Plot to Steal Florida : James Madison's Phony War [first edition]

In this fascinating complete and dramatic account of President James Madison's plot to wrest the territory of Florida from Spain in 1811 - a true-to-life historical thriller - Joseph Burkholder Smith demonstrates with erudition, wit and historical perspective that long before Vietnam and Watergate this republic's Founding Fathers practiced their own covert manipulation of the American public and foreign governments in near-Nixonian proportions. In what was to become the United States' first major covert action, an historic precursor to Watergate, President Madison attempted to instigate a popular uprising against the Spanish; to use the press against them through letters bought from a British double agent; and, finally, when all failed, to disavow the entire Florida fiasco. ...play-by-play, the entire operation with its "secret agenda" is here. As Joseph Burkholder Smith says, "history lives by analogy," and The Plot to Steal Florida goes far in revealing the seeds of modern day subversion and cover-up at the highest reaches of government.