Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation - Hardcover

by Joshua London (Author)

At the dawn of a new century, a newly elected U.S. president was forced to confront an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists sworn to carry out jihad against all Western powers. As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates. Victory in Tripoli recounts the untold story of one of the defining challenges overcome by the young U.S. republic. This fast-moving and dramatic tale examines the events that gave birth to the Navy and the Marines and re-creates the startling political, diplomatic, and military battles that were central to the conflict. This highly interesting and informative history offers deep insight into issues that remain fundamental to U.S. foreign policy decisions to this day.

Front Jacket

As a new century dawned, a newly elected U.S. president was forced to confront a grave threat to the nation--an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists sworn to carry out jihad against all Western powers. Worse still, these fanatics operated under the protection and sponsorship of rogue states ruled by ruthless and cunning dictators. As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

Victory in Tripoli recounts the untold story of one of the defining challenges overcome by the young U.S. republic. This fast-moving and dramatic tale examines the events that gave birth to the Navy and the Marines, recounting the harrowing experiences of U.S. seamen held as slaves in North Africa for more than a decade and re-creating the startling political, diplomatic, and military battles that were central to the conflict.

The story begins with humiliation: a U.S. warship--the first ever in the Mediterranean Sea--sailing into the harbor of Algiers to pay protection money to Algerine ruler Dey Bobba Mustafa. This custom of paying pirates not to attack merchant vessels, long practiced by the European powers, rankled the ship's captain, William Bainbridge, as well as U.S. consuls Richard O'Brien and William Eaton. Over the next five years, these men, along with a handful of others, would do everything in their power to end this policy of appeasement and bring U.S. power to bear against the Barbary pirates.

Standing alone against the pirates, the United States resorted to naval blockades, covert operations and night raids, amphibious assaults, brute force, attempted regime change through a coup d'etat, employment of mercenary forces, and, finally, the betrayal of a trusted ally in its quest for victory. The young nation would learn valuable lessons in cross-cultural diplomacy, diplomatic maneuvering, and the projection of military might as an extension of public policy.

Victory in Tripoli examines every aspect of the first U.S. military campaign through foreign lands--from the spectacular naval heroics of the legendary Stephen Decatur to Eaton's perilous march across the Sahara, from Jefferson's flip-flopping on the use of force to petty squabbles among diplomats that produced dire consequences for the United States. This highly interesting and informative history offers deep insight into issues that remain fundamental to U.S. foreign policy decisions to this day.

Back Jacket

This is a tale of piracy, heroism, disaster, triumph, and American exceptionalism. A wonderful story, filling a gap in the history of the early republic. A terrific book!
--Bernard Cornwell, New York Times bestselling author of Sharpe's Havoc

"Insightful and entertaining, Victory in Tripoli is an absolutely fascinating story, wonderfully told. Anyone with even a passing interest in naval history, or U.S. history in general, should read this book."
--Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., USN (Ret.), former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

"Victory in Tripoli deftly captures the dangers of covert operations, the complexity of international diplomacy, and the thrills and horrors of battle. Joshua E. London's exciting and insightful look at one of America's earliest and seldom remembered foreign escapades offers much for the keen observer of current events."
--Charles T. Pinck, president of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society

"History shall tell that the United States first volunteered a ship of war, equipped, a carrier for a pirate. . . . Frankly I own, I would have lost the peace and been impaled myself rather than yield such a concession. Will nothing rouse my country!"
--William Eaton, in a letter to the secretary of state, 1800

Giving money, arms, and a warship to a pirate who has attacked our merchant vessels and taken U.S. sailors as slaves? William Eaton, United States consul to Tunis, was furious. Eaton, however, was not a man given to impotent rage. He was intent on ending the custom of paying protection money to the Barbary pirates of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. His plan: to reverse the roles of diplomacy in the region by taking the fight straight to the piratical regimes.

Over the next five years, the fledgling U.S. Navy would develop into a formidable force as it employed blockades, covert operations, amphibious assaults, brute force, and even mercenaries to make the Mediterranean safe for U.S. merchant ships. Victory in Tripoli tells the inspiring story of how Eaton and a few other determined Americans forced their young nation to stand up to terrorism. It is an eerily familiar tale whose lessons remain central to U.S. foreign policy to this day.

Author Biography

JOSHUA E. LONDON is a Washington, D.C.-based writer. He has written on politics and public policy for many publications, including the American Spectator, Human Events, National Review Online, and Details: Promoting Jewish Conservative Values. London holds an M.A. in social science from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Davis.