Amb. Quinn describes how, in 1983, he crosses the southern border of Lebanon and begins the drive to Beirut, where he sees the incredible destruction along the Green Line which divided the capital city down the middle. Along the way, he saw the widespread damage to U.N. facilities caused by the fighting between the Israeli Defense Force and Yasser Arafat’s PLO forces. The American Embassy, which had been bombed with over 60 deaths, was reduced to a small group of officers working out of the Ambassador’s residence high atop a hill. The next part of the trip would be even more threatening.
THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG