Military history of the United States

The Military history of the United States spans a period of less than two and a half centuries. Over the course of those years, the United States grew from an alliance of thirteen British colonies without a professional military, to Earth's sole military superpower as of 2005.

Overview

Main articles: Military of the United States and Military budget in the United States

Until the Constitutional Convention, the military presence in what became known as the United States was organized by each U.S. state as a voluntary or conscripted militia. As of 2005, the U.S. military consisted of an army, navy, air force and marine corps under the command of the United States Department of Defense. There also is the United States Coast Guard, which is controlled by the Department of Homeland Security. In each of these branches of military, the President of the United States is the commander in chief of the armed forces. In addition, each state has a national guard commanded by the state's governor and coordinated by the National Guard Bureau. The President of the United States has the authority during national emergencies to assume control of individual state national guard units.

The United States Constitution provided authority for the Congress to levy taxes and to raise a navy and national militia. Federal legislation eventually led to the modern nationalized system of military in the country. Historically, the amount of money the U.S. government spends on the military has often been a politically contentious issue.

Timeline

Colonial wars (1620–1775)

The beginning of the United States military lies in civilian frontiersmen, armed for hunting and basic survival in the wilderness. These were organized into local militias for small military operations, mostly against Native American tribes but also to resist possible raids by the small military forces of neighboring European colonies. They relied on the support of the British regular army and navy for any serious military operation.

In the early years of the British colonization of North America, military action in the colonies that would become United States were the result of conflicts with Native Americans, such as in the Pequot War of 1637 and King Philip's War in 1675. Slave uprisings such as the Stono Rebellion in 1739, and inter-colonial conflicts, such as the Pennamite Wars and the activities of the Green Mountain Boys, were also a part of the colonial military experience.

Beginning in 1689, the colonies also frequently became involved in a series of wars between Great Britain and France for control of North America.

War of Independence (1775–1783)

Detail from Washington and his generals at Yorktown (c. 1781) by Charles Willson Peale. Lafayette (far left) is at Washington's right, the Comte de Rochambeau to his immediate left.

There were many causes that led to the American Revolutionary War, but political tensions between Great Britain and her colonies became a crisis in 1774 when the British placed the province of Massachusetts under martial law. While shooting began at Lexington and Concord in 1775, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the newly created Continental Army, which was augmented throughout the war by colonial militia. General Washington was no great battlefield tactician—he lost more battles than he won—but his overall strategy proved to be sound: keep the army intact, wear down British resolve, and avoid decisive battles except to exploit enemy mistakes.

The British, for their part, lacked both a unified command and a clear strategy for winning. With the use of the Royal Navy, the British were able to capture coastal cities, but control of the countryside eluded them. An invasion from Canada in 1777 ended with the disastrous surrender of a British army at Saratoga. France entered the war against Great Britain after Saratoga, finally convinced that the Americans could actually win.

The involvement of France (and then Spain) greatly complicated the British war effort. A shift in focus to the southern American colonies resulted in a string of victories for the British, but guerrilla warfare and the tenacity of General Nathanael Greene's army prevented the British from making strategic headway. A French naval victory in the Chesapeake finally offered the chance Washington had long waited for, and a British army was trapped and compelled to surrender at Yorktown in 1781, leading to the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that recognized the independence of the United States.

Since many Americans of the revolutionary generation had a strong distrust of permanent (or "standing") armies, the Continental Army was quickly disbanded after the Revolution. General Washington, who throughout the war deferred to elected officials, averted a potential crisis and submitted his resignation as commander-in-chief to Congress after the war, establishing a tradition of civil control of the U.S. military.

Early nationhood (1783–1820)

Following the American Revolution, the United States faced potential military conflict on the high seas as well as on the frontiers. In the Treaty of Paris, the British had ceded the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River to the United States, without consulting the Native Americans who lived there. Because many of the tribes had fought as allies of the British, the United States compelled the Indians to sign away lands in postwar treaties, and began dividing up these lands for settlement. This provoked a war in the Northwest Territory in which the U.S. suffered two major defeats before President Washington dispatched a newly trained army to the region, which decisively defeated the Indian confederacy in 1795.

