Peacekeepers at war: Beirut 1983-the Marine commander tells his story

Abstract

On October 23, 1983, 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 book, the Marine Corps commander of U.S. Multi-National Peacekeeping Force destroyed by terrorists in Lebanon tells his story. Together, these suicide bombings comprised largest nonnuclear explosion ever recorded and are now recognized as a seminal event leading to current war on terrorism. Such acts of war revealed a new, highly effective tactic, which complemented the terrorists' strategic goals, the withdrawal of peacekeepers and Western influence from Lebanon and a change in U.S. policy. It lays out, in detail, a sequence of events leading up to suicide truck bombings from which one can extrapolate the rationale, motives, and perpetrators behind it. Geraghty argues that absence of any retribution against the perpetrators emboldened terrorists to assume they could attack Americans and Western interests with impunity. This led to kidnappings, torture, and murders of Americans and other Westerners. This book 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--Publisher's description.