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Curated playlist

Cold War conflicts

  • Vietnam WarOn March 8, 1965, 3,500 US Marines waded ashore near Da Nang, starting America's ground war in Vietnam.
  • Cambodian–Vietnamese WarOn December 25, 1978, 150,000 Vietnamese troops crossed into Cambodia. They toppled its government in two weeks.
  • Gulf WarA rounding error in a Patriot missile's computer let a Scud kill 28 US soldiers in Saudi Arabia.
  • Malayan EmergencyBritain fought guerrillas in Malaya that it had once trained and armed.
  • 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'étatTwelve ministers quit Czechoslovakia's government in 1948, sure they would win. Four days later the president gave in.
  • 1954 Guatemalan coup d'étatA fake jungle radio station helped topple Guatemala's government in 1954.
  • Congo CrisisThe Congo Crisis began on the very day the Congo won independence from Belgium. Within a week, the army had mutinied.
  • United States invasion of GrenadaSoldiers invading Grenada in 1983 navigated with tourist maps. Military grid lines had been drawn on them by hand.
  • ContrasOn January 4, 1982, Reagan signed a secret order to arm the Contras. It gave the CIA $19 million in military aid.
  • Yom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War carries more names than most conflicts. It is also called the October War, the Ramadan War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the fourth Arab-Israeli War. It was fought from the 6th to the 25th of October 1973, between…
  • Six-Day WarThe Six-Day War began at 7:45 on the morning of the 5th of June 1967, Israeli time, with civil defense sirens sounding all over Israel. All but 12 of the Israeli Air Force's nearly 200 operational jets took off together. Their target was…
  • Korean WarThe UN approved force in Korea because the Soviet Union was absent. It had boycotted the Council since January 1950.
  • Nicaraguan RevolutionNicaragua's revolution ended with an election that removed the government it had created.
  • Soviet–Afghan WarEarly in the Soviet–Afghan War, troops in Afghan uniforms stormed a Kabul palace and killed the country's leader.
  • 1960 U-2 incidentNikita Khrushchev hid that the captured U-2 pilot was alive, and the Americans walked into it.
  • Guatemalan Civil WarGuatemala's civil war began with a mutiny over a secret deal. Officers revolted in 1960 over a U.S. training camp.
  • Rhodesian Bush WarIn an interview published in the New York Times on the 28th of April 1980, Robert Mugabe made a startling admission about the Rhodesian Bush War. His words were: "We did not win a military victory... We reached a political settlement... A…
  • Cuban Missile CrisisIn October 1962, a US spy plane pilot was shot down over Cuba by Soviet missiles.
  • 1953 Iranian coup d'étatA tank fired one shell into Iran's prime minister's home in 1953. Mohammad Mosaddegh fled, then surrendered to the army.
  • Sino-Vietnamese WarOn the 17th of February 1979, roughly 200,000 Chinese troops crossed into northern Vietnam.
  • Afghan conflictAfghanistan's king was overthrown by his own cousin in 1973 while abroad. That coup opened decades of war.

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