"We have met the enemy and they are ours." Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie, 1813. (Painting by William H. Powell, 1865)

The Quasi War

When revolutionary France declared war on Great Britain in 1793, the United States sought to remain neutral, but the Jay Treaty, which was favorable to Great Britain, led to a "Quasi-War" at sea with France from 1798 to 1801. In the Caribbean the United States won a string of victories including the capture of 3 French frigates and 82 privateers. George Washington was called out of retirement to head a "provisional army" in case of invasion by France, but President John Adams managed to negotiate a truce.

The First Barbary War

Later, in 1801, the United States and Tripoli fought the First Barbary War, which transpired when President Jefferson refused to pay further tribute to Tripoli. A naval expedition was dispatched to Tripoli harbor in order to blockade the city. Coastal vessels were burned near the harbor leading to the future U.S. Marine anthem to include to the shores of Tripoli. When the powerful U.S.S. Philadelphia was captured by the Barbary pirates in 1803 Lieutenant Stephen Decatur lead a raid which successfully burned the ship under Tripoli's nose. On August 3, 1803 American ships entered Tripoli harbor leading to a "gunboat battle" and the shelling of Tripoli several times. An effort to send a boat bomb to destroy Tripolitan ships ended in failure when the Intrepid carrying explosives blew up prematurely, killing everyone aboard. In 1805 William Eaton led a small Arab army from Egypt to invade Western Tripoli and captured Derna, causing Tripoli to agree to peace and the ransom of all prisoners they held.

The War of 1812

When Great Britain and France went to war again in 1803 with renewed vigor, the United States sought to remain neutral while pursuing overseas trade. This proved difficult, and the United States finally declared war on Great Britain—the War of 1812. Not hopeful of defeating the Royal Navy at sea, the U.S. attacked the Empire by invading Canada. This invasion dovetailed with an ongoing pan-tribal frontier resistance headed by the Native American leader Tecumseh. Although the War of 1812 ended as a stalemate between the United States and Great Britain in 1815, the frontier war essentially continued into 1818 with the First Seminole War.

The Second Barbary War

After the War of 1812 came the Second Barbary War (1815), the Seminole Wars, the Black Hawk War, and the era of Indian Removal.

Westward expansion (1820–1861)

With the independence of the United States established, military efforts then focused on ensuring a dominant role on the continent, an idea which came to be known as "Manifest Destiny."

The area that became the Western United States was mostly unexplored. It was a place for more hardy trappers, but not actual towns and cities. The Mormons were among the first to inhabit the West. They were led by Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley, Utah where they settled down. These people had fled to the West to find sanctuary from the persecution that they had been suffering. They would continue to play large parts in history. In 1857, Mormon militia attacked non-Mormon settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre; though leaders of the massacre were excommunicated, the incident led to the deployment of U.S. troops in the Utah War to reassert federal primacy over what many Mormons had been treating as a quasi-independent state they called Deseret.

Texas Revolution

The Texas Revolution was a war fought from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836 between Mexico and the Tejas portion of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Tejanos and Texians (anglo settlers in Texas) revolted soon after President of Mexico Antonio López de Santa Anna appointed himself dictator, claiming that Mexico was not ready for a democracy. There are many reasons given by the Tejanos and Texians for the revolt stated in the Texas Declaration of Independence, but the one that tops the list is Santa Anna’s abolition of the Constitution of 1824 (which had established Mexico as a federal republic after brief rule under an emperor). However, many saw the rebels as nothing more than pirates, an accusation not completely without merit as the region had a history of filibustering.

Mexican-American War

The Mexican-American War was a war fought between the United States and Mexico between 1846 and 1848. The war grew out of unresolved conflicts between Mexico and Texas. After having won its independence from Mexico in 1836, the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845; however, the southern and western borders of Texas remained disputed during the Republic's lifetime.

During this time, the California Republic (also called the "Bear Flag Republic"), like the Republic of Texas, was created as the byproduct of increasing tensions between the United States and Mexico. California Republic began on June 10, 1846 when John C. Frémont and his men in Sonoma declared independence from Mexico. The rebellion itself started on June 14. Then gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, two days after California had been officially handed over to the United States. The California Gold Rush soon began. Countless Americans and immigrants alike flocked to the Western Coast with a bad case of "gold fever." This jumpstarted the development of the West.

