Cable 1975BEIRUT04749 · April 14, 1975 · CONFIDENTIAL

Beirut, April 14, 1975

Three Hours That Started a War

The full sequence of April 13, 1975 — as recorded by American diplomats in real time — includes two Palestinian attacks on a Christian gathering before the bus massacre that history remembers. The rest of that day has been absent from the record for fifty years.

Based on cable 1975BEIRUT04749 CONFIDENTIAL → UNCLASSIFIED

On April 13, 1975, violence erupted in the Beirut suburb of Ain el-Rummaneh and ignited Lebanon's fifteen-year civil war. The U.S. Embassy dispatched this cable at the highest urgency level before noon the following morning. It documents three separate incidents — two of them Palestinian attacks on a Christian political gathering — before the bus massacre that history has recorded as the sole event of that day. That same evening, Palestinian forces fired rockets from a refugee camp into a Christian neighborhood. By morning, the Palestinian leadership was already framing the entire day as one-sided Christian aggression.

What this document reveals

The bus attack was the third violent incident of the morning at that location — not the first.
Before the bus was attacked, a vehicle carrying four armed Palestinians had already killed three Christian fighters at the same site.
That evening, Palestinian forces fired approximately 15 rockets from a refugee camp into a Christian suburb — an event absent from virtually all subsequent accounts.
The U.S. Embassy specifically noted the bus’s presence “may have been accidental” — the passengers may not have known they were entering a conflict zone.
Yasser Arafat immediately began lobbying Arab governments to blame only the Christians, erasing the prior Palestinian attacks from the political narrative.

Chronology

What happened, in sequence

8:00 AM

First incident

A Palestinian driver approaches the church where Lebanon’s top Christian leaders are gathered for mass. Police stop him. An argument follows. He drives away.

9:30 AM

Second incident

A second car arrives carrying four armed Palestinians. They open fire on the crowd, killing three Christian fighters, and drive off.

11:00 AM

Bus attack

A bus of Palestinians returning from a ceremony at Shatila camp enters the area. The Christian militia opens fire. Twenty-six are killed. The embassy notes the bus’ presence “may have been accidental.”

Evening

Rocket fire

Palestinian forces fire approximately 15 rockets from the Borj al Barajneh refugee camp into Haret Hreik, a Christian suburb of Beirut, targeting a militia party office.

That night

Political offensive

Yasser Arafat contacts Arab governments demanding pressure on Lebanon to punish the Christians. He makes no mention of the two prior Palestinian attacks.

Key figures

Who was involved

Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Pierre Gemayel

Kataeb (Phalange) party founder

The founder of Lebanon’s largest Christian militia party was attending mass at the Ain el-Rummaneh church when the first Palestinian car approached. Present alongside former President Chamoun, his presence made this a gathering of the Maronite political leadership.

Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Camille Chamoun

Former President of Lebanon

Lebanon’s president from 1952 to 1958, by 1975 Chamoun led his own militia, the Tigers. His presence alongside Gemayel at the church ceremony underscored the political weight of the gathering that was targeted.

Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Kamal Jumblatt

Lebanese opposition leader, PLO ally

The Druze leader who headed the coalition of Lebanese leftist parties allied with the PLO. Within hours of April 13, Jumblatt called for removing the Christian party’s ministers from the Lebanese government — converting the day’s violence into immediate political leverage.

Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Yasser Arafat

PLO Chairman

The leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, based in Beirut since 1971, spent the night of April 13 lobbying Arab governments to pressure Lebanon to punish the Christians. His framing — Phalange solely to blame — became the dominant historical account.

Public domain / U.S. Department of State

G. McMurtrie Godley

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon

The American ambassador who signed this cable had previously overseen CIA operations in the Congo and Laos. Dispatching a Night Action Immediate cable — the highest urgency level — he concluded bluntly: “the elements of a Lebanese solution to the crisis are not apparent.” He was right.

The Record

The morning of April 13, 1975

Pierre Gemayel — the founder of Lebanon’s largest Christian militia party, the Kataeb — and Camille Chamoun, a former president of Lebanon, attended mass that Sunday morning at a church in Ain el-Rummaneh, a Christian suburb of southeast Beirut. Members of Gemayel’s party militia and Lebanese government police were stationed in the area. It was, in effect, a gathering of the Maronite Christian political establishment.

8:00 AM — The first incident

A Volkswagen driven by a Palestinian — the U.S. Embassy’s cable notes he was reportedly affiliated with one of the Palestinian guerrilla organizations operating in Lebanon — approached the street where the church stood. A policeman stopped him and told him not to drive that route. An argument followed. Some witnesses told the Embassy that the driver threatened the policeman and was disarmed. Then he drove away.

This incident does not appear in most historical accounts of April 13, 1975.

9:30 AM — The attack that history omits

About ninety minutes later, a second car arrived. Inside were four armed Palestinians. They opened fire on bystanders near the church, killing three members of the Kataeb party’s militia, and drove away at speed.

Three Christian fighters were now dead. This attack — documented by the U.S. Embassy in this cable, filed within twenty hours of the events — is absent from virtually every Western journalistic and scholarly account of April 13.

11:00 AM — The bus

About ninety minutes after that, a bus carrying Palestinian passengers entered Ain el-Rummaneh. The passengers were traveling from the Shatila refugee camp in southwest Beirut to the Tel Zaartar refugee camp in the northeast — a route that, on this particular Sunday morning, took them through a neighborhood where Palestinian gunmen had just killed three men ninety minutes earlier.

