THE ROOT The Marines in Beirut August 1982­–February 1984 Eric Hammel Facing northward out of a second-deck window, the lance corporal was hurled through the window and out into mid- air. He fell thirty feet to the ground and landed on his feet. He was not harmed until falling debris struck him on the head and shoulders. Nearly every other member of the recon platoon in his compartment was killed in the inferno. At 6:22 A.M. on October 23, 1983, a yellow Mercedes truck raced across the parking lot of the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. Crashing through a chain-link gate into the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit’s headquarters compound, it raced on careening through a shack and into the open atrium lobby of a terminal building in which hundreds of American servicemen were housed, many still asleep. The truck lurched to a stop. Seconds later, 12,000 pounds of high explosives piled in the bed of the truck exploded. The four-story steel-and-concrete building shuddered, then collapsed. Two hundred forty-one Americans were killed and many more were injured in the disaster. Soon after the 24th MAU returned to the United States in November 1983, the Marine Corps granted Eric Hammel an unprecedented opportunity to interview survivors of the bombing and those who came to their rescue. The Root is the result of these interviews. It is a narrative account of the Marines’ mission in Lebanon, describing their escalating involvement in the largely unreported battles fought in and around the shattered city of Beirut. And it presents in detail the terrorist attack on the unit headquarters. The focus of The Root is on the nearly 200 people interviewed by the author—enlisted men and officers—for whom the shock and horror at the bombing were still fresh. Their reactions to the danger, what they survived and how they survived it, their concerns and insights, make The Root a timeless chronicle of the human spirit—and as timely as today’s headlines. Praise for The Root “Illustrates Washington’s exceptional resistance to accepting the facts that contradict its preconceived views. . . . It’s time that we learn from our mistakes and never again put our people in situations we do not understand. A first step is to read how our effort in Beirut turned from a noble cause into having our troops pinned down in an escalating civil war we did not understand.” —Colonel Thomas X Hammes, USMC (Ret.), author of The Sling and the Stone It’s a fine book . . . a fascinating record of the life of a military unit . . . “ —New York Times “Hammel has grippingly reconstructed a story that was often obscured as it unfolded.” —Los Angeles Times “Hammel’s detailed account of individual rescue efforts is intensely graphic. . . . It is first-hand and realistic. It is not sensationalized or trivialized.” —New York Tribune “Eric Hammel’s well-written book . . . strikes a deep emotional chord . . .” —Naval Institute Proceedings “(The Root is) a book about the violence of combat, a first-hand account of death and danger, fear, pain and survival. . . . ” —Baltimore Sun “A disturbingly accurate portrait…well-researched (and) well-crafted. . . .” —Kirkus Reviews “This is a moving book which tells a story that needs to be told.” —San Diego Union

On October 23, 1983, nearly simultaneous suicide truck bombings killed 241 U.S. peacekeepers in their barracks at the Beirut International Airport (BIA) and 58 French paratroopers at their headquarters two miles north of BIA. In this long-awaited book, the Marine Corps commander of the U.S. Multi-National Peacekeeping Force that was destroyed by terrorists in Lebanon tells his story for the first time. Together, these suicide bombings comprised the largest nonnuclear explosion ever recorded and are now recognized as a seminal event leading to the current war on terrorism. Such acts of war revealed a new, highly effective tactic, which complemented the terrorist's strategic goals—the withdrawal of the peacekeepers and Western influence from Lebanon and a change in U.S. policy. Peacekeepers at War lays out, in detail, a sequence of events leading up to the suicide truck bombings from which one can extrapolate the rationale, motives, and perpetrators behind it. Geraghty argues that the absence of any retribution against the perpetrators emboldened the terrorists to assume they could attack Americans and Western interests with impunity. This led to kidnappings, torture, and the murders of Americans and other Westerners. Peacekeepers at War will be of interest to general readers who want to learn more about this seminal event and its effects on the current global war on terrorism.

