Striking Parallels in History
Compare and contrast

Students might be interested to consider the similarities and differences between James Leander Cathcart, who was captured during the Barbary Wars, enslaved to the Dey of Algiers and later appointed U.S. ambassador to that country and fighter pilot Pete Peterson, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and became the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam after the war ended. Compari-sons might also be drawn between modern day hostage-taking and the imprisonment of American sailors during the Barbary Wars. Students might read Den of Lions: Memoirs of Seven Years, the account by Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson of his experiences as a hostage in Lebanon during the modern-day crisis in the Middle East and the writings of John Foss or one of the other captives during the Barbary Wars who wrote about their ordeals. These stories convey
the personal side of conflicts among nations and, in the case of the Barbary captives, explain some of the background of how the U.S. was drawn into war.