The U.S. Embassy specifically noted in this cable that the bus’s presence “may have been accidental” — that the passengers may not have known they were driving through a violent situation. But the Kataeb opened fire. Twenty-six people aboard were killed.

This is the event that almost every account of April 13, 1975 treats as the sole incident of the day, and as the unprovoked act that started the Lebanese Civil War.

Destruction of Tel al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp, Beirut, 1976 — Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp, northeast Beirut, 1976 — the bus’s destination on April 13, 1975. Sixteen months after the events described in this cable, the camp was besieged by Maronite militias and overrun on August 12, 1976. Estimates of those killed range from 1,500 to 2,000. Jean-Jacques Kurz / ICRC Archives (AV-Archives-V-P-LB-D-00003-18), 1976. Public domain.

That evening — the rockets

As news of the bus attack spread through Beirut, fighting broke out across multiple neighborhoods simultaneously. And that evening — the same day — Palestinian armed forces fired approximately fifteen rockets from the Borj al Barajneh refugee camp into Haret Hreik, a largely Christian suburb of Beirut. The apparent target was the local Kataeb party office situated in the residential neighborhood. A store belonging to a Kataeb political figure was blown up. A factory near the original church site was on fire.

This Palestinian military action against a civilian area on the evening of April 13 is absent from virtually all Western accounts of the day.

The night of April 13 — a city fractures

By nightfall, gunfire was reported across a dozen neighborhoods. Barricades went up. Two men opened fire on a Kataeb office near Beirut’s commercial center and were killed by guards. Fighting spread to within blocks of the Holiday Inn hotel in downtown Beirut — a building that would itself become a military fortress within months.

The Lebanese Army, the cable notes, appeared to be standing down. An unconfirmed report reaching the Embassy stated that Army units near the fighting had been ordered not to intervene.

The political offensive

Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was based in Beirut and moved quickly. He and other Palestinian leaders spent the night lobbying Arab governments — directly and through their ambassadors in Beirut — to pressure the Lebanese government to punish what they called Kataeb “culprits.”

The cable places that word in quotation marks. The Embassy was recording the PLO’s narrative without endorsing it — in a document that had, two paragraphs earlier, recorded the Palestinian attacks that preceded the bus massacre.

Kamal Jumblatt, the Druze leader who commanded the coalition of Lebanese leftist parties allied with the PLO, moved simultaneously on the domestic front: he called for the removal of the Kataeb’s ministers from the Lebanese cabinet.

The ambassador’s verdict

G. McMurtrie Godley, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, 1974–1976. He had previously overseen CIA operations in the Congo and Laos. U.S. Department of State. Public domain.

Ambassador Godley’s cable, dispatched at the highest urgency level before noon on April 14, closes with a sentence of striking pessimism:

“To this moment, the elements of a ‘Lebanese solution’ to the crisis are not apparent.”

Lebanon had always managed its crises through negotiation among its community leaders — a system of managed compromise that kept the country’s contradictions contained. Godley was signaling, within hours of the first shots, that this system had broken down.

He was right. The war lasted fifteen years.

Key Locations

●

Ain el-Rummaneh — Site of all three morning incidents

○

Shatila camp — Palestinian refugee camp; bus departed from here

○

Tel Zaartar camp — Palestinian refugee camp; bus was heading here

○

Borj al Barajneh — Palestinian camp; rockets fired from here that evening

○

Haret Hreik — Christian suburb; rockets landed here

··

Quarantina — Mixed neighborhood near port; site of fighting next morning

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · View in OpenStreetMap

Primary Source

This article is based entirely on U.S. Embassy Beirut cable 1975BEIRUT04749, dispatched on April 14, 1975 and originally classified CONFIDENTIAL. Declassified and released by the U.S. Department of State under Executive Order Systematic Review, July 5, 2006. No facts have been added, removed, or altered.

View original on Wikileaks PlusD →

Topics

civil war April 13 1975 Ain Ramanneh Phalange Palestinians Kataeb Beirut PLO PDFLP

CONFIDENTIAL

Origin	U.S. Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon
To	Secretary of State, Washington D.C.
Date	April 14, 1975
Cable ID	1975BEIRUT04749
Classification	CONFIDENTIAL → Declassified 2006

Beirut Tense in Aftermath of April 13 Clashes Between Phalange and Palestinians

Annotated version — all original facts and language preserved in full

CONFIDENTIAL
PAGE 01 BEIRUT 04749 141247Z

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C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 4749

E.O. 11652: GDS
TAGS: PINS LE PLO
SUBJECT: BEIRUT TENSE IN AFTERMATH APRIL 13 CLASHES BETWEEN PHALANGE AND PALESTINIANS

SUMMARY: SITUATION TENSE AND UNCERTAIN IN BEIRUT FOLLOWING CLASHES SUNDAY APR 13 BETWEEN MILITIA OF CHRISTIAN PHALANGE PARTY AND PALESTINIANS IN AIN RAMANNEH SUBURB. SPORADIC FIRING AND EXPLOSIONS OCCURRED THROUGHOUT NIGHT AND EARLY APR 14 AS GOL SOUGHT TO STABILIZE SITUATION WITH LITTLE APPARENT SUCCESS THUS FAR. ALL AMCINS SAFE TO OUR KNOWLEDGE. NEXT MAJOR TEST OF FRAGILE PUBLIC ORDER WILL OCCUR AT 1000Z TODAY, WHEN FUNERAL FOR UP TO 35 PALESTINIANS KILLED (FIGURES VARY FROM 27 UPWARD) IS SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE. PRESENT CRISIS, OCCURRING AGAINST BACKGROUND OF GOL WEAKNESS AND DIVISION, HAS DISTURBING POETNTIAL. END SUMMARY.

