De Clerck and Malsagne say Edmond Naim succeeded Michel el-Khoury at the Central Bank because both the militia chiefs and the unity cabinet could accept him.

The withdrawal was unilateral and staged. Antoine Lahad's militia, renamed the South Lebanon Army and backed by Israel, was to police the 'security zone' Israel kept. Historians date the departure from Sidon to 17 February (Traboulsi), and the fall-back to the security zone to May-June 1985 (de Clerck and Malsagne).

Saad survived, nearly blind, but was absent when Israel left Sidon. The UN spokesman told Fisk Israel had held up clearance by half an hour for the UN helicopter flying him to the American University hospital.

Picard dates the end of the talks with Israel to January 1985 and links it to the Lebanese Forces' revolt two months later.

Annual figures: the pound fell to about 16 to the dollar in 1985 against 6.5 in 1984, with retail inflation of about 70 per cent (Hanf, citing Abou Rjaily and Labaki); de Clerck and Malsagne put the 1985 devaluation at 150 per cent. Hanf notes that rumours of large PLO deposits briefly strengthened the pound in early 1985.

Traboulsi dates Israel's exit from Sidon to 17 February 1985. Fisk describes Christians and Muslims briefly celebrating together when Lebanese troops arrived.

Prime Minister Rashid Karami travelled with Gemayel. Hanf records kidnappings of Christians and counter-kidnappings after several thousand Islamists from Beirut rallied in Sidon next day for an Islamic republic while the army stood aside.

A passenger died on the runway, flung there by the jets' blast, because the hijacker, Fisk writes, made the Larnaca plane take off with its doors open.

Syrian troops entered Zahleh on 7 September after the Lebanese Forces' withdrawal (Hanf).

On 7 October, Hanf writes, 20,000 Syrian soldiers entered Tripoli, after pro-Syrian groups had in September 1985 attacked the Tawheed movement then holding the city; some 250,000 civilians fled.

In Hanf's account Berri offered the Christians a choice: a census to reset sectarian proportions, or an end to proportionality. Asked by Jumblatt why Syria dealt with Hobeika, Khaddam reportedly said everyone in Lebanon was a murderer.

Fisk dates it 1 October 1985, de Clerck and Malsagne September. Arkady Katkov was killed. Fisk thinks Sunni fundamentalists wanted Moscow to make Syria halt its Tripoli offensive against Tawheed. The others' release is credited probably to the KGB and Syria by de Clerck and Malsagne, to Syrian mediation by Hanf.

Fisk: Waite made three Beirut trips; on the first, invited by Islamic Jihad, he stayed in Terry Anderson's flat, met the kidnappers blindfolded and took their message to Washington.

Hobeika and President Gemayel escaped injury only because they were not in their cars when these were attacked; Chamoun, Elie Karami and other Lebanese Front leaders were hurt. Hanf places these attempts in a series that, in his view, hardened the confrontation over the Damascus agreement.

Hanf's 'Flag War': on 21 November alone, Shi'i and Druze fighters fought with tanks and artillery, leaving 65 dead and over 400 abducted. PSP militiamen had replaced the national flags Sixth Brigade soldiers put on public buildings for Independence Day with their party banner.

Hanf says that once the Tripartite Agreement had been signed, on 28 December 1985, Hobeika turned Lebanese Forces units against militias loyal to President Gemayel and the Kataeb.

For Gemayel, says Traboulsi, the accord robbed the presidency of its arbitrating role; they last met on 13-14 January 1986.

Historians date Geagea's takeover to 15 January 1986 (de Clerck and Malsagne; Picard's chronology dates Gemayel's rejection of the accord to the same day). Traboulsi's narrative gives 12 March 1986 instead. De Clerck and Malsagne put the dead at about 800, far above the 100 given here. Hobeika was flown out by army helicopter after an army mediation backed by the patriarch, was briefly exiled in France, then settled in Zahle under Syrian protection.

Hanf dates the main offensive, by SSNP fighters with Syrian support toward Bikfaya (at Douar and on the Baskinta-Bikfaya road), to the second half of February; it was stopped by the Lebanese army.

Hanf writes that Prime Minister Karami joined Jumblatt and Berri in boycotting cabinet sessions chaired by Gemayel, whose resignation the two had demanded after the Tripartite Agreement failed.