The Us Marine campaign against Tripoli was the beginning of US foreign policy crisis management overseas. Barbary pirates had captured three hundred sailors and marines committing a hostage crisis of immense portions and humiliation for a new republic. A booked chronicles this war and the role of general William Eaton who was Americans first overseas war hero for his role of defeating the vicious pirates of Tripoli. A book called "The Pirate Coast" tells this unlikely story of how Eaton was sent to find an exiled prince to install as leader. The brutal campaign into an ecological nightmare that is North Africa is repeated with extraordinary detail as the horrifying journey for these Marines is told. Richard Zacks book is a story of courage and persevere of these early warriors battling the hostile camp of Islamic depravity that was these Barbary pirates who preyed on small villagers and profiting from another form of slavery.
The important diplomacy and difficult warfare set a standard for policy that wold be used over and over again. This book offers an interesting perspective of early American sea and land fighting-style and ends with a look at the growing rivalry between Thomas Jefferson and this war hero named Eaton. The political football between these two guys could be a book on its own and curiously some jealousy may have played a factor of Jefferson's part witnessing this guy turn around his political career. Eaton would despite Jefferson's sabotage attempts, make the five hundred mile journey and attack Tripoli despite all odds and constant harassment for desert Bedouin rapids camel jockeys. This war ended the age-old European mood of granting gifts to pirates as a similar method of pacifying the loyalties and peace of Native Americans with gifts and ransom payments to ward of piracy from these Muslim pillagers. The power of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algeria was rightfully floundering with the rise of the United States Marine force who methods and tactics overwhelmed a barbaric system from The Barbary coast and awoke Arabs to a new order of sea power and trade that would put these savages n the defense and back towards the pothole of humanity and the chain of power.an old look at an old Muslim-American war
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