1. ON BASIS OF FRAGMENTARY AND FREQUENTLY CONFLICTING NEWS ACCOUNTS AND RUMORS, APR 13 INCIDENTS WHICH SPARKED CRISIS WERE AS FOLLOWS: PHALANGIST LEADER, PIERRE GEMAYEL AND FORMER PRES CAMILLE CHAMOUN ATTENDED MASS SUNDAY MORNING AT CHURCH IN AIN RAMANNEH WITH BOTH PHALANGE MILITIA AND GOL POLICE IN VICINITY. AT APPROXIMATELY 0800Z, VOLKSWAGEN DRIVEN BY PALESTINIAN (ALLEGEDLY BELONGING TO PDFLP) DROVE NEAR CHURCH AND WAS ASKED BY POLICEMAN NOT RPT NOT TO USE STREET ON WHICH CHURCH LOCATED. AFTER ALTERCATION (IN WHICH SOME ACCOUNTS CLAIM DRIVER WAS DISARMED AFTER THREATENING POLICEMAN), VOLKSWAGEN DEPARTED.

2. SOME TIME LATER (0930Z BY SOME ACCOUNTS), ANOTHER VEHICLE CARRYING FOUR ARMED PALESTINIANS ENTERED AREA AND SPRAYED BY-STANDERS WITH MACHINE-GUN FIRE, FATALLY WOUNDING THREE MEMBERS OF PHALANGE MILITIA, BEFORE SPEEDING AWAY. AT APPROXIMATELY 1100Z, BUS LOADED WITH PALESTINIANS (AFFILIATION AS YET UNDETERMINED) APPROACHED AREA RETURNING FROM CEREMONIES IN SHATILA CAMP TO TEL ZAARTAR CAMP. IT POSSIBLE THAT PRESENCE OF BUS WAS ACCIDENTAL, BUT PHALANGE OPENED UP ON TARGET, REPORTEDLY KILLING 26 OF THOSE ABOARD.

3. AS NEWS OF INCIDENT SPREAD, FIRING AND EXPLOSIONS WERE HEARD IN VARIOUS PARTS OF CITY (AIN RAMANNEH, SHIAH, FURN AS SHUBAK, DEKWANI, GHOBEIRI) THROUGHOUT EVENING AND INTO MORNING. BARRICADES WERE ALLEGEDLY ERECTED IN SINN AL FIL. APPROX 15 ROCKETS WERE FIRED FROM BORJ AL BARAJNEH REFUGEE CAMP INTO LARGELY CHRISTIAN SUBURB OF HARET HREIK, APPARENTLY WITH LOCAL PHALANGE OFFICE AS PRIMARY TARGET. STORE BELONGING TO PHALANGE NOTABLE, NAUM ABI-RASHED, WAS BLOWN UP AND FACTORY NEAR SITE OF ORIGINAL INCIDENTS CURRENTLY BURNING. DURING NIGHT, INCIDENTS (SOME UNCONFIRMED) WERE REPORTED IN VARIOUS PARTS OF CITY, PARTICULARLY IN AREAS IN VICINITY OF PHALANGE OFFICES. ONE OF MOST SERIOUS INCIDENTS HAPPENED IN AREA OF STARCO CENTER AND WE HAVE EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF FIRING IN VICINITY OF HOLIDAY INN, SEVERAL BLOCKS FROM STARCO. THIS ALTERCATION APPARENTLY BEGAN WHEN TWO PERSONS (SUBSEQUENTLY KILLED BY PHALANGE GUARDS) OPENED FIRE ON PHALANGE OFFICE NEAR STARCO.

4. AS OF APR 14 0900Z, SITUATION IN BEIRUT IS TENSE AND POPULATION APPEARS BE BRACING FOR FURTHER TROUBLE, PARTICULARLY AS TIME FOR PALESTINIAN FUNERAL (1000Z) APPROACHES. ANTICIPATED GIGANTIC GATHERING OF MOURNERS, STIRRED BY PREDICTABLE PALESTINIAN ASSERTION THAT PHALANGE BEARS ENTIRE BLAME FOR INCIDENTS, COULD EASILY SET ESCALATION OF FIGHTING IN ALREADY UNSTABLE ATMOSPHERE IN MOTION. WE HAVE WARNED EMBASSY PERSONNEL TO RESTRICT THEIR MOVEMENTS (ALTHOUGH NO RPT NO DECISION TO CLOSE EMBASSY HAS BEEN TAKEN AT THIS TIME) AND ARE PROVIDING SIMILAR ADVICE TO NON-OFFICIAL AMCITS WHO INQUIRE. WE HAVE LIKEWISE ADVISED AMERICAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL TO SUSPEND CLASSES AT 0900Z TODAY TO PERMIT CHILDREN TO REGAIN THEIR HOMES BEFORE LARGE CROWDS GATHER FOR FUNERAL PROCESSION. AT PRESENT TIME, SPORADIC SHOOTING IN VARIOUS PARTS OF TOWN CONTINUES. USIS REGIONAL SERVICE CENTER IN SINN AL FIL REPORTS FIRING GENERALIZED IN AREA AND HAS CLOSED DOWN. WE ALSO HAVE REPORTS FROM SEVERAL SOURCES THAT GENERAL FIRE-FIGHT TAKING PLACE IN VICINITY OF AIRPORT CIRCLE NEAR PHALANGE HEADQUARTERS ALTHOUGH ROUTE TO AIRPORT AND AIRPORT ITSELF OPENED ACCORDING LAST REPORT. CLASHES APPARENTLY ERUPTED THIS MORNING WHEN PALESTINIANS MARCHED TO NEARBY QUARANTINA HOSPITAL, WHERE PALESTINIAN DEAD WERE TAKEN AFTER YESTERDAY'S FIGHTING, TO CLAIM BODIES FOR FUNERAL. WE HAVE LITTLE INFO RE SITUATION IN OTHER PARTS OF COUNTRY, ALTHOUGH THERE ARE REPORTS OF DEMONSTRATION IN TRIPOLI AND COASTAL ROAD SOUTH HAS BEEN CUT AT SIDON.

