McDonalds' executives aim to open three more restaurants by the year 2000. There is a belief and faith in the United States' productivity, quantity and quality. The Lebanese crave McDonald's, GMs, Fords and all things American because of their good quality. Lebanon has few restrictions on foreign investment. There is a competitive, open-market commercial orientation, and the most liberal banking regime in the Middle East.
Cheap labor is plentiful and there is little government regulation.
Single-nationality Americans once accounted for 20 percent of the staff at the American University of Beirut. Now they account for less than 1 percent. Coca-Cola assumed full control of a local bottling plant more than a year ago in hopes of overtaking Pepsi as the largest soft drink maker in the country. The wealth of American-made choices makes it clear that the Lebanese draw a distinction between America as a cultural symbol and America as a political entity. There is no hatred for Americans, only for U.S. foreign policy.