The New York Herald Tribune, April, 30, 1964.
BEIRUT — Lebanon is as old as time and as new as tomorrow, and its face is constantly changing. This narrow strip of the eastern Mediterranean seaboard, which lies between Syria and Israel, has been an important trading center ever since the days when it was a stop on the spice route.
Beirut, its capital, is the seething communications hub of the Middle East, where planes from every point on the globe touch down, linking four continents. The city is an anachronism in which fast-paced sophistication, and slothful, time-worn customs are crazily juxtaposed.
In the old quarter men sit all day long in obscure cafes, playing cards and puffing at their water-pipes, and the bazaar teems with colors, smells, cries and milling throngs, as it has for centuries.