Diary Entry - 10/23/1983
Key Facts
President Reagan is informed that over 100 US Marines had been killed in a suicide bombing attack in Beirut, Lebanon.
President Reagan returns to the White House from his golf trip ahead of schedule to deal with the situation in Lebanon.
About 2:30 in the morning awakened again: this time with the tragic news that more than 100 Marines in Beirut had been killed by a car bomb driven by a suicide driver who drove the truck right into the H.Q. building & blew up with it. All our plans changed—we arranged to depart the cottage at 6:30 A.M. & go back to Wash. Of course by this time it was Sun. Oct. 23. I’ve spent the day in meetings on this & Grenada. We’re going to go on with the invasion. Tonite our men are staging a landing to gather intelligence. If everything is OK tomorrow night is D. day—well actually it will be early morning Tues. Meanwhile Gen. Kelley (Marines) is leaving for Lebanon. We all believe Iranians did this bombing just as they did with our embassy last April.
