Hold High The Torch

The Banana Wars is the first history of the rise of the United States as a military power in this hemisphere - from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to the recent Grenadan and Panama interventions. It concerns most of all the men sent to maintain order in remote locales - the military governors, generals, and officers - and also the State Department officials, congressmen, and Presidents who pulled the strings back home. In his gripping account based on primary sources, Ivan Musicant re-creates the experiences of the men who served: daring feats that have become the stuff of military lore, unsung day-to-day duties, successes and failures. (from book cover).