bechara El Khoury	President of Lebanon Acting 1952	Succeeded by Camille Chamoun
Preceded by Saeb Salam	Prime Minister of Lebanon Acting 1952	Succeeded by Khaled Chehab
Preceded by Camille Chamoun	President of Lebanon 1958–1964	Succeeded by Charles Helou