Cortina Troubles

The Cortina Troubles are the generic name for the First Cortina War (1859) and Second Cortina War (1861), in which the paramilitary Mexican forces led by the local leader Juan Nepomuceno Cortina confronted the U.S. Military, the Texas Rangers and the local militia of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, in the Rio Grande Valley area.

American Civil War (1861–1865)

Dead soldiers lie where they fell at Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation after this battle.

Sectional tensions had long existed between the states located north of the Mason-Dixon Line and those south of it, primarily centered on the "peculiar institution" of slavery and the ability of states to overrule the decisions of the national government. During the 1840s and 1850s, conflicts between the two sides became progressively more violent. Beginning with South Carolina in late 1860, states in the South seceded from the United States. On April 12 1861, forces of the South (known as the Confederate States of America or simply the Confederacy) opened fire on Fort Sumter, whose garrison was loyal to the forces of the North (who represented the United States or simply the Union).

The American Civil War caught both sides unprepared. Both the Union and the Confederacy had to build their armies practically from scratch. Both sides sought a quick victory focused on the respective nearby capitols of Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, but neither side would surrender their national identity cheaply. Even after the First Battle of Bull Run, many were slow to accept that war would last much longer than a single campaign. However, it spilled across the contintent, and even to the high seas. Much of the vast resources of America would be consumed before it would be resolved.

The American Civil War is sometimes called the "first modern war" due to the use of mass conscription, military railroads, trench warfare, submarines, ironclads, automatic weapons, and rifling. It introduced the modern world to the horrors of total war.

Post-Civil War era (1865–1917)

History of the United States (1865-1918)

The scope of the Civil War was as great as many of those in Europe, and the United States began to see itself as potential player on the world stage. With the country now stretching to the Pacific, eyes turned to overseas. The motivation behind the Spanish-American War, Philippine American War, and U.S. involvement in the Boxer Rebellion are debated among historians.

Indian Wars (1865–1890)

Main article: Indian Wars

After the Civil War, work began in earnest on the Transcontinental Railroad, linking California with the eastern states. Many Native American tribes of the Great Plains resisted this encroachment. Generals from the Civil War such as William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan were assigned to conquer any Indians who offered military resistance to the building of the railroad and the expansion of the United States.

Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War took place in 1898, and resulted in the United States of America gaining control over the former Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific, most notably Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines.

Philippine-American War

U.S. soldiers of the First Nebraska volunteers, company B, near Manila, 1899

The Philippine-American War was between the armed forces of the United States and the Philippines from 1899 through 1902.

This conflict is also known as the "Philippine Insurrection." This name was historically the most commonly used in the U.S., but Filipinos and an increasing number of American historians refer to these hostilities as the "Philippine-American War," and in 1999 the U.S. Library of Congress reclassified its references to use this term.

U.S. occupation of Veracruz

The United States Navy occupied the Mexican city of Veracruz for over six months in 1914, in response to the April 9, 1914 "Tampico Affair," which involved the arrest of U.S. sailors by the regime of Mexican President Victoriano Huerta. The incident came in the midst of poor diplomatic relations with the United States, related to the ongoing Mexican Revolution.

In response to the Tampico Affair, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the Navy to occupy Veracruz. Huerta was overthrown and a regime more favorable to the U.S. was installed. The incident, however, worsened U.S.-Mexican relations for many years.

The Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion was an uprising against Western commercial and political influence in China during the final years of the 19th century. The U.S. contributed army and marine units, the China Relief Expedition, to an international joint force which captured Peking and forced a Chinese capitulation. By August 1900, over 230 foreigners, thousands of Chinese Christians and unknown numbers of rebels, their sympathisers and other Chinese had been killed in the revolt and its suppression.

First World War (1917–1918)

Previously isolationist, the United States became involved in Europe during the First World War, a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers or involved so many in the field of battle. Never before had casualties been so high. Chemical weapons were used for the first time, the first mass bombardment of civilians from the sky was executed, and some of the century's first large-scale civilian massacres took place. Four dynasties, the Habsburgs, the Romanovs, the Ottomans and the Hohenzollerns, who had roots of power back to the days of the Crusades, all fell after the war.

