Suleiman Frangieh Suleiman Kabalan Frangieh , last name also spelled Frangié , Franjieh , or Franjiyeh ( 15 June 1910 - 23 July 1992 ) ( ) , was President of Lebanon from 1970 to 1976 and a Christian warlord . Frangieh was also a zaim , the leader of his group , and a strongman of very controversial reputation . Early life and education . Suleiman Frangieh was a scion of one of the leading Maronite families of Zgharta , near Tripoli ; the family ' s name comes from the Greek " Φρὰγκοι " ( pron . " Franggi " ) , after the Franks . Frangieh was born in Zgharta on 15 June 1910 . He was the second son of a politician , Kabalan Suleiman Frangieh . His mother was Lamia Raffoul . Kabalan Frangieh was District Governor of Ehden ( 1908 - 1913 ) and a Member of Parliament ( 1929 - 1932 ) . His grandfather , Suleiman Ghnatios Frangieh , was District Governor of Ehden ( 1904 - 1908 ) . Suleiman Frangieh ' s brother Hamid served as Foreign Minister under the French mandate in 1939 . Suleiman Kabalan Frangieh received education at Antoura , near Beirut . He was also educated in Tripoli and Beirut . Career and presidency . Suleiman Frangieh dealt with the export - import business in Beirut for a time before his political career . In 1957 , he was accused in the machine - gun slaying of more than a score of members of a competing clan , the Douaihys , in a church not far from Zgharta . More specifically , he was believed to be responsible for killing around 700 people , 20 of them Christians shot to death during a requiem mass in the north Lebanese town of Miziara . Therefore , he had to take refuge in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia , where he met with two Syrian army officers , Hafez and Rifaat Assad who would be his friends . In 1958 , he benefited from the amnesty and returned to Lebanon . In 1960 , Frangieh was elected to his elder brother Hamid ' s old seat in the Lebanese Parliament . He also became the head of his clan due to his elder brother Hamid ' s illness . Frangieh was reelected to the Parliament in 1964 and 1968 . Until 1970 , he held the following ministerial posts : minister of post , telegraph and telephone ( 1960 - 1961 ) , minister of agriculture ( 1961 ) , minister of interior ( 1968 ) , minister of justice ( 1968 - 1969 ) and minister of economy ( 1968 - 1970 ) . In the closest and possibly most controversial presidential election in Lebanese history , the National Assembly elected Frangieh to the Presidency of the Republic on 23 September 1970 . He owed his upset victory over Elias Sarkis , the official candidate of the Chehabi regime to a last minute change of mind by Kamal Jumblatt , whose supporters in the Parliament switched their votes to Frangieh . Posing as a consensus candidate , Frangieh drew support from both the right and the left and from all religious factions ; his election was a backlash to the administrations of Presidents of Fuad Chehab ( 1958 – 1964 ) and Charles Helou ( 1964 – 1970 ) and the " Deuxième Bureau " ( ) run by the preceding two administrations of Chehab and Helou , as the opposing candidate Elias Sarkis who was head of the Banque du Liban ( Central Bank of Lebanon ) was widely seen as a continuation of the earlier Chehabi regime . There were three rounds of elections that year : Round 1 - 99 Deputies , 5 candidates - no majority Round 2 - 99 Deputies , 2 candidates - 50 votes each ( 1 fake vote found ) , round was negated . Round 3 - 99 Deputies , 2 candidates , Kamal Jumblatt assigns one of his deputies to vote for Frangieh . Suleiman Frangieh becomes President legally . The events listed above as per the testimony of the late Kamal Joumblatt of his role in the vote . Sabri Hamadeh , then Speaker of Parliament , had refused to announce the election of a President on a 1 - vote difference . As Hamadeh exited parliament Michel Sassine , Deputy Speaker of Parliament , stepped up and exercised his powers of Deputy to announce Frangieh President . Frangieh ' s term lasted until 22 September 1976 . Frangie ' s term ended in 1976 when Elias Sarkis was elected as president . However , Sarkis could move to office four months after his election on 23 September 1976 , since Frangieh objected at first to leave office . The civil war years . Civil war in Lebanon began on 13 April 1975 . Frangieh as the Lebanese President declared the Constitutional Document on 14 February 1976 that was the first serious initiative to end the conflict and reach a consensus . The document empowered prime minister and suggested a " parity between Christians and Muslims in Parliament " , reducing the power of Maronites . Although it was supported by major politicians and religious leaders , it could not achieve its objectives . Then Frangieh invited Syrian troops into Lebanon in May 1976 in the early stages of the Lebanese civil war . He had full support of the Lebanese Christians in this regard , since they thought that Syria would able to force a cease - fire and protect Christians . He is regarded as in large part being responsible for Lebanon ' s descent into war in the mid - 1970s . When the Lebanese Civil War began , Frangieh maintained a militia , the Marada Brigade , under the command of his son Tony Frangieh . He initially participated in the Lebanese Front , a right - wing , mainly Christian , coalition of politicians and militia leaders , but in early 1978 he broke with them because of his own pro - Syrian leanings . In June 1978 , Tony , together with his wife and infant daughter , was assassinated by militiamen with Phalangist militia being accused of the plot . The killings are known as Ehden massacre after which the power of the Frangiehs decreased . Ever since then , Suleiman Frangieh was reported to have been depressed . He swore to take revenge , declaring in an interview " the family will exact its retribution . " By some accounts , he went on to engineer the killing of hundreds of Phalange members . Later years . Frangieh remained an ally of Syria . In July 1983 , after Amine Gemayel became president , Frangieh along with Rashid Karami and Walid Jumblatt formed a Syrian - backed National Salvation Front to challenge Gemayel ' s rule and the pact between Lebanon and Israel that was financially supported by the US . Later Syria tried to make Frangieh president for second term after the end of Amine Gemayel ' s term in 1988 , but the National Assembly failed to achieve a quorum owing to a boycott by some Christian parliamentarians enforced by the Lebanese Forces militia . In fact , Frangieh announced his candicacy on 17 August 1988 . Personal life . Suleiman Frangieh had five children with his Egypt - born wife , Iris Handaly : two sons , Tony and Robert , and three daughters , Lamia , Sonia and Maya . In June 1978 , Suleiman Frangieh ' s son Tony Frangieh , himself then a Member of Parliament , was killed together with his wife , Vera , three - year - old daughter , Jihane , and thirty other Marada partisans in the Ehden Massacre . Suleiman Frangieh , Jr . , the son of the murdered MP , first became the Minister of Public Health at the age of 22 , and he served as the Ministry of Interior from 2004 to 2005 . He is known to have served with the Marada Brigade in the 1980s . Frangieh was called in Lebanon as " the tough man " due to his harsh tongue , volatile temper and ruthless approach to some of his opponents . Robert Fisk describes Frangieh as a " Christian warlord , mafioso , militia strongman , grief - stricken father , corrupt president , mountain baron and , eventually , a thoughtful , intelligent , rather frightening old man , living out his last years beside the lions of Ehden . " Death . Suleiman Frangieh died at age 82 in the hospital of the American University in Beirut , after three weeks of hospitalization , on 23 July 1992 . He reportedly died of acute pneumonia and had heart and stomach ailments . He was buried in Ehden next to his son Tony .