Mercenaries: Soldiers of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today#s Private Military Companies

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Random House Publishing Group, Dec 18, 2007 - History - 288 pages
SOLDIERS OF $$

Privateers, contract killers, corporate warriors. Contract soldiers go by many names, but they all have one thing in common: They fight for money and plunder rather than liberty, God, or country. Now acclaimed author and war vet Michael Lee Lanning traces the compelling history of these fighting machines–from the “Sea Peoples” who fought for the pharaohs’ greater glory to today’s soldiers for hire from private military companies (PMCs) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What emerges is a fascinating account of the men who fight other people’s wars–the Greeks who built an empire for Alexander the Great, the Nubians who accompanied Hannibal across the Alps, the Irish who became the first to go global in their search for work. Soldiers of fortune have always had the power to change the course of war, and Lanning examines their pivotal roles in individual battles and in the rise and fall of empires.

As the employment of contract soldiers spreads in Iraq and America’s War on Terrorism–the U.S. paid $30 billion to PMCs in 2003 alone–Mercenaries offers a valuable inside look at a system that appears embedded in our nation’s future.

Includes eight pages of photographs
 

Selected pages

Contents

First Mercenaries
1
The Greeks
11
Carthage and Rome
24
Middle Ages
35
Italy and the Condottieri
42
The Swiss
52
Wild Geese
64
Hessians
78
Executive Outcomes
176
Sandline International
187
Military Professional Resources Incorporated MPRI
196
Expansion of Private Military Companies
205
United States of America
215
Opposition and Legislation
223
Opportunities and the Future
231
Appendices A Treaty between Great Britain and HesseCassel 1776
235

French Foreign Legion
87
Gurkhas
102
Mercenaries at Sea
112
Mercenaries in the Air
123
Vietnam
142
Africa
152
B French Foreign Legionnaires Code of Honor
241
Letter of Marque
243
Private Military Contract between Sandline International and Papua New Guinea 1997
245
E Protocol Addition to the Geneva Convention
257
Bibliography
267
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

Michael Lee Lanning retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel after more than twenty years’ service. During his assignment to Vietnam, he served as both an infantry platoon leader and a company commander in the 199th Infantry Brigade (Light). He is the author of fourteen books, including Inside the LRRPs, Inside Force Recon, and Inside the Crosshairs.

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