Three United States Army Manhunts

This study examines three manhunts from the United States Army's past. The manhunts highlighted in this thesis are the Punitive Expedition to capture the Mexican revolutionary leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Operation Just Cause to capture the Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega, and the intervention in Somalia to capture the warlord Mohammed Farrah Aideed. A comparison of the three case studies yields four characteristics that are applicable to military manhunts. The characteristics are the necessity of detailed intelligence, the desirability of neutralizing the group to isolate the individual, the decentralized nature of this type of operation, and the political nature of overt manhunts.