During the Lebanese Civil War, the party and its militia were a small but active part of the Maronite-led alliance fighting the Palestinians represented by the Rejectionist Front and PLO, and its allies in the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) of Kamal Jumblatt. During the early fighting in the war, the party was implicated in the massacres of Karantina and Tel al-Zaatar. In 1977, the main Christian-backed militias (LRP plus the National Liberal Party and the Kataeb Party) formed the Lebanese Front coalition. Their militias joined under the name of the Lebanese Forces, but the Lebanese Forces soon fell under the command of Bashir Gemayel and the Phalange. The Lebanese Renewal Party (LRP) and the Guardians of the Cedars were uncompromisingly opposed to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.