Between the wars (1918–1941)

Russian Revolution

American volunteer pilots, Merian C. Cooper and Cedric Fauntleroy, fought in the of the Kościuszko Squadron of the Polish Air Force during the Polish-Soviet War

The so-called Polar Bear Expedition was the involvement of U.S. troops, during the tail end of World War I and the Russian Revolution, in fighting the Bolsheviks in Arkhangelsk, Russia in 1918 and 1919, despite having been sent there on the pretext of halting a German advance on the eastern front of the war. American volunteers also participated on the Polish side in the Polish-Soviet War, forming a core of the elite fighter unit, the Kościuszko Squadron.

Spanish Civil War

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was an organization of United States volunteers supporting or fighting for the anti-fascist Spanish Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War as part of the International Brigade.

The name "brigade" is something of a misnomer, as there were several American battalions organized under the Fifteenth International Brigade of the Spanish Republican army at this time. This brigade was loosely organized by the Comintern and was made up of volunteers from nations around the globe.

Most of the people making up the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were official members of the Communist Party USA or affiliated with other socialist organizations. The IWW, or "Wobblies", were lightly represented. However, the brigade was made up of volunteers from all walks of American life, and from all socio-economic classes. It was the first unit of soldiers made up of Americans to have an African-American officer, Oliver Law, lead white soldiers.

Second World War (1941–1945)

File:WW2 Japonese Surrender USS-Missouri.jpg

Japan formally surrenders aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay

During the interwar period the United States again reduced its military, but mobilized to its largest levels for the ensuing Second World War. The global conflict started in the 1930's and raged until 1945, involving the majority of the world's states and every continent except Antarctica. It was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world as well as the history of the United States.

US involvement in World War II was initially limited to providing war materiel and financial support to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, and isolationism remained prominent, with some American politicians calling for the US to remain out of what was perceived as a European war. That changed instantly on 7 December 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, followed by attacks on US and British possessions across the Pacific. An outraged President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous "day of infamy" speech the next day, and Congress responded with a declaration of war on Japan. For a few tense days, it was unclear whether the US would participate in the war in Europe, but on 11 December, the remaining Axis powers, Germany and Italy, declared war on the US, drawing the US firmly into the war and removing all doubts about the global nature of the conflict.

The loss of 8 battleships and thousands of sailors at Pearl Harbor was thought to be devastating for the US Pacific Fleet, but it forced the US to rely on its remaining aircraft carriers, which won a major victory over Japan at Midway just 6 months into the war, leading to a period of consolidation and island hopping by the Allies. During 1942 and 1943, the US deployed millions of men and thousands of planes and tanks to the UK, beginning with strategic bombing of Nazi Germany and occupied Europe and leading up to the Allied invasions of occupied North Africa in 1942, Sicily and Italy in 1943, France in 1944, and Germany in 1945, culminating in the eventual surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945. In the Pacific, the US experienced much success in naval campaigns during 1944, but bloody battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945 led the US to look for a way to end the war quickly. President Harry S Truman made the fateful decision to order the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, quickly bringing about the surrender of Japan and ushering in the atomic age.

Despite the crippling effects of the Great Depression, the United States was able to mobilize quickly, eventually becoming the dominant military power in most theaters of the war (excepting only eastern Europe and mainland China), and the industrial might of the US economy is widely cited as a major factor in the Allies' eventual victory in the war. Early in the war, the US military was perceived by some observers to be too "green" and untested to be of much use other than cannon fodder against experienced German and Japanese troops, but the US acquitted itself well and established a modern military tradition as an elite and well-trained force. Strategic and tactical lessons learned by the US, such as the importance of air superiority and the dominance of the aircraft carrier in naval actions, continue to guide US military doctrine more than 60 years later.

World War II holds a special place in the American psyche as the country's greatest triumph, and the soldiers of World War II are frequently referred to as "the greatest generation" for their sacrifices in the name of liberty. Over 16 million served (about 13% of the population), and over 400,000 were killed during the war; only the American Civil War saw more Americans killed. The US entered the war, like many other nations, as a country struggling with economic and social problems and unsure of its identity. It emerged as one of the two undisputed superpowers along with the Soviet Union, and unlike the Soviet Union, the US homeland was virtually untouched by the ravages of war. The importance of US military and political power in world affairs since 1945 cannot be overstated; the outcome of the war and the fortunes of the victors have shaped world events to this day.

