Charles Hélou

Charles Hélou (born December 25, 1912, Beirut, Lebanon—died January 7, 2001, Zalka) was the president of Lebanon from 1964 to 1970.

Hélou was educated at St. Joseph’s University (1919–29) in Beirut and received a law degree from the French faculty of law there. He founded two French-language newspapers, L’Eclair du Nord (Aleppo, 1932) and Le Jour (Beirut, 1935–46). He served as ambassador to the Vatican in 1947 and later held several cabinet posts, including minister of justice and health (1954–55) and education (1964). Though noted more as a diplomat than a leader, Hélou was elected by parliament to succeed outgoing president Fuad Chehab in 1964.

Not long after his inauguration, Hélou agreed at an Arab summit meeting to Arab sponsorship of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but he refused to allow the stationing of PLO bases in Lebanon, an issue that grew increasingly explosive in the course of his term. In 1968–69 a pattern emerged in which the Christian president and the army command opposed the stationing of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon, while the Muslim prime minister, Rashid Karami, favoured it. Under great pressure from Arab nations and from Lebanese Muslims, Hélou in 1969 moved to avert a crisis by accepting Karami’s proposed policy of coordination between the PLO and the Lebanese army, whereby the PLO secured the right to establish armed units in Lebanese refugee camps.

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Hélou was barred constitutionally from serving a second consecutive term as president, and in 1970 he left office. Thereafter he had little involvement in politics, though he briefly served as minister of state in 1979.