The Lion and the Mouse looks back at the birth of America and the deciding conflicts and characters that have shaped the last four centuries as the intriguing relationship between Bermuda and America has evolved. Caught up in a succession of wars between the continents Bermuda found itself on both sides of the mid Atlantic gauntlet. Isolated by location, the island embodied the necessary reinvention and adaptability, to prosper in a changing Atlantic world, from saving the colonialists of Jamestown, robbing the British armory on the island and smuggling all of the gunpowder to George Washington's revolutionary army, to launching the fleet that burned Washington in the War of 1812, running the Union blockade in the Civil War, or on the other side, as soldiers fighting for "Glory." Right or wrong Bermuda has played an instrumental role in the history of the American States, continuing through two World Wars and the Cold War, where Bermuda evolved from a hotbed of counter espionage, into the frontline of US coastal defense. As a nexus in the Atlantic, Bermuda provided the United States with the strategic lynch pin in defense of its interests. Mercurial, treasonous, and unprincipled possessing all the wiles of a small dependent nation, Bermuda was able to adapt its mid-Atlantic location to both military and trade pursuits and to overcome insignificance in size, and vulnerability to become the place, that U.S. President William Howard Taft was to immortalize in his now famous words; "Never in global history has such a small country played such a large role in International Affairs." The moral of the story is that " Little friends can make great friends".