During and following the Second World War, the United States and United Kingdom developed an increasingly strong defence and intelligence relationship. Manifestations of this include extensive basing of US forces in the UK, shared intelligence, shared military technology (e.g. nuclear technology), shared procurement (mainly British purchases of American weapon systems). See: Special relationship.

For specific units, see List of United States Army divisions during World War II.

Cold War (1945–1991)

Following the WWII, the United States emerged as a global superpower vis-a-vis the Soviet Union in the Cold War. In this period of some forty years, the United States provided foreign military aid and direct involvement in proxy wars against the Soviet Union. It was the principal foreign actor in the Korean War and Vietnam War during this era. Nuclear weapons were held in ready by the United States under a concept of mutually assured destruction with the Soviet Union.

Postwar Military Reorganization (1947)

The National Security Act of 1947, meeting the need for a military reorganization to complement the U.S. superpower role, combined and replaced the former Department of the Navy and War Department with a single cabinet-level Department of Defense. The act also created the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Air Force.

Korean War

The Korean War was a conflict between North Korea and South Korea. It was also a Cold War proxy war between the United States and its United Nations allies and the communist powers of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union (also a UN member nation). The principal combatants were North and South Korea. Principal allies of South Korea included the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, although many other nations sent troops under the aegis of the United Nations. Allies of North Korea included the People's Republic of China, which supplied military forces, and the Soviet Union, which supplied combat advisors and aircraft pilots, as well as arms, for the Chinese and North Korean troops. In the United States, the conflict was termed a police action under the aegis of the United Nations rather than a war, largely in order to remove the necessity of a Congressional declaration of war.

The war started badly for the US and UN. North Korean forces struck quickly in the summer of 1950 and nearly drove the outnumbered defenders into the sea, but US forces held a perimeter around Pusan, allowing reinforcements to arrive. US commander Douglas MacArthur, in a bold but risky move, ordered an amphibious invasion at Inchon, cutting off and routing the North Koreans and quickly moving into North Korea. MacArthur disobeyed orders to halt his forces, however, and as allied forces continued to advance, the Chinese Army poured across the border and sent allied forces reeling back towards the south. MacArthur was later relieved of his command by Truman for his actions, and the conflict appeared likely to spark another world war, but cooler heads prevailed and negotiations eventually resulted in a stalemate and armistice in 1953, with the two Koreas being divided at the 38th Parallel. North and South Korea are still today in a state of war, having never signed a peace treaty, and US forces remain stationed in South Korea, as North Korea remains a thorn in the side of US foreign policy.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs Invasion (also known in Cuba as Playa Girón after the beach in the Bay of Pigs where the landing took place) was a United States-planned and funded landing by armed Cuban exiles in southwest Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in 1961. US-Cuban tensions had grown since Castro had overthrown the US-backed regime of General Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations had made the judgment that Castro's shift toward the Soviet Union could not be tolerated, and moved to overthrow him. However, the invasion failed miserably and proved to be a major international embarrassment for the Kennedy administration. The resulting fiasco of the invasion attempt has been studied as an ideal case of 'groupthink' and poor decision making.

Vietnam War

File:Stamp-ctc-vietnam-war.jpg

The Vietnam War was one of the longest military conflicts in U.S. history.

The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1957 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos (see Secret War) and in the strategic bombing (see Operation Rolling Thunder) of North Vietnam. In Vietnam, the conflict is known as the "American War."

Fighting on one side was a coalition of forces including the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam or the "RVN"), the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Participation by the South Korean military was financed by the United States, but Australia and New Zealand fully funded their own involvement. Other countries normally allied with the United States in the Cold War, including the United Kingdom and Canada, refused to participate in the coalition, although a few of their citizens volunteered to join the U.S. forces. The US and its allies fought against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) as well as the National Liberation Front (NLF, also known as Viet Cong), a guerilla force within South Vietnam. The NVA received substantial military and economic aid from the Soviet Union, turning Vietnam into a proxy war.

