Merc: American Soldiers of Fortune by Jay Mallin

Merc: American Soldiers ofFortune by Jay Mallin

Merc is a classic; firstpublished in 1979, its characters and stories are as vivid and worthy ofretelling today. American soldiers of fortune have seen action on nearly everybattlefield in history - from the Revolutionary War to modern times, men likeJohn Early, a member of the famed Selous Scouts who hunted terrorists inRhodesia. They fight because they enjoy combat, for causes in which theypassionately believe, for money, or simply for adventure. The mercs profiled inthis book range from West Point graduates and Harvard poets to former CIAagents and ex-cons. They are men like William Morgan, a guerrilla leader in theCuban uprising against Fulgencio Batista, later imprisoned and executed byFidel Castro; David Marcus, raised in New York's Hell's Kitchen, who went on toa brilliant career in law and reform politics and died in 1947 fighting for thesurvival of a tiny new nation called Israel; William Brooks, Vietnam SpecialForces veteran who, down and out in a cheap Paris hotel, joined the FrenchForeign Legion and ended up in a remote African outpost where he lived on Coke,salt tablets and paregoric while fighting Somali insurgents; and George Bacon,an ex-CIA operative in Laos with mysterious connections, who died fightingCubans in Angola. Because their private histories parallel the larger historyof unconventional warfare and political upheaval, Merc: American Soldiers ofFortune provides insight into global conflicts, but most of all it is afast-paced, eye-opening account of a little-known but fascinating way of life.