Charles Helou (25 September 1913 – 7 January 2001) was a Lebanese politician who served as the 4th

president of Lebanon The president of the Lebanese Republic () is the head of state of Lebanon. The president is elected by the parliament for a term of six years, which cannot be renewed immediately because they can only be renewed non-consecutively. By convention, ...

from 1964 to 1970.

Early life and education

Born in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

on 25 September 1913, Helou was the scion of a powerful

Maronite Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...

family from

Baabda Baabda () is the capital city of Baabda District and Mount Lebanon Governorate, western Lebanon. Baabda was also the capital city of the autonomous Ottoman Mount Lebanon that existed from 1861 to 1918. Baabda is home to the Italian, Japanese, ...

. He graduated with honours from

St. Joseph's University Saint Joseph's University (SJU or St. Joe's) is a private Jesuit university in Philadelphia, Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851 as Saint Joseph's College ...

in Beirut in 1929, and went on to complete a law degree in 1934. Helou worked in his early years as a journalist at the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

newspaper '' L'Eclair du Nord''. He was also at one time the political editor of '' Le Jour'', a French daily newspaper owned by his close friend Michel Chiha. In 1936, he made his first foray into

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

, when he joined with

Pierre Gemayel Pierre Amine Gemayel, also spelled Jmayyel, Jemayyel or al-Jumayyil (; 6 November 1905 – 29 August 1984), was a Lebanese political leader. A Maronite Catholic, he is remembered as the founder of the Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalang ...

and three others in launching the Kataeb (Phalangist) Party. Differences with Gemayel later led Helou to quit the party.

Career

Helou's first governmental appointment was as ambassador to the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

in 1947. In 1949 he took part in the Israel/Lebanese armistice negotiations where Israel tried to gain diplomatic concessions in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese Sovereign territory. He later served in the Cabinet as minister of justice and health (1954–1955) and as minister of education (1964). Initially, Helou's lack of political affiliation gave him the appearance of a leader able to unite Lebanon and he was chosen to succeed

Fuad Chehab Fouad Abdallah Chehab ( / ; 19 March 1902 – 25 April 1973) was a Lebanese general and statesman who served as president of Lebanon from 1958 to 1964. He is considered to be the founder of the Lebanese Army after Lebanon gained independence f ...

as president by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

in 1964.

The alliance between Chehab and Lebanese prime minister

Rashid Karami Rashid Karami (; 30 December 1921 – 1 June 1987) was a Lebanese statesman. He is considered one of the most important political figures in Lebanon for more than 30 years, including during much of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), and serve ...

, a staunch

Arab nationalist Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...

, soon left Karami in effective control of the Lebanese government. Helou founded and launched the

Institute for Palestine Studies The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is the oldest independent nonprofit public service research institute in the Arab world. It was established and incorporated in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1963 and has since served as a model for other such ins ...

in 1963. The most pressing issue that was first to cause problems for Helou was the Israeli diversion of the Jordan River. The impressive

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

growth that characterized Helou's presidency translated into a cultural and lifestyle belle époque in Lebanon (perhaps this gained the name for Beirut as the 'Paris of the Orient' and Lebanon as the 'Switzerland of the East') was due to the efforts launched by the former President Chehab. However this period was also partly marred by the

Intra Bank Intra Bank (also known as Banque Intra or بنك انترا) was a Lebanese bank, and the largest financial institution in Lebanon until its collapse in 1966. Foundation and rise of the bank The bank was founded in 1951 by Yousef Beidas and three ...

crisis of 1966 and Lebanon's increasing inability to avoid involvement in the

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is a geopolitical phenomenon involving military conflicts and a variety of disputes between Israel and many Arab world, Arab countries. It is largely rooted in the historically supportive stance of the Arab League ...

. The

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

of 1967, strained sectarian relations in Lebanon. Many

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

wanted Lebanon to join the Arab war effort, while many Christians wished to eschew participation. Helou managed to keep Lebanon from entanglement, apart from a brief air strike, but found it impossible to put the lid on the tensions that had been raised. Parliamentary elections in 1968 revealed an increasing polarization in the country, with two major

coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

s, one pro-Arab Nationalism, led by Rashid Karami and the other pro-Western, led jointly by former President

Camille Chamoun Camille Nimr Chamoun (, ; 3 April 19007 August 1987) was a Lebanese politician who served as the 2nd president of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. He was one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War. Early yea ...

and

Raymond Eddé Raymond Eddé (; 15 March 1913 – 10 May 2000) was a Lebanese Maronite statesman who served his country for many years as a legislator and cabinet minister. He led the Lebanese National Bloc, an influential political party. The son of former P ...

, both made major gains and won 30 of the 99 seats each. In addition, government authority was challenged by the presence of armed

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

guerrillas in the south of the country, and clashes between the Lebanese

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

and the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO) became increasingly frequent. For a long time, Helou resisted their demands, but in 1969, after failing to end the rebellion militarily, he finally gave in, hoping that the Palestinian guerrillas would confine their operations to cross-border attacks against Israel and would stop challenging the Lebanese government. As it turned out, the clashes only intensified. In 1970, Helou endorsed

Elias Sarkis Elias ( ; ) is the hellenized version for the name of Elijah (; ; , or ), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several holy books. Due to Elias' role in the scriptures and to many later associated tradit ...

as his chosen successor, but the latter lost the election in the National Assembly by one vote to

Suleiman Frangieh Suleiman Kabalan Frangieh (15 June 1910 – 23 July 1992) was a Lebanese politician who served as the 5th president of Lebanon from 1970 to 1976. Early life and education Suleiman Frangieh was a scion of one of the leading Maronites, Maronite f ...

. Unlike other former presidents, who remained politically active after retirement, Helou faded from the scene. He was involved in a philanthropic venture, founding a number of restaurants to provide free hot meals to elderly people.

Personal life

In 1952, he married Nina Trad, niece of Petro Trad, who served as President of the French Mandate of Lebanon and under whom he had studied law. Trad was one of the first women lawyers in Lebanon.

Death

Helou died of a heart attack on 7 January 2001.January 2001
Rulers. Retrieved 30 August 2014. He was 87.

Notes

References