AMERICA INVADES Launches Book Tour

SEATTLE, WA

The authors of "America Invades," a comprehensive new book detailing U.S. invasions dating back to 1741 (yes, before the U.S. was the U.S.), will launch their national tour Sept. 29.

In researching U.S. invasions and military involvement around the globe, Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock unearthed surprising revelations.

"We've invaded or fought in 84 of the 194 countries recognized by the United Nations," Kelly says. "The only countries we haven't been militarily involved with are Andorra, Bhutan and Liechtenstein."

The most recent U.S. invasion, he notes, involved no gunfire or uniformed troops.

"It took place last spring, when American hackers invaded Minecraft Denmark and raised the Stars and Stripes over a virtual Cophenagen."

While at times lighthearted, Kelly and Laycock's country-by-country retrospective is the first comprehensive review of all America's military adventures overseas, from D-day to much lesser-known interventions. It explores the full scope of U.S. invasions from the triumphs to the tragedies; it relates the gallantry and sacrifice of Americans fighting abroad with respect for all those who serve.

"It doesn't carry judgments one way or the other about the morality or wisdom of these actions; that's up to the reader to decide," Kelly says. "We worked very hard to avoid writing a 'political' book that grinds axes in a simplistic manner.

"It's more like looking at the history of your own family. And indeed all of it - the liberations, the fiascoes is, in some sense, part of the history of every American citizen."

Kelly and Laycock will kick off their 35-state book tour Sept. 29 in Seattle. It continues, literally, around the country, culminating Nov. 9 at the Seahawks-Giants game in Seattle. Highlights include stops at Gettysburg and Kelly's ancestral cemetery in Albany, N.Y.; visits to the war memorials in Washington, D.C.; visits to the National Museum of the War in the Pacific in Fredericksburg, Texas and to the Ronald Reagan Library.

Kelly, former director of Kelly Television Co. and Kelly Broadcasting, says the project's genesis is in a book Laycock wrote about his own homeland, England. Kelly, who has had a lifelong interest in military history, reviewed the book, "All the Countries We've Invaded" - about Britain's invasions and conflicts - and the two men soon became friends.

"America is always hoping for peace and always planning for war. That hasn't changed and isn't changing," Kelly says. "The more we understand about we've done in the past, the better able we'll be to have an informed future."

Five percent of the book's proceeds will be donated to military charities.

About Christopher Kelly

Christopher Kelly is the son of a Korean War veteran and the descendant of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the leader of a disastrous invasion of Canada during the War of 1812. Kelly is the past chairman of Chyron Corp. (now ChyronHego) and the former director of Kelly Television Co. and Kelly Broadcasting. His co-author, Stuart Laycock, is a British historian and author. For more information visit http://www.americainvades.com/.

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