The US framed the war as part of its policy of containment of Communism in south Asia, but American forces were frustrated by an inability to engage the enemy in decisive battles, corruption and incompetence in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and ever increasing protests at home. The Tet Offensive in 1968, although a major military defeat for the NLF, marked the psychological turning point in the war. NLF forces appeared to be everywhere at once, even overrunning the US embassy in Saigon, supposedly one of the most secure places in the country, and news anchor Walter Cronkite, in a famous broadcast from the battlefield, pronounced the war "unwinnable." After more than 57,000 dead and many more wounded, US forces withdrew in 1973 with no clear victory, and in 1975 South Vietnam was finally conquered by North Vietnam and unified. The chaotic evacuation of the US embassy in April 1975, as NVA forces closed in on the city, made for enduring images of desperate souls clinging to helicopter skids, trying to escape Communist rule.

Even today, Vietnam is a politically divisive subject. Some view Vietnam as a noble, if flawed, cause; "the only war that America lost" is a phrase occasionally used. Others see the conflict as a quagmire; a waste of American blood and treasure in a conflict that did not concern US interests. Military service during Vietnam is still an issue in US presidential campaigns, more than 30 years after US troops left the country, and fears of another "quagmire" have been major factors in US military planning since 1975.

Tehran hostage rescue

Following the Iranian revolution and the resulting Iran hostage crisis a military operation named Eagle Claw attempted to rescue the hostages using a combination of special forces and helicopter evacuation, but the rescue failed with the destruction of several aircraft in an accident in the Iranian desert. The failure was attributed to inappropriate equipment, incomplete and unrealistic planning, and the lack of joint service training. Despite its size, the mission had significant effects on U.S. military doctrine and training.

Grenada

In October, 1983, alarmed by a violent power struggle in Grenada within a leftist junta sympathetic to Cuba, the U.S. dispatched hundreds of paratroopers, Marines, Rangers, and special operations forces to the island in Operation Urgent Fury. Ostensibly a mission to rescue U.S. citizens, mainly medical masters, the invasion force quickly moved to seize the entire island, eventually taking hundreds of military and civilian prisoners from a variety of East Bloc nations.

Beirut

Main article: Multinational Force in Lebanon

In 1983 fighting between Palestinian refugees and Lebanese factions reignited that nation's long-running civil war. A UN agreement brought an international force of peacekeepers to occupy Beirut and guarantee security. The U.S. stationed marines in an urban compound including a multi-story dormitory, once a hotel; a terrorist bombing destroyed the building, killing 241 Marines. Subsequently the U.S. Navy engaged in bombing of militia positions inside Lebanon proper.

Panama

Operation Just Cause was a 1989 invasion of Panama, mainly from U.S. bases within the former Canal Zone, to oust dictator Manuel Noriega, whose government was becoming a narco-state. The U.S. did not wish to turn over control to Noriega of the Panama Canal, which it was obligated to do under treaty, due to the canal's strategic importance.

Post-Cold War era (1991–present)

File:USAworld2003.gif

Current dispersal of U.S. troops around the world. Dim nations signify U.S. usage of military facilities, or nations with fewer than 10,000 troops present. The lightest nations represent U.S. presence of 10,000 or more.

Following the end of the Cold War, the United States armed forces fought numerous limited wars as a self-envisioned constabulatory force. It began a "global war on terrorism" after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and United Nations member states, specifically a coalition force of 34 nations led by the United States. The lead up to the war began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 which was met with immediate economic sanctions by the United Nations against Iraq. Hostilities commenced in January 1991, resulting in a decisive victory for the coalition forces, which drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait with minimal coalition deaths. The main battles were aerial and ground combat within Iraq, Kuwait and bordering areas of Saudi Arabia. The war did not expand outside of the immediate Iraq/Kuwait/Saudi border region, although Iraq fired missiles on Israeli cities.

