Overseas interventions of the United States

The United States has been involved in a number of overseas interventions throughout its history.

Before the Cold War

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders after capturing San Juan Hill

The Barbary Wars of the 18th and early 19th centuries were the first was waged by the United States outside it's boundaries after the War of Independence. Driected against the Barbary States of North Africa it was fought to end piracy against American flagged ships in the Mediterranean.^[1]

The founding of Liberia was privately sponsored by American groups, primarily the American Colonization Society, but the country enjoyed the support and unofficial cooperation of the United States government.^[2]

Matthew Perry negotiated a treaty opening Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.^[3] The U.S. advanced the Open Door Policy that guaranteed equal economic access to China and support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity.^[4] The USA has also acquired small islands in the Pacific, mostly to be used as coaling stations.^{[citation needed]}

The early decades of the 20th century saw a number of interventions in Latin America by the U.S. government often justified under the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.^[5] President William Howard Taft viewed "Dollar Diplomacy" as a way for American corporations to benefit while assisting in the national security goal of preventing European powers from filling any possible financial or power vacuum.^[6]

• 1901:The Platt Amendment, amended a treaty between the USA and Cuba after the Spanish-American war virtually made Cuba a U.S. protectorate. The amendment outlined conditions for the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs and permitted the United States to lease or buy lands for the purpose of the establishing naval bases, including Guantánamo Bay.^[7]
• 1903: U.S. backed independence of Panama from Colombia in order to build the Panama Canal; Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty^[8]
• 1905: U.S. occupation of the (former Spanish colony) Dominican Republic^[9]
• 1904: When European governments began to use force to pressure Latin American countries to repay their debts Theodore Roosevelt announced his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.^[10]
• 1906-1909 U.S. governed Cuba under Governor Charles Magoon.^[11]
• 1909: U.S.-backed rebels in Nicaragua depose President José Santos Zelaya. ^[12]
• 1914 to 1917: Mexico conflict and Pancho Villa Expedition, U.S. troops entering northern portion of Mexico.^[13]
• 1915 to 1934: United States occupation of Haiti^[14]
• 1923 to 1928 (Nicaragua) Marines occupied main cities, Their purpose was to provide stabilization to the government. There was a period of a few months between 1925 and 1926 when the Marines left but were back for the same reason.^{[citation needed]}
• United States intervention in Chile

The U.S. intervened in Europe during World War I. The USA intervened in Europe and Japan during World War II as well as the territories occupied by the axis powers.

Cold War

The US fought wars in Korea during the Korean War and in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

In 1968, some sources have alleged that the CIA backed the coup by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Baath Party,^[15] although official CIA records do not indicate that it supported the coup.^[16] David Wise, a Washington-based author who has written extensively about Cold War espionage, has disputed the notion that the CIA supported the 1968 coup, as has Middle East analyst James Phillips. According to a 2003 report by Common Dreams "many experts, including foreign affairs scholars, say there is little to suggest U.S. involvement in Iraq in the 1960s," although it is widely acknowledged that the CIA worked to destabilize the Qassem regime in the early part of the decade.^[16] Robert Dreyfuss, in his book Devil's Game, maintains that the Johnson administration actually opposed the 1968 coup and used the Shah's Iran as a counterpoint to the Ba'athist regime it established. A 2006 study concluded that the CIA's alleged role in the coup "cannot be considered historical" in the absence of more compelling evidence.^[17]

The United States in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état helped the Shah remove the democractically elected Mossadegh.^[18]

The U.S. supported the UNITA movement in Angola,^[19] and, in the 1990s, intervened in Somalia as part of UNOSOM I, a United Nations humanitarian relief operation.^[20]

After the Cold War

The USA invaded Panama in 1989 and removed Manuel Noriega from power.^[21]
U.S. intervened in Kuwait in 1990/1991 to expel an invading Iraqi army Gulf War
In 1999, U.S. utilized an air power campaign to expedite an end to Kosovo War
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. has intervened in the 2001-present war in Afghanistan and in the Iraq War.
In 2011, the U.S. intervened, by proving air power, in the 2011 Libyan Civil War

refs

1. ^ Barbary Wars
2. ^ Flint, John E. The Cambridge history of Africa: from c.1790 to c.1870 Cambridge University Press (1976) pg 184-199
3. ^ .http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/teach/ends/opening.htm
4. ^ Open Door policy (United States-China [1899, 1900]) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
5. ^ Roosevelt Corollary and the Monroe Doctrine
6. ^ Dollar Diplomacy
7. ^ Our Documents - Platt Amendment (1903)
8. ^ Panama declares independence — History.com This Day in History — 11/3/1903
9. ^ American President: American President
10. ^ Our Documents - Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1905)
11. ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/3739793
12. ^ BBC News - Nicaragua timeline
13. ^ Veterans Museum & Memorial Center, In Memoriam, United States Interventions in Mexico, 1914 - 1917
14. ^ U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915-34
15. ^ Aburish, Said K. "Saddam Hussein, The Politics of Revenge". PBS Frontline. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saddam/interviews/aburish.html. 
16. ^ ^{a b} Ex-U.S. Official Says CIA Aided Baathists
17. ^ William J. Zeman, "U.S. Covert Intervention in Iraq 1958-1963: The Origins of U.S. Supported Regime Change in Modern Iraq," (Thesis (M.A.)--California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dept. of History, 2006). http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQk-oiHeEQzzZGNzams5Zm5fM2hrZnJxc2Zr&hl=en
18. ^ New York Times Special Report: The C.I.A. in Iran
19. ^ Uni?Nacional para a Independ?ia Total de Angola
20. ^ United Nations Operation In Somalia I - (Unosom I)
21. ^ Ex-Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega extradited to France - CNN

See also

• History of United States continental expansion
• Historic regions of the United States
• Manifest Destiny
• American Exceptionalism
• New Imperialism and the emerging empires.

External links

• Judis, John B.. "Imperial Amnesia". Foreign Policy. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2582&page=0.  (Alternate link)
• "USA and Latin America". casahistoria.net. http://www.casahistoria.net/uslatam.htm. Retrieved 2006-07-30.  History links to the early US involvement in Latin America from casahistoria.