5. COMMENT: PHALANGE RELATIONS WITH FEDAYEEN HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO SERIES OF UPS AND DOWNS SINCE LARGE-SCALE CONFRONTATION OF 1969. DEPT WILL RECALL KAHALE INCIDENT OF EARLY 1970 WHEN PHALANGE AMBUSHED PALESTINIAN FUNERAL PROCESSION AND CRISIS WHICH ENSUED. PRESENT CONFRONTATION, HOWEVER, IS MOST SERIOUS OF ITS KIND IN LAST TWO YEARS, THE MORE SO AS KAMAL JUMBLATT AND OTHER "PROGRESSIVE" SPOKESMAN HAVE NOW CALLED FOR WITHDRAWAL OF TWO PHALANGE MINISTERS FROM ALREADY ENFEEBLED RASHID SOLH GOVT. SOLH CABINET HAS BEEN, OVER LAST WEEK OR MORE, DEFENDING ITS PERFORMANCE IN FACE OF STRONG ATTACKS IN PARLIAMENT AND WAS, UNTIL LATEST DEVELOPMENTS, EXPECTED TO WIN VOTE OF CONFIDENCE APR 15 BY 58 TO 65 VOTES. WE SUSPECT THAT DEBATE AND VOTE WILL NOT OCCUR IN LIGHT OF SERIOUS SITUATION IN COUNTRY. NEVERTHELESS, IT HAS BEEN COMBINATION OF JUMBLATT AND GEMAYEL WHICH HAS PROVIDED SUPPORT FOR SOLH GOVT AND ON WHICH PROJECTIONS OF CABINET'S SURVIVABILITY WERE BASED. CONSEQUENTLY, APPARENT OPEN BREAK BETWEEN JUMBLATT AND GEMAYEL PILLARS WILL GREATLY UNDERCUT GOVT'S ABILITY TO DEAL FIRMLY AND CONFIDENTLY WITH PRESENT CRISIS.

6. WE BELIEVE CURRENT CRISIS ALSO ACQUIRES GREATER DEGREE OF SERIOUSNESS AS RESULT OF SEVERAL OTHER FACTORS CONVERGING AT THIS TIME: A) RECENT INFLAMMATION OF CONFESSIONAL DIVISIONS AS RESULT OF INCIDENTS IN SIDON LAST MONTH; B) LIKELY NEUTRALIZATION OF ARMY AND SECURITY FORCES AS RESULT THEIR EXPERIENCE IN SIDON AND POSSIBILITY THAT THEY WILL NOT BE DIRECTED TO ACT DECISIVELY IN CURRENT CRISIS (E.G., WE HAVE UNCONFIRMED REPORT THAT SQUAD 16 FORCES IN AREA OF AIRPORT CIRCLE FIGHTING HAVE ORDERS TO STAND ASIDE); C) PRES FRANGIE'S CONVALESCENCE IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL FROM GALL BLADDER OPERATION PERFORMED APR 12; AND D) LIKELIHOOD THAT, AS LAST NIGHT'S EVENTS DEMONSTRATE, CLASHES OF THIS KIND COULD EASILY DEGENERATE INTO GENERALIZED HIT-AND-RUN STRIKES WHICH WOULD ALMOST INEVITABLY INVOLVE FOREIGN RESIDENTS OF CITY.

7. DENOUEMENT OF CRISIS WILL UNQUESTIONABLY DEPEND UPON RESOLVE AND GOOD SENSE OF GOL AND PLO LEADERSHIPS AND THEIR ABILITY TO CONTROL ARMED ELEMENTS WHICH HAVE NOW ESCAPED PANDORA'S BOX. IT WILL ALSO AS IN PAST PROBABLY DEPEND ON EFFORTS OF LEADING POLITICAL LEADERS AND PALESTINIANS. GOL, ACCORDING FEW CONVERSATIONS WE'VE HAD ARE EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT SITUATION AND ITS POTENTIAL FOR SPARKING CIVIL STRIFE INVOLVING PALESTINIANS. SO FAR THEIR EFFORTS APPEAR FOCUSED ON CONTAINING THE SITUATION. ACCORDING RADIO GOL HAS JUST ARRESTED 14 PERSONS (IDENTITY UNKNOWN). MEANWHILE, ARAFAT AND OTHER PLO LEADERS HAVE REPORTEDLY BEEN INVEIGHING OTHER ARAB STATES, DIRECTLY AND THROUGH LOCAL ARAB AMBASSADORS, TO BRING PRESSURE ON GOL TO PUNISH PHALANGIST "CULPRITS". IN SHORT, TO THIS MOMENT, ELEMENTS OF "LEBANESE SOLUTION" TO CRISIS ARE NOT RPT NOT APPARENT.