In retrospect, the scale of the coalition's victory was not a foregone conclusion. Before the war, many observers believed the US and its allies could win but might suffer substantial casualties (certainly more than any conflict since Vietnam), and that the tank battles across the harsh desert might rival those of North Africa during World War II. After nearly 50 years of proxy wars, and constant fears of another war in Europe between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, some thought the Gulf War might finally answer the question of which military philosophy would have reigned supreme. Iraqi forces were battle-hardened after 8 years of war with Iran, and they were well-equipped with late model Soviet tanks, jet fighters and anti-aircraft weapons; in comparison, the US had no major combat experience since its withdrawal from Vietnam nearly 20 years earlier, and major changes in US doctrine, equipment and technology since then had never been tested under fire.

However, the battle was one-sided almost from the beginning. After devastating initial strikes against Iraqi air defenses and command and control facilities on 17 January 1991, coalition forces achieved total air superiority almost immediately. The Iraqi air force was destroyed within a few days, with some planes fleeing to Iran where they were interned for the duration of the conflict. The overwhemling technological advantages of the US, such as stealth aircraft and infrared sights, quickly turned the air war into a "turkey shoot." The heat signature of any tank foolish enough to start its engine made an easy target. Air defense radars were quickly destroyed by radar-seeking missiles fired from wild weasel aircraft. Grainy video clips, shot from the nose cameras of missiles as they zeroed in on impossibly small targets, were a staple of US news coverage and revealed to the world a new kind of war, compared by some to a video game. Over 6 weeks of relentless pounding by planes and helicopters, the Iraqi army was almost completely beaten but did not retreat, under orders from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and by the time the ground forces invaded on 24 February, many Iraqi troops were so happy to be alive that they quickly surrendered to forces much smaller than their own; in one instance, Iraqi forces attempted to surrender to a television camera crew that was advancing with coalition forces.

After just 100 hours of ground combat, and with all of Kuwait and much of southern Iraq under coalition control, US President George H. W. Bush ordered a cease-fire and negotiations began. Some US politicians were disappointed by this move, believing Bush should have pressed on to Baghdad and removed Hussein from power; there is little doubt that coalition forces could have accomplished this if they had desired. Still, the political ramifications of removing Hussein would have broadened the scope of the conflict greatly, and many coalition nations refused to participate in such an action, believing it would create a power vacuum and destablize the region.

Following the Gulf War, in order to protect minority populations, the U.S., Britain, and France maintained no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, which the Iraqi military frequently tested. The no-fly zones persisted until the 2003 invasion of Iraq, although France withdrew from participation in patrolling the no-fly zones in 1996, citing a lack of humanitarian purpose for the operation.

Additionally, following the discovery of an aborted assassination plot aimed at former President George H.W. Bush, Navy ships bombed Iraqi intelligence facilities with cruise missiles in June 1993.

Somalia

US troops participated in a UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia beginning in 1992. By 1993 the US troops were augmented with Rangers and special forces with the aim of capturing warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, whose forces had massacred peacekeepers from Pakistan. During a failed attempt at capturing Aidid, US troops became trapped overnight by a general uprising in the Battle of Mogadishu. 19 American soldiers were killed, and a US television crew filmed graphic images of the body of one soldier being dragged through the streets by an angry mob. US forces were quickly withdrawn, and the incident had a profound effect on US thinking about peacekeeping and intervention. The book Black Hawk Down was written about the battle, and was the basis for the later movie of the same name.

Yugoslavia

During the war in Yugoslavia in the early 1990's, the US operated in Bosnia. The USA was one of the NATO member countries who bombed Yugoslavia between March 24th and June 9th 1999 during the Kosovo War.

Sudan

In 1998, in what the U.S. called Operation Infinite Reach, the al-Shifa ("Health") pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan, was destroyed in cruise missile strikes launched by the U.S. in retaliation for the August 7 truck bomb attacks on its embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, in which 225 people were killed and a further 4,000 wounded (see: 1998 U.S. embassy bombings).

War on Terrorism (2001–present)

The War on Terrorism is a global effort by the governments of several countries (primarily the United States and its principal allies) to neutralize international groups it deems as terrorist (primarily radical Islamist terrorist groups, including al-Qaida) and ensure that rogue nations no longer support terrorist activities. It has been adopted as a consequence of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Afghanistan

The invasion of Afghanistan in order to depose that country's Taliban government and destroy training camps associated with al-Qaida is understood to have been the opening, and in many ways defining, campaign of the broader war on terrorism. The emphasis on special forces, political negotiation with autonomous military units, and the use of proxy militaries marked a significant change from prior U.S. military approaches.

