Did America win its independence because British generals were too busy canoodling with their mistresses? Should America have annexed Mexicoall of itand Cuba too? Did 1776 justify Southern secession in the nineteenth century? Should Patton have been promoted over Eisenhower? Did the U.S. military winand Congress losethe Vietnam War? Was it right to depose Saddam Husseinand is it wrong to worry about a possible Iraqi civil war? The answer to these questions is a resounding yes, says author H. W. Crocker III in this stirring and contrarian new book. In Dont Tread on Me, Crocker unfolds four hundred years of American military history, revealing how Americans were born Indian fighters whose military prowess carved out first a continental and then a global empirea Pax Americana that has been a benefit to the world. From the seventeenth century on, he argues, Americans have shown a jealous regard for their freedomand have backed it up with an unheralded skill in small-unit combat operations, a tradition that includes Rogers Rangers, Merrills Marauders, and todays Special Forces.He shows that Americans were born to the foam too, with a mastery of naval gunnery and tactics that allowed Americas Navy, even in its infancy, to defeat French and British warships and expand American commerce on the seas. Most of all, Crocker highlights the courage of the dogface infantry, the fighting leathernecks, and the daring sailors and airmen who have turned the tide of battle again and again. In Dont Tread on Me, still forests are suddenly pierced by the Rebel Yell and a surge of grey. Teddy Roosevelts spectacles flash in the sunlight as he leads his Rough Riders charging up San Juan Hill. American doughboys rip into close-quarters combat against the Germans. Marines drive the Japanese out of their island fortresses using flamethrowers, grenades, and guts. GIs slug their way into Hitlers Germany. The long twilight struggle against communism is fought in the snows of Korea and the steaming jungles of Vietnam. And today, U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Army Rangers battle Islamist terrorists in the bleak mountains of Afghanistan, just as their forebears fought Barbary pirates two hundred years ago. Fast-paced and riveting, Dont Tread on Me is a bold look at the history of America at war. Also available as an eBookFrom the Hardcover edition.
