(MNF) needed as part of the deal to get the PLO out of Beirut was not coming together easily.

Beirut was capturing the headlines, but, far from being an isolated problem, it seemed almost a symbol of a world in disarray. Daniel Southerland wrote in the Christian Science Monitor on July 15: George Shultz faces a world in turmoil, and the world will not wait. Rarely has a new secretary of state had to deal with so many upheavals occurring in so many places around the world. He was right. As I headed for my confirmation hearings, I knew I would face stiff and difficult questions, but they were the least of my problems. The world was in turmoil, and creative engagement from the United States of America wasme accountability. If confirmed, I would be on the firing line again and again in hearings and sessions on Capitol Hill, where I would give and get information, and explain and defend our policies on behalf of the president. This accountability, through continuing public interaction with the Congress and the public, critically distinguishes cabinet members from staff members in the White House, the National Security Council (NSC), or elsewhere in the executive branch who have no such requirement or tradition of public accountability.

The Hearings Begin

July 13, 1982: the hearing room was jammed, the atmosphere electric with anticipation of what might come—a circus, an assault, an explosive argument. I sat alone at the center table, arranged so that I looked up at the senators seated around a horseshoe table