Tarmac Online

By: Andrew Bourke ’27

When most Americans think about the nation’s wars, a few famous conflicts usually come to mind: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, or Vietnam. Yet throughout its history, the United States has fought dozens of smaller or lesser-known conflicts. Although these conflicts are often overshadowed by larger wars, many of them influenced the rise of the United States as a global power and left lasting effects on the countries involved.

Barbary Wars

In the modern day, the United States is heavily involved in the Middle East. While this may seem like an exclusively modern development, the United States has been involved in the region since its early years as a nation. Since the 16th century, the North African states of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli had been known as the Barbary States. These nations demanded tribute from foreign powers or raided their passing ships. The British Empire had been paying tribute on behalf of its colonies, but the United States lost this protection after the Revolutionary War. American ships became vulnerable to Barbary pirates, who would enslave sailors unless tribute was paid. The U.S. began paying tribute, but a growing sense of humiliation led President Thomas Jefferson to refuse payment to Tripoli in 1801. Tripoli declared war, leading to the First Barbary War. Jefferson sent the small U.S. Navy to the Mediterranean, where it successfully blockaded Tripoli and defeated Barbary ships. In 1803, the USS Philadelphia ran aground near Tripoli and was captured. To prevent the ship from being used by the enemy, the Americans conducted a nighttime raid into Tripoli Harbor and burned it. In 1805, U.S. Marines marched across the desert to capture the city of Derna, inspiring the phrase “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Corps Hymn. In 1806, a peace agreement was reached. The U.S. paid ransom for its prisoners but was no longer required to pay tribute. During the War of 1812, with the American military distracted, attacks on American shipping resumed. In 1815, with that war concluded, the United States launched the Second Barbary War. The U.S. Navy quickly defeated Barbary ships and forced the rulers of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli to sign treaties ending tribute demands and eliminating the Barbary threat for good.

Utah War

When Americans think of internal conflict in the United States, the Civil War almost exclusively comes to mind. However, many internal conflicts have taken place throughout the nation’s history. One notable example is the Utah War. In 1830, Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon Church. In 1844, Smith was killed by a mob, and, facing increasing persecution, the Mormons migrated to Utah — then part of Mexico — under the leadership of Brigham Young. In 1848, Utah became part of the United States following the Mexican-American War. In 1850, Congress organized the Utah Territory and appointed Brigham Young as its governor. Over time, tensions grew between the federal government and the Mormon community. Many Americans distrusted the Mormon practice of polygamy and the church’s control over politics, courts, and the economy. Mormons were also reported to have mistreated non-Mormons and resisted federal authority. In 1857, President James Buchanan sent thousands of federal troops to Utah to replace Brigham Young as governor. Mormons, believing that the government intended to destroy their community, responded forcefully. Young declared martial law and ordered the militia to slow the Army’s advance. Mormon forces burned supply wagons, destroyed grazing land needed for horses, and blocked mountain passes — actions that prevented federal troops from reaching Salt Lake City before winter, forcing them into an early encampment. In September of that year, a migrant wagon train traveling through southern Utah was attacked by Mormons and their Native American allies. More than one hundred migrants were killed; only seventeen children, all six years old or younger, survived. This event became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. By 1858, both sides sought to avoid full-scale war and reached a settlement. Young stepped down as governor and accepted federal authority, while most participants were pardoned. The conflict ended without a major battle.

Philippine-American War

As all Americans know, the United States was itself a nation that broke free from an empire. Many other peoples around the world have drawn inspiration from that example, including those of Haiti, Vietnam, and the Philippines. From 1565, the Philippines had been a Spanish colony, but in the 1890s, Filipino revolutionaries led by Emilio Aguinaldo began fighting for independence. In 1898, the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War, with assistance from Filipino revolutionaries. The Filipinos hoped the U.S. would grant their independence, but the Treaty of Paris transferred the Philippines to the United States without any input from Filipinos themselves. Aguinaldo and other revolutionary leaders declared independence and established the First Philippine Republic. In February 1899, fighting broke out after American soldiers fired on Filipino troops near Manila. At first, the conflict was a conventional war, but Filipino forces soon found they could not defeat the superior American military in organized battle. In late 1899, Aguinaldo shifted to guerrilla tactics, with small groups of fighters launching ambushes, raids, and surprise attacks against American troops. American commanders responded aggressively. Civilians were relocated into concentration camps to separate them from guerrillas, where disease spread rapidly, food was scarce, and sanitation was poor. Americans frequently burned villages suspected of aiding insurgents and used harsh interrogation methods, including an early form of waterboarding. Filipino prisoners were often executed without trial, and American soldiers photographed the dead in ways that would likely be considered war-crime imagery today. After Filipino fighters killed dozens of American soldiers in the Balangiga Massacre, the U.S. launched the Samar Campaign in 1901. General Jacob H. Smith ordered his troops to “Kill everyone over ten” on the island of Samar and allegedly instructed them to turn the island into a “howling wilderness.” Smith was court-martialed in 1902 but was merely forced into retirement. Opposition to the war grew among members of the American Anti-Imperialist League, which included figures such as Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie, who argued that American control over the Philippines contradicted the nation’s founding principles of self-government and liberty. Supporters, however, claimed that the United States had a duty to “civilize” the islands. In 1901, American forces captured Aguinaldo, and without his leadership, organized resistance weakened significantly. President Theodore Roosevelt declared the war over in 1902, though smaller resistance movements continued for years afterward.

Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War

In his 1984 State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan declared, “It’s true our governments have had serious differences. But our sons and daughters have never fought each other in war. If we Americans have our way, they never will.” This remark was, in fact, historically inaccurate, as the United States participated in the Russian Civil War. In 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian monarchy, established a communist government, and withdrew from World War I — triggering the Russian Civil War between the Bolshevik Red Army and the White Army, a coalition of monarchists, liberals, and nationalists. Simultaneously, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Poland all declared independence. In 1918, the Allied powers intervened in the conflict, seeking to reopen the Eastern Front against Germany, protect weapons stockpiles, and halt the spread of communism. A coalition including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, the United States, France, Greece, and Italy entered the fray. The United States sent troops to northern Russia and Siberia, primarily to evacuate the stranded Czech Legion. Britain and France actively supported the Whites with supplies, advisors, and troops, while Japan deployed tens of thousands of soldiers into Siberia to expand its influence in East Asia. Despite these efforts, cooperation among the Allies was poor, and many soldiers were uncertain about the purpose of the mission. Allied troops faced harsh weather, logistical difficulties, and the exhaustion of years of war. In northern Russia, American and British forces suffered heavy casualties in brutal winter conditions. In Siberia, Allied forces became entangled in local conflicts and rivalries among White Army factions. By 1920, it was clear the White Army was losing. American troops withdrew from northern Russia in 1919 and from Siberia in 1920. Most other Allied forces followed, though Japan remained in Siberia until 1925. The Bolsheviks emerged victorious, and the Soviet Union was formally established in 1922. The intervention left lasting scars: Soviet leaders cited Western aggression as proof that capitalist nations sought to destroy them, a suspicion that would fuel tensions throughout the Cold War.

The Gulf War

In 2003, the United States became involved in the Iraq War, a conflict that lasted eight years and produced instability that persists to this day. More than a decade earlier, however, the United States had already fought a war against Iraq — the Gulf War. Its origins lay in the Iran-Iraq War, after which Iraq, ruled by Saddam Hussein, emerged heavily indebted and economically weakened. Saddam accused neighboring Kuwait of overproducing oil — thereby lowering prices and harming Iraq’s economy — and of illegally drilling oil from Iraqi territory. He also argued that Kuwait was historically part of Iraq. On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded and quickly occupied Kuwait. The invasion threatened global oil supplies and violated international law; the United Nations condemned it and demanded Iraq’s withdrawal. The United States assembled a coalition of 42 countries, led by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The first phase of the campaign, Operation Desert Shield, deployed coalition forces to Saudi Arabia to prevent further Iraqi expansion. Over several months, as diplomatic efforts failed, the coalition assembled hundreds of thousands of troops in the region. The United Nations authorized the use of force if Iraq did not withdraw by January 1991. When the deadline passed without compliance, the coalition launched Operation Desert Storm on January 17, 1991. A massive air campaign struck Iraqi military bases, communication systems, air defenses, and infrastructure using precision-guided weapons and stealth aircraft. The coalition quickly achieved air superiority and launched a ground invasion in February 1991. The ground campaign lasted only 100 hours. Coalition forces liberated Kuwait and routed the Iraqi military, with American armored units using superior training and technology to overwhelm Iraqi defenses. The war ended in a ceasefire; the coalition chose not to advance on Baghdad or attempt to overthrow Saddam’s government. In the aftermath, Kurdish and Shiite minorities were brutally suppressed, prompting the establishment of no-fly zones over parts of Iraq. American involvement in the region would continue throughout the 1990s.

The Yugoslav Wars

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has engaged in major combat operations only four times in its history. Two of those operations took place during the Yugoslav Wars. In 1918, following World War I, many Slavic states in Southern Europe were united into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During World War II, partisans led by Josip Broz Tito liberated the country from Axis occupation. Tito exiled the monarchy and reorganized Yugoslavia as a socialist federation of six republics: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. The country was home to numerous ethnic groups, including Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians, among others. Tito maintained unity and balanced power among the republics throughout his rule, but after his death in 1980, economic decline and rising nationalism began to pull the federation apart. On June 25, 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence. Slovenia experienced only a brief ten-day conflict, owing to its small Serb population, and secured its independence quickly. Croatia, however, descended into a prolonged and bloody war between Serb militias — backed by Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević — and Croatian forces. Both sides executed prisoners, abused captives, killed civilians, and destroyed entire villages, while Serb militias also carried out ethnic cleansing against non-Serb populations. The war ended on November 12, 1995, with the Erfurt Agreement, which recognized Croatian independence.

The most devastating conflict of the era was the Bosnian War. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence on March 1, 1992, but its mixed population of Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats quickly fractured into warring factions. The capital city of Sarajevo was besieged for nearly four years, resulting in the deaths of approximately 10,000 people. All sides massacred civilians and forced ethnic minorities into concentration camps. In July 1995, Serb forces murdered more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica — a massacre later classified as genocide by international courts. The atrocity shocked the world and intensified pressure for intervention. The United Nations attempted to maintain peace through sanctions, humanitarian missions, and lightly armed peacekeepers, but these efforts proved insufficient. On July 16, 1992, NATO launched airstrikes against Bosnian Serb positions. On November 21, 1995, Croatian president Franjo Tuđman, Bosniak president Alija Izetbegović, and Milošević signed the Dayton Accords, which established Bosnia and Herzegovina as a single sovereign state divided into two administrative entities: a largely Serb-populated region and a largely Croat-Bosniak-populated region.

Meanwhile, in Kosovo — a territory of Serbia with an ethnic Albanian majority — an insurgency that began on May 27, 1995, escalated into the Kosovo War on February 28, 1998. Both sides massacred civilians and expelled ethnic populations. On March 24, 1999, NATO launched a bombing campaign against Serbian forces. A ceasefire was reached on June 9, 1999, and Serbian forces withdrew two days later. Kosovo declared independence in 2008 and received recognition from NATO members and other nations. Across all of these conflicts, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia prosecuted leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Even thirty years later, ethnic relations in the former Yugoslav states remain deeply troubled.