El Dorado Canyon. Joseph Stanik

in counterinsurgency tactics. In Somalia medical and engineering units conducted training exercises for their Somali hosts. In Oman a thousand Marines carried out an amphibious landing near that country’s border with South Yemen. By the time the exercise concluded on 24 November, the United States had demonstrated its commitment to regional allies, had blocked Libyan exploitation of the Sadat assassination, and had minimized the influence of the Libya–Ethiopia–South Yemen pact.¹³⁷

      Sadat’s shocking death and its aftermath dominated the administration’s Middle East policy during most of October and November. The matter of Qaddafi’s threat to assassinate Reagan still remained, however, and by late fall the threat developed into a brief crisis.