Believing that it was a mistake to commit a superpower's forces to a peacekeeping mission, Vessey and the Joint Chiefs in 1982 and 1983 advised against deployment of a Marine contingent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force intended to restore peace among warring factions there. Their advice was not taken, and on October 23, 1983, a truck-bomb attack on the Marine headquarters building in Beirut killed 241 US Marines and Army soldiers. In February 1984, President Ronald Reagan withdrew the contingent from Lebanon.