8. ALL AMCITS SAFE TO OUR KNOWLEDGE.

GODLEY

CONFIDENTIAL NNN

Originally classified CONFIDENTIAL · Declassified and released by U.S. Department of State under EO Systematic Review, 05 July 2006 · Now UNCLASSIFIED

Summary
Situation tense and uncertain in Beirut following clashes on Sunday, April 13, between the militia of the Christian Phalange Party and Palestinians in the Ain Ramanneh suburb. Sporadic firing and explosions occurred throughout the night and early April 14 as the GOL sought to stabilize the situation with little apparent success thus far. All American citizens [AMCITS] safe to our knowledge.^[1] The next major test of fragile public order will occur at 1000Z [10:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time] today, when the funeral for up to 35 Palestinians killed — figures vary from 27 upward — is scheduled to take place. The present crisis, occurring against a background of GOL weakness and division, has disturbing potential.^[2]

1.
On the basis of fragmentary and frequently conflicting news accounts and rumors, the April 13 incidents which sparked the crisis were as follows: Phalangist leader Pierre Gemayel^[3] and former President Camille Chamoun^[4] attended mass Sunday morning at a church in Ain Ramanneh, with both Phalange militia and GOL police in the vicinity. At approximately 0800Z [8:00 AM GMT], a Volkswagen driven by a Palestinian — allegedly belonging to the PDFLP^[5] — drove near the church and was asked by a policeman not to use the street on which the church was located. After an altercation — in which some accounts claim the driver was disarmed after threatening the policeman — the Volkswagen departed.

2.
Some time later — at approximately 0930Z [9:30 AM GMT] by some accounts — another vehicle carrying four armed Palestinians entered the area and sprayed bystanders with machine-gun fire, fatally wounding three members of the Phalange militia, before speeding away.^[6] At approximately 1100Z [11:00 AM GMT], a bus loaded with Palestinians — affiliation as yet undetermined — approached the area, returning from ceremonies at Shatila camp^[7] to Tel Zaartar camp.^[8] It is possible that the presence of the bus was accidental,^[9] but the Phalange opened up on the target, reportedly killing 26 of those aboard.

3.
As news of the incident spread, firing and explosions were heard in various parts of the city — Ain Ramanneh, Shiah, Furn as Shubak, Dekwani, Ghobeiri — throughout the evening and into the morning. Barricades were allegedly erected in Sinn al Fil. Approximately 15 rockets were fired from Borj al Barajneh refugee camp^[10] into the largely Christian suburb of Haret Hreik, apparently with the local Phalange office as primary target.^[11] A store belonging to Phalange notable Naum Abi-Rashed was blown up, and a factory near the site of the original incidents is currently burning. During the night, incidents — some unconfirmed — were reported in various parts of the city, particularly in areas in the vicinity of Phalange offices. One of the most serious incidents occurred in the area of the Starco Center,^[12] and we have an eyewitness account of firing in the vicinity of the Holiday Inn,^[13] several blocks from Starco. This altercation apparently began when two persons — subsequently killed by Phalange guards — opened fire on a Phalange office near Starco.

4.
As of April 14, 0900Z [9:00 AM GMT], the situation in Beirut is tense and the population appears to be bracing for further trouble, particularly as the time for the Palestinian funeral (1000Z) approaches. The anticipated gigantic gathering of mourners, stirred by the predictable Palestinian assertion that the Phalange bears entire blame for the incidents,^[14] could easily set an escalation of fighting in the already unstable atmosphere in motion. We have warned Embassy personnel to restrict their movements — although no decision to close the Embassy has been taken at this time — and are providing similar advice to non-official American citizens [AMCITS] who inquire. We have likewise advised the American Community School to suspend classes at 0900Z to permit children to regain their homes before large crowds gather for the funeral procession. At the present time, sporadic shooting in various parts of town continues. The USIS Regional Service Center in Sinn al Fil reports firing generalized in the area and has closed down. We also have reports from several sources that a general fire-fight is taking place in the vicinity of Airport Circle near Phalange headquarters, although the route to the airport and the airport itself are open according to the last report. Clashes apparently erupted this morning when Palestinians marched to nearby Quarantina Hospital — where Palestinian dead were taken after yesterday's fighting — to claim bodies for the funeral.^[15] We have little information regarding the situation in other parts of the country, although there are reports of a demonstration in Tripoli and the coastal road south has been cut at Sidon.

5. — Comment
Phalange relations with the fedayeen^[16] have been subject to a series of ups and downs since the large-scale confrontation of 1969.^[17] The Department [of State] will recall the Kahale incident of early 1970, when the Phalange ambushed a Palestinian funeral procession and the crisis which ensued.^[18] The present confrontation, however, is the most serious of its kind in the last two years — the more so as Kamal Jumblatt^[19] and other “progressive” spokesmen have now called for the withdrawal of two Phalange ministers from the already enfeebled Rashid Solh government.^[20] The Solh cabinet has been, over the last week or more, defending its performance in the face of strong attacks in Parliament and was, until the latest developments, expected to win a vote of confidence on April 15 by 58 to 65 votes. We suspect that the debate and vote will not occur in light of the serious situation in the country. Nevertheless, it has been the combination of Jumblatt and Gemayel which has provided support for the Solh government and on which projections of the cabinet’s survivability were based. Consequently, the apparent open break between these Jumblatt and Gemayel pillars will greatly undercut the government’s ability to deal firmly and confidently with the present crisis.

