Attack on U.S. Embassy in Beirut - An Analysis

ANALYZING ATTACK ON U.S. EMBASSY IN BEIRUT
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Introduction
The United States of America has been a target of many terrorist attacks. These are often from weaker countries that have identified the superpower country as a target. The attacks could be on the country's mainland or seen in several historical events towards the embassies located in a foreign land. These attacks are often met with radical counter-terrorism efforts and changes in foreign policy by the government of the united states.
The Beirut attack in Lebanon was a continuation of a series of attacks by political enemies of the United States towards its citizens working as diplomatic personnel and on the facility they worked in. On April 18, 1983, the bombing of the American embassy resulted in several deaths, of whom seventeen were all American citizens (Dammarell 1994, p. 16). The suicide bomber drove a truck filled with two thousand pounds of explosives around one o'clock in the afternoon into the building. The truck exploded, resulting in the collapse of the building and massive casualties.
Not much research has been done focusing on this specific event. This event would mark the beginning of other terrorist attacks targeting the United States in the years that followed. A similar and more significant attack that took more precedence over this one was the attack on the marine barracks later in October of the same year in Lebanon that resulted in the death of 241 U.S. Marines. The second attack was vital to the United States government's actions, including its withdrawal as a peacemaker in the ongoing civil war in Lebanon.
Several studies, however, include the attack in their discussion, primarily focusing on how the government mitigated the events and how the responses still influence the United States today. Below is an analysis of three of those studies and what I learned from them.
Hidden Fears, Helpful Memories: Aftermath of the 1983 Bombing Of the United States Embassy in Beirut, a Research Thesis by Anne Dammarell, 1994
One of the research studies focusing on this specific attack was a research thesis done by Anne Dammarell in 1994 from Georgetown University. As one of the victims who survived the attack on that day, she chose to write about her experience to fulfill her master's degree qualification in Liberal Studies. In her thesis, she examined the consequences the attack had on Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) concerning stress. The author argued that she had noticed that not much research had been produced on the attack. The available material was accounts published in articles by officers on their version of events that occurred that day. However, she noticed that there was not much-documented research literature on victims' reactions to terrorism attacks. With this in mind, her thesis would focus on the reactions of her fellow FSOs who suffered from the attack.
In the thesis, the author noted that most of the survivors did not suffer from physical injuries as she did but were victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (Dammarell 1994, p. 22). She highlights how the workers were not usually prepared for war or the aftermath of war should they happen during deployment. She noted that her research subjects went back to work and continued "business as usual" as if nothing had happened. In response to the attack, she reported that the Department of State did well by providing professional psychiatrists to attend to the officers. They even produced videos to help them process the trauma. However, despite the efforts made by the government, the author still noted that the event was dismissed as minor. While the marines got a day to reckon their attack ten years later, she and her colleagues were expected to go back to their lives.
Other notable responses towards the aftermath noted by the author include the change in the training courses in Foreign Service Institute and how FSOs were handled after a traumatic event. She also noted that the Inman report of 1985 based on the attack resulted in the operational restructuring of security activities (Dammarell 1994, p. 62). This also resulted in the development of the Bureau for Diplomatic Security. The above thesis qualified as the only available research that is entirely based on the Beirut Embassy attack. The researcher, being a victim herself of the attack, provided her experience and that of her colleagues, examined the different ways the government responded in line with her research topic, and made recommendations of how she wishes the situation ...