War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's

founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased

its size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hi, everybody. This is James.

I would like to take a minute to apologize for this episode.

When I recorded this episode, I was not aware of the fact that the microphone

that I had been using for a long time had broken. But later, when I listened to the episode,

I realized that the audio quality was not up to the standards that we are used to in this podcast

and in all the podcasts I'm involved with.

I apologize for that, but I'm not going to re-record the episode because it would just take too much time. I don't have the time for that. I've got to focus on future episodes.

So I hope you will forgive me. I hope you'll be able to deal with the fact that the only microphone I was using.

Unbeknownst to me was the built-in microphone in the computer,

which is not nearly as good as my external mic.

Anyway, thank you for all your support for listening,

and please forgive me and try to enjoy the episode in spite of the somewhat poor quality of the audio.

Take care.

Welcome to another special episode of Key Battles of World War I.

As always, I'm your host James Early.

This is another in our series, our mini series of episodes in which my good friend and fellow history buff, Sean

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