6.
We believe the current crisis also acquires a greater degree of seriousness as a result of several other factors converging at this time:

A) The recent inflammation of confessional [sectarian] divisions as a result of incidents in Sidon last month;^[21]

B) The likely neutralization of the army and security forces as a result of their experience in Sidon, and the possibility that they will not be directed to act decisively in the current crisis.^[22] (We have an unconfirmed report that Squad 16 forces in the area of Airport Circle fighting have orders to stand aside;^[23])

C) President Frangieh’s^[24] convalescence in the American University Hospital from a gall bladder operation performed April 12; and

D) The likelihood that, as last night’s events demonstrate, clashes of this kind could easily degenerate into generalized hit-and-run strikes which would almost inevitably involve foreign residents of the city.

7.
The denouement of this crisis will unquestionably depend upon the resolve and good sense of the GOL and PLO leaderships and their ability to control armed elements which have now “escaped Pandora’s Box.” It will also, as in the past, probably depend on efforts of leading political leaders and Palestinians. The GOL, according to the few conversations we have had, is extremely concerned about the situation and its potential for sparking civil strife involving Palestinians. So far their efforts appear focused on containing the situation. According to radio, the GOL has just arrested 14 persons (identity unknown). Meanwhile, Arafat^[25] and other PLO leaders have reportedly been lobbying [original: “inveighing”] other Arab states, directly and through local Arab ambassadors, to bring pressure on the GOL to punish Phalangist “culprits.”^[26] In short, to this moment, the elements of a “Lebanese solution”^[27] to the crisis are not apparent.

8.
All American citizens [AMCITS] safe to our knowledge.

GODLEY^[28]

Editorial Footnotes

[1]The original cable uses "AMCINS" — an apparent transmission error for the standard abbreviation AMCITS (American Citizens). Such errors were common in teletype cable transmission of the era and are preserved in the raw text. The meaning is unambiguous from context.

[2]The original cable spells this word "POETNTIAL" — a typographic error for "potential," preserved verbatim in the raw cable text. Such errors are common in cables transmitted via teletype. The annotated version corrects the spelling without altering the meaning.

[3]Pierre Gemayel (1905–1984): Founder and paramount leader of the Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalange or Kata'ib), established in 1936 and modeled in part on European nationalist movements of the period, including the Spanish Falange and the Lebanese Scout movement. By 1975, the Kataeb was the largest and best-organized Maronite Christian political and paramilitary organization in Lebanon. Gemayel's son Bashir would become the dominant Maronite military commander during the civil war, assassinated in September 1982 days after being elected President; another son, Amine, served as President 1982–1988. His presence at the Ain Ramanneh church ceremony on April 13 — alongside former President Chamoun — indicates a gathering of senior Maronite political leadership, making the subsequent Palestinian attack on that gathering politically as well as physically significant.

[4]Camille Chamoun (1900–1987): Former President of Lebanon (1952–1958), whose presidency ended during the Lebanese Crisis of 1958, which required American military intervention (Operation Blue Bat). By 1975, Chamoun led the National Liberal Party (NLP) and commanded its own militia, known as the Tigers (Numur). A rival of Gemayel within the Maronite political sphere, Chamoun nonetheless cooperated with the Kataeb on communal defense issues. His co-presence with Gemayel at the church ceremony on April 13 underscores the event's significance as a gathering of the Maronite political establishment.

[5]PDFLP: Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PDFLP broke from the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) in 1969 under the leadership of Nayef Hawatmeh, advocating a more explicitly Marxist line and, unusually within the PLO, a degree of openness to eventual coexistence with Israeli Jews. Later known as the DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine). The cable's attribution of the Volkswagen driver to the PDFLP is explicitly described as "alleged" — the Embassy does not confirm it. The significance lies in the fact that the PDFLP was a PLO constituent organization, meaning that even the initial confrontation at the church — well before the bus attack — involved an individual with armed-faction affiliation.

[6]This paragraph, read in sequence with paragraph 1, establishes the three-stage timeline that most Western accounts of April 13 collapse into a single event or omit in part. The bus attack (paragraph 2, 1100Z) was preceded by two distinct Palestinian incidents at the same location: first, the Volkswagen confrontation with police near the church (0800Z); and second — critically — an armed attack by a vehicle carrying four Palestinians, who sprayed bystanders with machine-gun fire and fatally wounded three Phalange militiamen (0930Z). The Phalange attack on the bus occurred after Phalange members had already been killed by Palestinian gunfire that morning. This sequence is documented in this cable, filed by U.S. Embassy Beirut on April 14, 1975, and is almost entirely absent from standard scholarly and journalistic accounts of the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War.

[7]Shatila: Palestinian refugee camp established in 1949 on the southwestern outskirts of Beirut, housing by 1975 approximately 10,000–12,000 registered refugees — though the actual population was considerably larger due to unregistered arrivals and natural growth. The camp was administered by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) but policed in practice by PLO-affiliated armed factions. Shatila would become internationally known following the September 1982 massacre carried out by Lebanese Forces militiamen — with Israeli military forces controlling the surrounding area — in which between 800 and 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese Shia civilians were killed over three days.

