Cool USA Facts!

In 1958, Eisenhower authorized Operation Blue Bat, an invasion of 14,000 US troops in the ongoing civil war in Lebanon. This was the first application of the Eisenhower Doctrine under which the U.S. announced that it would intervene to protect regimes it considered threatened by international communism. The goal of the operation was to bolster the pro-Western Lebanese government of President Camille Chamoun against internal opposition and threats from Syria and Egypt. 1