List of United States foreign interventions since 1945

This is a list of United States interventions or alleged interventions since 1945.

1940s

• Alleged US support to Portuguese dictator Salazar, 1930s to 1974.
• Occupation and rebuilding of Japan 1945-1952 after World War II, drafting Japan's current democratic constitution. (see Occupied Japan)
• Occupation and rebuilding of West Germany after World War II. Merged US occupation zone with the French and British zones to form the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.
• US provides military aid to right-wing forces battling communist insurgents in Greece in 1947. (See Greek Civil War)
• Central Intelligence Agency involvement in Italian elections, involving propaganda and the alleged buying of votes, in order to prevent the Communist Party of Italy coming to power, in 1948. (See 1948 Italian election)
• Marshall Plan 1948-1951
• US financial and military support of the Republic of China against the People's Liberation Army until 1949 and subsequently against the People's Republic of China

1950s

• Funding of French Indochina War from 1945 until 1954.
• Largest contributor in UN-led Korean War from 1950 until 1953.
• US (CIA) and UK (MI-6) overthrow Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran (Operation Ajax) - 1953.
• CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala (Operation PBSUCCESS) - 1954.
• US support for Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam from 1955 - 1963. [1]
• US support for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista until his overthrow in 1959.
• US support to the Apartheid in South Africa.
• US-backed establishment of François Duvalier as dictator of Haiti. [2] [3]
• CIA-orchestrated rebellion in China (Tibet), 1959.

1960s

• US-backed abortive Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961.
• Alleged CIA involvement in the assassination of Congo's democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba. Belgium has since officially apologized. [4]
• Alleged CIA involvement in the 1963 Canadian election.
• US support of Ba'ath Party coup in Iraq in 1963; giving some military and financial aid to Saddam Hussein until 1990. [5]
• CIA-orchestrated assassination of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, the US-backed ruler of the Dominican Republic, in 1961
• Alleged CIA-backed overthrow of Juan Bosch, the democratically elected leader of the Dominican Republic. [6]
• Alleged CIA-backed overthrow of José María Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador in 1963.
• U.S. backs coup of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. [7]
• Alleged CIA-backed overthrow of João Goulart in Brazil in 1964. [8] [9]
• Alleged CIA-backed overthrow of Sukarno in Indonesia in 1965. [10]
• Vietnam War - (1964-1975)
• Bombing campaigns against Laos
• Bombing campaigns against Cambodia
• Funding for the conservative, pro-Western Botswana Democratic Party
• Involvement in riots and violence that brought down the government of Cheddi Jagan in Guyana.
• Alleged CIA-backed military coup brings dictator Joseph Mobutu to power in the Congo in 1965.
• Alleged CIA support to military coup against Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah in 1966.
• Alleged CIA-backed military coup ushers in Regime of the Colonels in Greece in 1967.
• American support for Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
• CIA-organised military operation ends in execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967.

1970s

• Alleged CIA-supported coup against Prince Sihanouk and installation of puppet Lon Nol in Cambodia in 1970.
• Alleged CIA-supported military coup against President Juan José Torres of Bolivia in 1971.
• American support for Pakistan in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.
• Alleged CIA corruption of the 1972 Australian election.
• Alleged U.S. support for the Chilean coup of 1973.
• U.S. support for Indonesian invasion and occupation of Portuguese Timor (now East Timor)(1975).
• CIA support for UNITA rebels in Angola, from 1976 - 1984.
• Alleged corruption of 1976 Portuguese Election.
• Alleged corruption of 1976 Jamaican Election.
• Approval of and support for the "Dirty War" military junta in Argentina (1976-1983).
• U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador (1977).
• Support to ousted Khmer Rouge, from 1979 - 1993
• Following overthrow of the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, the CIA supports the Contras from 1979 - 1989. Nicaragua still has not received the U.S. restitutions for military and paramilitary activities as ruled by the International Court of Justice and as supported by a United Nations General Assembly resolution. [11]
• Alleged American intervention in civil war in Yemen, from 1979 - 1984.
• NAWAPA water project.

1980s

• CIA support for death-squads in El Salvador throughout the 1980s. [12]
• Provision of military assistance to Hissène Habré of Chad leading to the overthrow of Libya-supported neutralist Goukouni Oueddei.
• Training of Nicaraguan Contras and support to repressive regimes in Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, and South America during the 1980s.
• Alleged CIA support to Gwangju Massacre in 1980.
• Alleged CIA and South African backing to a coup attempt in the Seychelles in 1981.
• American support for Israel in the 1982 Lebanon War.
• US invasion of Grenada, overthrow of Marxist government (Operation Urgent Fury) - 1983.
• Assassinations and bombings against anti-nuclear politicians in the American colony of Palau.
• Alleged involvement in the mysterious death of Samora Machel, President of Mozambique (1986).
• US support to coup against Timoci Bavadra, democratically elected Prime Minister of Fiji in 1987.
• US invasion of Panama, overthrow of Manuel Noriega (Operation Just Cause) - 1989.

1990s

• CIA-backed removal of democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office and creation of a military dictatorship in Haiti, 1990
• Funding to the opposition presidential candidate, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, in Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua. Chamorro won the election.
• UN-led Gulf War following Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. 1991
• US-led UN sanctions against Iraq, from 1990 to 2003.
• The Helms-Burton Law against Cuba.
• US intervention in Somalia. 1993
• NATO bombing of Bosnian Serbs. 1995
• US-led bombing campaign, called Operation Desert Fox, against Iraq in enforcement of the UN designated No-Fly zones created to protect Kurds and Marsh Arabs. 1998
• US bombing of Afghanistan in 1998.
• US bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan - in 1998.
• NATO's bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo Conflict. Officially aimed at preventing ethnic cleansing of Albanians. 1999

2000s

• US invasion of Afghanistan, overthrow of Taliban in 2001.
• The Hague Invasion Act, 2002.
• Alleged CIA-backed abortive coup against democratically-elected President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela in 2002. [13]
• US Invasion of Iraq, overthrow of Saddam Hussein - 2003
• American support in the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in 2004. (see: 2004 Haiti rebellion)
• Support to the Venezuelan opposition in the run-up to the referendum on Hugo Chávez' rule. Many elements were linked to the above-mentioned coup in 2002.
• Alleged support (along with Spain and Britain) for a failed coup plot against Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea in 2004. [14]

As well as these military interventions the United States also pursued and gained economic controls over many developing states. Some claim that the International Monetary Fund and World Bank assisted American foreign policy in this area. (If correct, this would also require implicit co-operation of other countries, as the US has only 18% of the IMF's voting rights. [15])

See also: Military history of the United States, History of United States imperialism, List of Soviet interventions

External links

• A Hemisphere of Our Own: U.S. Foreign Policy in Central America - 2 Hours Talk Given by Noam Chomsky at UC Berkeley in 1984 - RealAudio format.
• Conversations with History: Militarism and the American Empire - With Chalmers Johnson, President of the Japan Policy Research Institute - RealVideo format.
• 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
• US interventions in Latin America
• When foreign intervention is justified: Women under the Taliban