[8]Tel Zaartar: Palestinian refugee camp in the Dekwaneh area of northeast Beirut, geographically situated within what was otherwise predominantly Christian-controlled territory. The bus passengers were returning from ceremonies at Shatila (southwest Beirut) through Ain Ramanneh to Tel Zaartar — a route that brought them through the zone where the morning's violence had already occurred. Tel Zaartar itself would be besieged by a coalition of Kataeb, NLP Tigers, and other Maronite militias from June to August 1976. Following its fall on August 12, 1976, an estimated 1,500–2,000 Palestinian civilians and fighters were killed. The camp was demolished. The mention of Tel Zaartar in this cable of April 1975 is a small, inadvertent marker: the bus's destination was a place that would itself become a massacre site sixteen months later.

[9]The Embassy's qualifier — "it is possible that the presence of the bus was accidental" — is significant. American diplomatic observers on the ground, filing within hours of the event, acknowledged that the bus passengers — returning from a ceremony at Shatila camp to Tel Zaartar — may not have deliberately entered a conflict zone or sought a confrontation. The cable declines to characterize the bus's approach as provocation. Most subsequent accounts omit this qualifier entirely.

[10]Borj al Barajneh: One of the largest Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, located in the southern suburbs of Beirut (Dahiyeh). By 1975, it housed tens of thousands of refugees and served as a base for multiple PLO-affiliated armed factions. The camp remains in existence as of this writing.

[11]The firing of approximately 15 rockets from Borj al Barajneh refugee camp into Haret Hreik — a largely Christian residential suburb — on the evening of April 13, 1975, is one of the most consistently omitted details in standard accounts of that day's violence. Occurring the same evening as the bus attack, and representing a significant Palestinian military action against a civilian residential area, it is absent from virtually all Western journalistic and scholarly narratives of April 13, which overwhelmingly focus on the bus incident as the day's sole act of violence. The cable reports the rockets' apparent primary target as the local Phalange office — i.e., a political-military target — situated within a civilian neighborhood.

[12]Starco Center: A commercial and office complex in downtown Beirut, near the Hamra and Bab Idriss areas. The fighting in its vicinity on the night of April 13 indicates that violence had spread from Ain Ramanneh in the southeastern suburbs to the commercial heart of the city within hours of the initial incidents.

[13]Holiday Inn, Beirut: The recently completed (1974) Holiday Inn tower in downtown Beirut was, at the time of this cable, one of the tallest and most prominent buildings in the city. Within months, it would become a major military fortress and the focal point of the so-called "Hotel War" (September–October 1975), as Palestinian and Lebanese leftist forces battled Kataeb and Maronite militias for control of downtown Beirut's high-rise buildings. Its appearance in this cable as a site of gunfire on April 13, 1975 — barely months before it became a full-scale battleground — is historically notable.

[14]The cable explicitly notes, as of the morning of April 14, "the predictable Palestinian assertion that Phalange bears entire blame for incidents." The Embassy is here recording in real time — and characterizing as "predictable" — the Palestinian political narrative that framed April 13 as one-sided Phalange aggression. This framing, which the cable itself contradicts through its account of the two prior Palestinian attacks (paragraphs 1–2), became and has remained the dominant narrative in Western media and scholarship.

[15]Quarantina: A mixed working-class neighborhood near the Beirut port, housing communities of Lebanese Christians, Kurds, Armenians, and Syrian migrant workers, as well as a Palestinian squatter population. The Quarantina Hospital is mentioned here as a collection point for Palestinian dead from April 13. Nine months after this cable, in January 1976, the Quarantina neighborhood would be overrun by Kataeb and allied Maronite forces. Hundreds of its civilians were killed in what is recognized as one of the worst atrocities of the civil war's early phase — an event also largely absent from standard Western accounts.

[16]Fedayeen (Arabic: فدائيين, "those who sacrifice themselves"): Term applied to Palestinian armed fighters, particularly those conducting guerrilla operations. In the Lebanese context of 1975, "fedayeen" typically referred to armed fighters affiliated with PLO constituent organizations — Fatah, PFLP, PDFLP, and others — operating from bases in Lebanese refugee camps and the south of the country.

[17]"Large-scale confrontation of 1969": The Embassy is referring to the October–November 1969 armed clashes between the Lebanese Army and Palestinian armed groups, which culminated in the Cairo Agreement of November 3, 1969. That agreement, brokered under Egyptian pressure, granted the PLO the right to maintain armed forces on Lebanese territory and to conduct military operations across the border into Israel — effectively ceding Lebanese state sovereignty over its own southern territory and the Palestinian refugee camps. The Embassy is situating April 13 within a pattern of recurring Phalange-Palestinian confrontation rooted in the fundamental contradiction introduced by the Cairo Agreement.

[18]Kahale incident (1970): In early 1970, Phalange fighters ambushed a Palestinian funeral procession in the Maronite village of Kahale in the Metn district east of Beirut, killing several mourners. The incident produced a serious political crisis. The Embassy's reference establishes that targeting of Palestinian gatherings — including funeral processions — had precedent in Phalange behavior, and that the cycle of sectarian tit-for-tat violence had a documented prior history predating April 13.

