Annie
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October 17, 2002
America's First War On Terror (by Paul Fallon)
That familiar bell's been going off in my head--the one that tells me when I'm being told something wrong. I�ve heard it a lot lately, ringing out though the fog of words�hollow, shallow and misinformed. Saying, in effect that the war on terrorism is �unprecedented� and �the United States has no right to take out its moral outrage on a sovereign nation,� or �we should seek diplomatic solutions.� Tired sentiments, and dead wrong on all counts. The US has done it before, done it well, and done it largely alone in spite of lackluster support from Congress and no help from European �allies.�
The first time the American flag flew over foreign soil taken in battle came in a war against international terrorists. Unlike today�s brigands, they were not driven by ideology or religion, but by a baser and perhaps more honest lust: gold. But terrorists they were, and our war against them was fought long and hard, in somewhat unconventional but still very real ways. And it was long before all of us were born...
They were known as the Barbary pirates.
Their name came not from the native Berber people of North Africa but from Khair ad Din, known in the West as Barbarossa--or, in English, Redbeard. Coming from the ancient Mediterranean piratical tradition, Barbarossa seized Algiers in 1510, effectively making himself the first sovereign of a modern pirate state. His territorial grab should have been a direct threat to the sultan in Constantinople, but when he pledged his fealty to the throne in exchange for a large cut of the action, he was given regency of Maghrib. His descendants�both biological and methodical�maintained control over the shores of Northern Africa for the next two hundred years.
Forget all the swashbuckling Technicolor imagery of buried treasure and naval battles featuring galleons firing cannons at equally matched opponents conjured up by Hollywood and cheap rum ads. Those are great movies, and fun myths. But the Barbary pirates were murderers, rapists and slave traders. Ransoming hostages, and demanding tribute from merchant princes who wanted to avoid anything �unfortunate� happening to their cargos, were among their favorite tactics. They essentially ran protection rackets, and controlled every form of vice from Alexandria to Gibraltar. Just like modern mobsters, their services were often called upon by a prince-ling here and there who wanted to harass his enemies without showing his own flag.
In 1662 the English crown upped the stakes and began an annual tribute of gold, jewels, arms and supplies, sparing all ships sailing under the crown's flag. The same practice was taken up by France, Spain, The Holy Roman Empire and the Papal states, enabling the Barbary pirates to enrich themselves by playing the old world powers against the other. Both St. Vincent De Paul and Miguel Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) were at one time ransomed by the pirates. Others were not so lucky. Most captives were sold into slavery or prostitution (and I don�t refer here to exclusively female prostitution). The French Christian religious order of Mathurins collected money for the specific purpose of paying ransom for hostages just to spare them from �taking up the turban� (i.e. converting to Islam at the point of the sword).
By the late 1700s the Barbary States included Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, and all points in between, were ruled by a series of Pashas, Beys, Deys and petty potentates all requiring tribute for safe passage. During the colonial period, American ships had sailed under the protection of the British flag. During the War of Independence, safe passage was secured by France, but by 1783 the pirates had turned their attention to �the fat ducks� of the American mercantile fleet. They forced the young republic to shell out $80,000 in annual protection for its ships. These payments were arranged by America�s most prominent diplomats in Europe�John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson�over the strenuous objections of the latter.
In his autobiography, Jefferson wrote that he unsuccessfully �endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredation from them. I accordingly prepared, and proposed �articles of a special confederation.� Jefferson argued that �[t]he object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical States to perpetual peace� Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden were favorably disposed to such an association,� Jefferson remembered, but there were �apprehensions� that England and France would follow their own paths, �and so it fell through.� [1]
The idea of payments to terrorists was as repugnant to Jefferson�s sensibilities as it is to ours. It also begs a question about the extent of early American trade with North Africa (let's not go there for now). However, by this time the Barbary pirates did not limit their assaults to the southern shore of the Mediterranean; they ranged as far north as the west coast of Ireland and eastern Africa, imperiling all American commerce with the Old World.
In 1785 the Dey of Algiers captured an American ship and seized its crew. By 1794 he would take eleven more ships and would hold 119 crewmen for ransom.
Exasperated, Jefferson wrote to Congressman James Madison in 1786 that, despite his personal misgivings concerning a standing military: �[t]he states must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. . . . Every national citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both.� [2]
As Secretary of State under George Washington, Jefferson urged the President to halt the payment of further tributes, arguing it would only encourage greater demands. Unfortunately, the young republic could not afford, and the national sentiment argued against, fighting a war while memories of the War of Independence were still fresh. While Washington himself was vehemently against entanglements in affairs beyond American waters, he none-the-less lobbied Congress to build six new frigates under the aegis of fighting piracy. Jefferson was compelled to instruct his emissary, John Paul Jones, to negotiate the price of freedom of the seas from the pirates--only to have his entreaties rejected.