"In this formidable narrative, the prize-winning and super honest reporter, Patrick Sloyan, adds the depth of a scholar's context to produce a gripping reminder of why we should never forget history. He makes readers feel like they were eye witnesses." —Ralph Nader From a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who reported on the events as they happened, an action-packed account of Reagan's failures in the 1983 Marines barracks bombing in Beirut. On October 23, 1983, a truck bomb destroyed the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut. 241 Americans were killed in the worst terrorist attack our nation would suffer until 9/11. We’re still feeling the repercussions today. When Reagan Sent In the Marines tells why the Marines were there, how their mission became confused and compromised, and how President Ronald Reagan used another misguided military venture to distract America from the attack and his many mistakes leading up to it. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Patrick J. Sloyan uses his own contemporaneous reporting, his close relationships with the Marines in Beirut, recently declassified documents, and interviews with key players, including Reagan’s top advisers, to shine a new light on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Reagan’s doomed ceasefire in Beirut. Sloyan draws on interviews with key players to explore the actions of Kissinger and Haig, while revealing the courage of Marine Colonel Timothy Geraghty, who foresaw the disaster in Beirut, but whom Reagan would later blame for it. More than thirty-five years later, America continues to wrestle with Lebanon, the Marines with the legacy of the Beirut bombing, and all of us with the threat of Mideast terror that the attack furthered. When Reagan Sent In The Marines is about a historical moment, but one that remains all too present today.

The author describes his experiences as part of a peacekeeping force in Lebanon, recounts the terrorist bombing that killed 241 American soldiers, and discusses the political implications of the situation

First published in English in 2007 under title: The history of terrorism: from antiquity to al Qaeda.

Exploring visual culture, design and politics in 1960s Beirut, this compelling interdisciplinary study examines a critical period in Lebanon's history.

ACES AGAINST GERMANY The American Aces Speak Volume II Eric Hammel In the second volume of his critically acclaimed series, The American Aces Speak, noted military historian Eric Hammel brings fresh first-person accounts from thirty-nine U.S. Army Air Corps fighter aces who blasted their way across the skies of North Africa, the Mediterranean, and northern and southern Europe in the great crusade against Hitler’s vaunted Luftwaffe and the other Axis air forces. Coupled with a clear, concise historical overview of America’s brilliant air war against the Axis in Europe and North Africa, Hammel’s detailed interviews bring out the most thrilling in-the-cockpit experiences of some of our country’s best pilots. Climb aboard a P-38 Lightning as Maj. Bill Leverette fights America’s highest-scoring single personal air battle against the Luftwaffe. And get into the cockpit of a P-47 Thunderbolt as 15-victory ace Capt. Don Bryan scores his dream kill by outwitting the pilot of a far speedier German jet in the closing days of the war in Europe. As he did in four companion volumes, Hammel has collected some of the very best air-combat tales from America’s war against Germany. Nearly all the stories in Aces Against Germany have never before been told, and the others have been enhanced by details and viewpoints brought out by Hammel’s superb interviewing Together, the five volumes of nearly 200 first-person aerial-combat stories from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam stand as an enduring testament to the combat airmen who fought their wars strapped into the cockpits of America’s lethal high-performance fighter aircraft. Aces Against Germany is a highly charged emotional rendering of the now-dim days of personal combat at the very edge of our living national history. There was never a war like it, and there never will be again. These are the stories of America’s eagles in their very own words. Critical Acclaim for The American Aces Speak Series The Book World says: “Aces Against Japan" is a thunderous, personal, high-adventure book giving our ‘men in the sky’ their own voice.” Book Page says: “Eric Hammel’s book is recommended reading. It is a must for any historian’s bookshelf.” The Library Journal says: “No PR hype or dry-as-dust prose here. Hammel allows his flyers to tell their stories in their own way. Exciting stuff aviation and World War II buffs will love.” The Providence Sunday Journal says: “A treat that deftly blends a chronology of the Pacific War with tales that would rival a Saturday action matinee.” Infantry Magazine says: “If you would like to read one book that will give you a broad overview and yet a detailed look at what a fighter pilot’s air war was like this is the book.” The Bookshelf says: “Hammel is one of our best military historians when it comes to presenting that often complex subject to the general public. He has demonstrated this facility in a number of fine books before [Aces Against Germany] and now he does so again. Not to be missed by either buff or scholar.”