Iraq War

A Marine Corps M1 Abrams tank patrols a Baghdad street in April 2003.

After the lengthy Iraq disarmament crisis culminated with an American demand that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein leave Iraq, which was refused, a coalition led by the United States and Great Britain fought the Iraqi army in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Approximately 250,000 United States troops, with support from 45,000 British, 2,000 Australian and 200 Polish combat forces, entered Iraq primarily through their staging area in Kuwait. (Turkey had refused to permit its territory to be used for an invasion from the north.) Coalition forces also supported Iraqi Kurdish militia, estimated to number upwards of 50,000. After approximately three weeks of fighting, Hussein and the Ba'ath Party were forcibly removed, followed by an extended period of military occupation while civil government was re-established (see Post-invasion Iraq, 2003-2005).

During the disarmament crisis, the US and its allies made their case for war based on a few main points, including human rights, violations of UN sanctions, and ties to terrorism, but the key casus belli was generally considered to be Saddam Hussein's refusal to cooperate with US demands for a full accounting of Iraq's program of weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence services of a number of countries, including the US, UK, France and Russia, were on record as believing Iraq had a large clandestine program, constituting a threat to US national security, and it was with this assertion that US President George W. Bush made his case for pre-emptive war to Congress and the American people.

However, in the aftermath of the war, it quickly became apparent that Hussein had no such weapons program. Only a very few WMD components were found, none of which backed up the claim of a massive hidden program. Debate continues to rage in the US Congress and media over the failure of US intelligence to provide accurate reports before the war. Many Americans, including prominent members of Congress, claim Bush and other administration officials lied or misled the country based on doctored intelligence reports. Others claim that the reports were wrong in the first place, that the case for war was made on the intelligence available at the time, and that the WMD concern was not the only reason for going to war. So far, no "smoking gun" evidence of a cover-up or conspiracy has been revealed.

The Bush administration also linked the invasion of Iraq to the War on Terrorism, claiming that Hussein was giving safe haven to and supporting terrorist groups. This claim resonated strongly in America after the September 11, 2001 attacks, with many believing that any state using terror means should be fought, regardless of whether the state had committed actions against the US. However, the case for war was not based directly on the 9/11 attacks, and although the Bush administration strongly suggested ties at some level between Hussein and Al-Qaeda, it did not accuse Hussein of complicity in the specific events of 9/11.

See also

• Awards and decorations of the United States military
• Militia
• United States Armed Forces
• United States casualties of war
• United States Colored Troops
• United States Department of Defense
• World War

Related lists

• List of U.S. military history events
• List of U.S. foreign interventions since 1945
• List of United States military conflicts
• Deployments of the US Military
• List of U.S. military leaders by rank
• Timeline of Islamic terrorism against the United States
• List of military and non-military operations and projects
• List of riots
• List of strikes
• List of massacres

References

• Atlas of American Military History, Stuart Murray (2005) ISBN 0816055785
• American Military History: 1775-1902, Ed. Maurice Matloff (1996) ISBN 0938289705
• American Military History and the Evolution of Western Warfare, Robert Doughty (1996) ISBN 0669416835
• The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy, Russell Frank Weigley (1977) ISBN 025328029X
• A Handbook of American Military History: From the Revolutionary War to the Present, Ed. Jerry K. Sweeney and Kevin B. Byrne (1997) ISBN 0813328713
• The Oxford Companion to American Military History, Ed. John Whiteclay II Chambers, Fred Anderson, Lynn Eden, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Ronald H. Spector, and G. Kurt Piehler (2000) ISBN 0195071980

External links

• Instances of Use of United States Forces Abroad, 1798-1993 by Ellen C. Collier, Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division
• United States Military Campaigns, Conflicts, Expeditions and Wars Compiled by Larry Van Horn, U.S. Navy Retired
• Basic Statistics for United States Imperialism
• Veterans Of The US Armed Forces Services, information, resources, and image gallery for veterans of the United States Armed Forces.
• Military History wiki

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