PLAYGROUND FOR ROYALTY, THE ELITE, THE WEALTHY
BEIRUT, LEBANON 1964
Beirut, Lebanon, Headquarters Marine Security Guard, Middle East. Armin Henry Meyer (1914–2006) Career Foreign Service Officer State of Residence: Illinois Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Lebanon) Appointed: October 27, 1961 Presentation of Credentials: January 12, 1962 Termination of Mission: Left post on April 19, 1965 Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned on January 30, 1962, after confirmation.
ONE day in mid 1964, I received my reward for serving a 13 month tour of duty in a designated hardship post. Jidda, Saudi Arabia. Orders assigned me to Regional Headquarters Marine Security Guards, Beirut, Lebanon.
The difference between Saudi Arabia and Beirut is, I think, akin to the differences between thinking about being between the legs of a beautiful woman and actually being between those legs.
BEIRUT – Paris of the Middle East. Playground for royalty; Kings, Princes, Potentates, dictators, the rich, the powerful, the famous. Me. . Alcohol, clubs, casinos, world class internationally renowned belly dancers, prostitutes, 5 star hotels & restaurants, Mediterranean Sea, excellent beaches, ghettos and grottos, snow ski in the morning and lie on the beach in the afternoon, go for a swim. Beirut had it all. The birthplace of Kahlil Gibran – Lebanese-American author of the PROPHET. Translated into 100 languages.
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.” KAHLIL GIBRAN
I spent many evenings at the St George’s & Phoenicia hotels bar enjoying world class belly dancers. Who wanted to be educated, professional, famous, wealthy? Not I. Admiring beautiful Arab dancers suited me just fine.
While the most famous belly dancers of the era were predominantly Egyptian, Beirut also had its renowned performers, including the Lebanese dancer Kawakeb, who was prominent in the 1960s, and the highly influential Nadia Gamal, an Egyptian dancer who moved to Lebanon in the 1960s and became a nationalized Lebanese citizen, founding the Lebanese style of belly dance. Other notable figures who performed in Beirut include the aristocratic socialite and dancer Dany Bustros.
Key figures in Beirut during the 1960s:
- Kawakeb:A distinguished Lebanese dancer celebrated for her elegant style and featured in the 1966 film The Millionairess at the Baccarat nightclub in Lebanon.
- Nadia Gamal:An Egyptian-born dancer who relocated to Lebanon in the 1960s and became a pivotal figure in the development of the Lebanese style of belly dance, known for her dramatic movements and floor work.
- Dany Bustros:A well-known member of the aristocratic Bustros family, Dany Bustros was a Lebanese socialite, stage actress, and belly dancer who gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s.
While the 1960s were an important time for belly dance in Lebanon, the “Golden Era” of belly dance, with its most iconic performers, occurred a bit earlier, largely in Egypt. Many dancers who became famous in the 1960s and beyond, such as Soheir Zaki and Nagwa Fouad, were part of this earlier Egyptian cinematic boom.
Pleasure beyond measure. I witnessed the greatest of the era.
The detachment consisted of fifteen members, occupied the entire third floor of a very large apartment building. Cooks, bartenders, maids, houseboys, women, booze, yes, Bertie Higgins , “we had it all, just like Bogie & Macall.” Shifts were one day on, two days off, sometimes times three days off. Lots of free time in the playground of the Middle East..
Dany Bustros: A well-known member of the aristocratic Bustros family, Dany Bustros was a Lebanese socialite, stage actress, and belly dancer who gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s.
Remember the young, beautiful Saudi Airlines stewardess I mentioned that was “dating” one of the marines in Jidda?
A day off sitting on a bar stool sipping a cold brew brew, the door bell rings. Houseboy answers the summons, opens the door and in walks Samia Khai. She had stopped by to see her soon to be departed boyfriend who was returning to the states, having fulfilled his military obligation.
He was on duty.
My vocabulary is not sufficient to describe the beauty of this woman, she exuded sexuality. One began to feel sexual tension in the room the moment your eyes devoured her sensuous body. Large, heavy, melon sized breasts which she unashamedly displayed, small waist, flared hips attached to long legs with the bones in a straight line from thigh to slim ankle, the outline curving out and in at key points. Straight, slender legs that combine fragility and strength. Her face was chiseled by Michelangelo. Smooth forehead, full cheeks, straight Greek nose, defined jawline & chin, wide mouth, full lips, ears proportional. A living Goddess of Love. I am certain that during her life she was responsible for several men developing a life long condition of premature ejaculation.
My tour of duty, three years overseas, concluded and I was dispatched to the states.
After I returned to Oklahoma in Dec 65 I attempted to locate her, without success, for several years. We had a wonderful relationship for several months including dinner with her family many times. I would have married her, but government rules and regs discouraged, if not outright prohibited marriage to a local. Of course, it could have been done if pursued fervently, was done, but I was uneducated, had no trade, a poor family, no job waiting, and doubtlessly would have been eventually consumed by jealousy unless I chained her to a load bearing beam. Regardless, I never forgot her, or the generous Spanish prostitute.
Lebanon, in that time and day, even after the passage of another 55 years filled with innumerable adventures has to be my one true love. No one could have have predicted a civil war. or the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut. Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War.
The attack killed 307 people: 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians, and two attackers. Nightly, during this period, I religiously watched network news and felt a great sadness in my heart for friends and acquaintances still there trying to survive the hell that had descended upon them. I watched as one of the loves of my life was destroyed street by street, building by building, life by life, and it sickened me.
Oddly, Lebanon’s diversity played the major role in civil war.
The diversity of the Lebanese population played a notable role in the lead-up to and during the conflict: Sunni Muslims and Christians comprised the majority in the coastal cities; Shia Muslims were primarily based in the south and the Beqaa Valleyin the east; and Druze and Christians populated the country’s mountainous areas. The Lebanese government had been run under the significant influence of elites within the Maronite Christian community.[7][8] The link between politics and religion had been reinforced under the French Mandate from 1920 to 1943, and the country’s parliamentary structure favoured a leading position for its Christian-majority population. However, the country had a large Muslim population to match, and many pan-Arabist and left-wing groups opposed the Christian-dominated pro-Western government. The influx of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967contributed to the shift of Lebanon’s demography in favour of the Muslim population. The Cold War had a powerful disintegrative effect on Lebanon, which was closely linked to the political polarization that preceded the 1958 Lebanese crisis, since Christians sided with the Western world while leftist, Muslim, and pan-Arabist groups sided with Soviet-aligned Arab countries.[9]
Fighting between Maronite-Christian and Palestinian forces (mainly from the Palestine Liberation Organization) began in 1975; leftist, Muslim, and pan-Arabist Lebanese groups formed an alliance with the Palestinians in Lebanon.[10] Over the course of the fighting, alliances shifted rapidly and unpredictably. Furthermore, foreign powers, such as Israel and Syria, became involved in the war and fought alongside different factions. Various peacekeeping forces, such as the Multinational Force in Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, were also stationed in the country during the conflict. Wiki
The Beirut Barracks Memorial honors the 241 American service members who lost their lives in the October 23, 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marines Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War. Two truck bombs, detonated by suicide bombers, struck buildings that housed U.S. and French military members of a multinational peacekeeping force, killing a total of 299 service personnel (241 American, 58 French), along with six civilians and the two suicide bombers. It was the deadliest single-day attack against U.S. Marines since the battle over Iwo Jima in 1945.
Marines are permitted to serve a tour of three years maximum overseas…my time was up and I prepared to exchange paradise for the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Bedford Stuyvesant.
After six years of active duty the Marine Corps and I reached a mutual agreement. They had no more need of me and I had no need for them.