Timeline of United States

Interventionism

1950s

Korean War

General MacArthur in charge of U.N. forces (mainly

U.S. forces) stopping North Korean attack

When U.N. forces came too close to border, Chinese

forces counterattacked

Armistice was made at 38th parallel (basically where

it was before)

Guatemala

Overthrew U.S. backed dictator

Brought popular leftist government to power

U.S. officials were afraid of reduced influence of U.S.

corporations

1960s

Vietnam War

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave

President Johnson power to send
necessary U.S. forces into combat

Supported South Vietnams fight

against Vietcong

Nixon announced that U.S. troops in

Vietnam would gradually withdraw
and money would provided to South
Vietnam

1970s

Oil Crisis

Syrians and Egyptians launched surprise

attack on Israel, but with U.S. help Israel
stopped attack

OPEC placed embargo on oil sold to Israels

supporters- U.S. economy suffered inflation
and lower standard of living

Iran Hostage Crisis

Iranian militants raided U.S. embassy in

Teheran and held more than 50 members of
the American staff hostage

Released on the same day Reagan was

inaugurated

1980s

Grenada

A coup led to establishment of a pro-Cuban regime

Reagan ordered small force of marines to prevent

establishment of Communist military base

Succeeded in re-establishing pro-U.S. government

in Grenada

Iran-Contra Affair

Reagan administration sold U.S. antitank and antiaircraft to Iran in order to free Americans

Used profits from Iran to fund contras in Nicaragua

Lebanon, Israel, El Salvador, Panama

1990s

Persian Gulf War

Husseins invasion of oil-rich

Kuwait threatened Western
oil sources

U.N. embargo against Iraq

had little effect

Bush won congressional

approval for a military
campaign

Iraq conceded defeat after

only 100 hours of fighting

2000s

Afghanistan

After 9/11 attacks, President Bush wanted bin Laden

dead or alive

Taliban was toppled after refusing to turn over bin

Laden

Afghanistan remained unstable despite Karzai being

named head of government

Iraq

Bush issued attack on Iraq Hussein could build and

distribute WMDs to terrorists

Overwhelming evidence suggests Iraq had no link to

9/11 attacks and WMDs

Obama began to withdraw forces from Iraq and

focus more on Afghanistan