[19]Kamal Jumblatt (1917–1977): Druze feudal chieftain of the Chouf mountain region, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and head of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) — the coalition of Lebanese leftist, pan-Arab, Nasserist, and progressive parties that allied with the PLO during the civil war. Jumblatt's immediate call for the removal of Phalange ministers from the Lebanese cabinet, within hours of April 13, demonstrates the speed with which political actors converted the day's violence into political leverage. Jumblatt was assassinated in March 1977 on a road in the Chouf, almost certainly by Syrian intelligence operatives.

[20]Rashid Solh (1926–1994): Sunni Muslim politician and Prime Minister of Lebanon from October 1974 to May 1975. His government was a weak coalition attempting to navigate Lebanon's deep sectarian divisions while managing the consequences of the armed Palestinian presence. The Solh cabinet's expected parliamentary vote of confidence on April 15 — which the Embassy correctly predicts will not occur — was already contested before April 13. The cabinet's collapse in May 1975 contributed directly to the political vacuum in which the civil war escalated through summer and autumn.

[21]"Incidents in Sidon last month": A reference to the Sidon fishermen's uprising of February–March 1975, triggered by a conflict over fishing rights between Lebanese fishermen and the Protein Company, a fishing concern with connections to President Frangieh. The dispute escalated into confrontations between demonstrators and the Lebanese Army. Maarouf Saad, a popular Nasserist politician and member of parliament, was shot and killed on March 6, 1975 during a demonstration — likely by Lebanese Army fire. His death inflamed Palestinian and leftist opinion and hardened the confrontational dynamic between the Lebanese Army and the PLO-LNM alliance. The Sidon incidents are widely considered a direct precursor to April 13.

[22]The Embassy's concern about the Lebanese Army's neutralization proved accurate. The army's inability — and, increasingly, its unwillingness — to intervene decisively in sectarian clashes was a central factor enabling the civil war's escalation. An institution whose officers and enlisted men were drawn from all sects, and whose senior command reflected the National Pact's confessional balance, could not easily be ordered to fire on any particular community without risking its own internal fracture. That fracture came in early 1976, when significant sections of the army mutinied and joined the Palestinian-LNM alliance.

[23]"Squad 16": An internal security unit of the Lebanese Army. The unconfirmed report that it had been given orders to stand aside during the Airport Circle fighting — if accurate — would indicate that civilian political authority had decided not to use military force to suppress the clashes. The Embassy flags this as unconfirmed but clearly regards it as highly significant: if true, it would mean the Lebanese state had effectively abdicated its monopoly on force at the very moment the civil war began.

[24]President Suleiman Frangieh (1910–1992): President of Lebanon 1970–1976, a Maronite from the Zgharta region of northern Lebanon with close family ties to Syria's Assad family. His hospitalization for a gall bladder operation on April 12 — the day before the April 13 crisis — meant that Lebanon's head of state was medically incapacitated during the opening hours of the civil war. Frangieh was a controversial figure: in 1957, he had participated in a massacre at a church in Miziara during a blood feud with a rival family, killing approximately 20 people. This history, widely known in Lebanon, significantly limited his moral authority to act against political violence.

[25]Yasser Arafat (1929–2004): Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and leader of Fatah, the dominant PLO faction. Arafat had been based in Beirut since the PLO's forced departure from Jordan following "Black September" (the Jordanian Army's suppression of the PLO in 1970–71). His immediate mobilization of Arab states to pressure the Lebanese government — demanding punishment of Phalange "culprits" while making no reference to the two prior Palestinian attacks that morning — is documented here in real time, within hours of the events.

[26]The cable's use of quotation marks around "culprits" signals clear Embassy skepticism about the PLO's framing. The Embassy is recording the PLO narrative — that the Phalange alone bore blame for April 13 — without endorsing it, in a document that has itself described the prior Palestinian attacks (paragraphs 1–2) that the PLO's framing erases.

[27]"Lebanese solution": A phrase in Lebanese political discourse referring to the country's historical mechanism for resolving crises: negotiation among confessional community leaders, political compromise, face-saving arrangements, and the deliberate avoidance of decisive or conclusive action. The Embassy's assessment that "elements of a 'Lebanese solution' to the crisis are NOT — RPT [repeat] — NOT apparent" represents a strikingly bleak judgment, filed just hours after the violence began. In retrospect, it was prescient: no Lebanese solution materialized, and the civil war would last fifteen years.

[28]G. McMurtrie Godley (1917–1999): U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, 1974–1976. A career Foreign Service Officer with extensive covert-operations experience, Godley had previously served as Ambassador to the Republic of the Congo (1964–1966) and Ambassador to Laos (1969–1973), where he oversaw CIA paramilitary operations and the U.S. air campaign during the Secret War — earning him the nickname "the Field Marshal." His posting to Beirut placed him at the center of one of the most consequential crises of his career. Cables signed "GODLEY" indicate the Ambassador personally reviewed and authorized the dispatch.

CONFIDENTIAL

How to Cite

Annotated version:
Institute for Lebanon, “Beirut Tense in Aftermath of April 13 Clashes Between Phalange and Palestinians” (1975BEIRUT04749), April 14, 1975. instituteforlebanon.com/cables/1975BEIRUT04749/

Original cable:
U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon, “Beirut Tense in Aftermath of April 13 Clashes Between Phalange and Palestinians” (1975BEIRUT04749), April 14, 1975. Wikileaks Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD).