Curated category
Cold War conflicts
- Vietnam WarOn the 2nd of September 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. This declaration came after years of struggle…
- Cambodian–Vietnamese WarOn the 21st of December 1978, a Vietnamese offensive consisting of two divisions crossed the border and moved towards the town of Kratie.
- Gulf WarOn the 2nd of August 1990, Iraqi tanks rolled across the border into Kuwait City. The invasion began with a bombing of the capital and lasted only two days…
- Malayan EmergencyThe economic disruption of World War II on British Malaya led to widespread unemployment, low wages, and high levels of food price inflation.
- 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'étatIn 1945, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia counted just 40,000 members. By early 1948, that number had swelled to 1.35 million.
- 1954 Guatemalan coup d'étatIn 1823, U.S. President James Monroe declared that the Western Hemisphere was off-limits to European colonization. This policy aimed to protect American…
- Congo CrisisKing Leopold II of Belgium created the Congo Free State in 1885, establishing a personal colony that later became the Belgian Congo.
- United States invasion of GrenadaOn the 13th of March 1979, Maurice Bishop and his New Jewel Movement seized power in a nearly bloodless coup while Prime Minister Eric Gairy was temporarily…
- ContrasIn July 1979, the FSLN took control of the capital Managua after weeks of heavy fighting. The president at the time, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, fled the…
- Korean WarOn the 10th of August 1945, Soviet forces entered northern Korea and secured most major cities by the 24th of August. US Colonels Dean Rusk and Charles H.
- Nicaraguan RevolutionIn 1937, Anastasio Somoza García seized power in Nicaragua following a U.S. occupation that had lasted from 1912 to 1933.
- Soviet–Afghan WarIn 1893, British civil servant Mortimer Durand drew a line across the Pamir Mountains that would haunt Afghanistan for over a century.
- 1960 U-2 incidentIn July 1958, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower requested permission from Pakistani Prime Minister Feroze Khan Noon to establish a secret intelligence…
- Cuban Missile CrisisIn late 1961, Fidel Castro asked for more SA-2 anti-aircraft missiles from the Soviet Union. The request was not acted upon by the Soviet leadership.
- 1953 Iranian coup d'étatOn the 19th of August 1953, Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup d'état that strengthened the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
- Sino-Vietnamese WarOn the 17th of February 1979, a People's Liberation Army force of about 200,000 troops entered northern Vietnam. This marked the PLA's first major combat…
- Afghan conflictIn July 1973, a cousin named Mohammad Daoud Khan walked into the palace of Kabul and ended forty years of peace. The monarch, King Zahir Shah, did not fight…