The Adams administration continued the practice of paying tribute to the pirates despite building a stronger navy. �In 1795 Congress authorized the equivalent of $642,500 in cash, munitions, and a 36-gun frigate, besides a yearly tribute of $21,600 worth of naval supplies. Ransom rates were officially set for those Americans already in Barbary prisons--$4,000 for each passenger, $1,400 for each cabin boy. But Congress would only pay $200 for their freedom. The rest of the money had to be raised privately.� [3] (Read the treaty here.)
After the hostages were released, the story of their captivity finally made an impact on the national consciousness. �They were fed near-starvation rations, beaten regularly, and put to work breaking rocks on chain gangs, or scraping barnacles off ship hulls. Some of them had been imprisoned for 12 years, waiting for their countrymen to save them�. It was too late for 31 of the hostages, who had died in captivity.�[4]
Further humiliations were in store. When Captain William Bainbridge sailed the frigate George Washington into the harbor of Algiers in 1800 to pay America�s tribute, his ship was commandeered by the Dey�s forces. The crew was coerced into hauling down the American flag, raising the Dey�s banner, and sailing on to Constantinople to convey the Dey�s homage to the sultan. Bainbridge refused at first but was rebuffed, �You pay me tribute, by which you become my slave, and therefore I have a right to order you as I think proper.� [5]
Upon returning to Algiers Bainbridge escaped further service only by brandishing his pistol at the Dey. Returning to America he wrote the secretary of the Navy: �I hope I shall never again be sent to Algiers with tribute, unless I am authorized to deliver it from the mouth of our cannon.� [6]
The other Barbary States were buoyed by the Dey�s success: �Yusuf, the Pasha of Tripoli, seeing the weakness of the Americans, decided to increase demands on the United States. Among the trifles he ordered as part of the American tribute were several diamond-studded guns. On the occasion of the death of George Washington, the Pasha informed President Adams that it was customary when a great man passed away from a tributary state to make a gift in his name to the crown of Tripoli. Yusuf estimated Washington to be worth about $10,000.� [7]
The tide of events turned when Jefferson became president, following �The Revolution of 1800�. Sentiment had shifted. The slogan of the day became: �Millions for defense, not a penny for tribute.� Jefferson immediately put an end to the payment of Barbary blackmail, which had exceeded approx. $2,000,000 (at a time when the annual income of the United States was approx. $10,000,000) and dispatched Commodore Dale to set sail for the Mediterranean leading a task force: the frigates Philadelphia, Essex, and President, and the sloop Enterprise.
�By the spring of 1801, Yusuf had heard nothing about his $10,000 and his impatience with America had grown to a fine rage. The Pasha summoned the American representative to his court, made him kiss his hand and decreed that, as a penalty, tribute would be raised to $225,000, plus $25,000 annually in goods of his choice. If refused, the alternative was war. To make his point, Yusuf had his soldiers chop down the flagpole in front of the American consulate, a significant gesture in a land of no tall trees--and one that meant war�. [8]
Little was achieved at first. Since Congress had not declared war on the Barbary pirates, there was little that could be done but blockade ports along the 1,200-mile coastline and harass the pirate corsairs. In one successful engagement, the captain of the Enterprise had a the guns and booty of an Algerian cruiser thrown overboard, forcing the crew to return to port and resulting in the public torture and ritualistic humiliation of the captain. But since naval enlistment only lasted for one year and allies were absent, the taskforce was required to return to American waters for fresh provisioning and a new crew.
In 1802 a larger compliment commanded by Commodore Richard V. Morris, consisting of the frigates Chesapeake, Constitution, New York, John Adams, Adams, (both named for John Adams, the �father of the American Navy�and Enterprise, patrolled the southern Mediterranean. Tripoli harbor was blockaded in May, and the Chesapeake destroyed a Tripolitan flotilla and fired upon the on-shore cavalry. These actions, and the demonstrably greater show of force convinced Algiers and Tunis to break their alliance with Tripoli.
Despite success against the pirates, Congress still refused to declare war. but had no compunction against raising a special tax for �protection of commerce by the navy.�
Commodore Edward Preble was able to compel the sultan of Morocco to abandon hostilities in 1803 by sailing to Tangiers and pointing his cannons at the sultan�s palace. However, Preble�s command was undone by a serious setback when the luckless Captain William Bainbridge, who ran aground while trying to single-handedly blockade Tripoli harbor and was quickly surrounded by the Pasha�s men. The three hundred and seven crewmen of the Philadelphia were taken prisoner. The officers were held for ransom, the enlisted men were pressed into slavery. Preble offered to pay first $50,000 and then $100,000 for the safe return of the Philadelphia and her crew. Pasha Yusuf would have none of it. He was re-rigging the Philadelphia and planned to turn it on the American fleet. Something more effective would need to be done.
