Beirut 1990: The General Who Surrendered a War

In October 1990, as the Lebanese Civil War was grinding to a close, a 24-hour ultimatum from Syria and its Lebanese allies forced the last major militia holdout to surrender. Michel Aoun, the Maronite general who had declared a ‘war of liberation’ against Syrian occupation, barricaded himself in the Baabda Presidential Palace while Syrian jets bombed the hills above Beirut. This episode follows the final 48 hours of Aoun’s doomed stand—from the defection of his Druze rival Walid Jumblatt to the quiet betrayal by his own Christian constituency. We trace how the Taif Accord, signed a year earlier, left Aoun isolated, how his alliance with Saddam Hussein backfired after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and how the ‘General of the Cedars’ became the last casualty of a war that had already been lost. Featuring the Battle of Souk al-Gharb, the role of Elias Hrawi, and the silent complicity of the United States.

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