n August 1982, the governments of the United States, France, Italy, and Great Britain deployed a multinational peacekeeping force to Lebanon in an effort to stabilize the country and stop the fighting between Syria, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Israel. The contingency—including the first 800 U.S. Marines from the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU)—agreed to oversee the PLO’s evacuation and by 10 September through high-level diplomacy, the PLO left the port of Beirut. The Marines departed as well considering the mission complete. Just four days later, the president-elect of Lebanon, Bashir Gemayel, was assassinated.
