Dory Chamoun is the elder son of the late Camille Chamoun (1900–1987), who was President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958. An industrialist by profession, he initially showed much less interest in politics than his younger brother, Dany Chamoun. During the Lebanese Civil War, Dory briefly replaced his brother Dany as commander of the NLP's military wing, the Tigers Militia, between July–August 1980, prior to its disbandment by order of their father following the Safra massacre perpetrated by the Lebanese Forces (LF) led by Bachir Gemayel, which eliminated the backbone of the NLP militia and incorporated the rest into the LF structure.