Keeping Kissinger Current at the Outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War
Ted Feifer wrote daily briefs for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the outbreak of Lebanon’s civil war in 1975. By the time it ended in approximately 1990, the war had claimed the lives of over 120,000 civilians. Feifer was on his first tour in the Foreign Service, which found him working in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence Research (INR). As the war intensified, Feifer’s duties expanded. He was responsible for describing the various sectarian and political militias participating in the fighting, including the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Often coming into work as early as midnight, Feifer would analyze the growing complexities of the war before compressing them into two-page briefs and handing them off to Secretary Kissinger’s assistants at six the following morning. Feifer joined the Foreign Service in 1974; during his career with the Department of State he served in various posts throughout Europe and the Middle East. Feifer also served as Deputy Director of Egyptian Affairs at the Office of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) before retiring from the State Department in 2000. Feifer was interviewed by ADST’s Charles Stuart Kennedy in October 2015.