Cold War and Modern Wars

Wars from the Korean War and the Vietnam War to the Gulf War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, drawn from official records and declassified documents.

• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The War in Afghanistan, 2001–2021: Twenty Years in OutlineTwenty years of war in Afghanistan, from the airstrikes of autumn 2001 to the last flights out of Kabul in August 2021, traced through Congressional Research Service reports, NATO and UN records, and US, Australian and South Korean government sources. It covers the rise of the Taliban, Bonn and ISAF, the insurgency and the surge, the security handover, the 2020 agreement and withdrawal, South Korea's deployments, and the human and financial costs.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Battle of Chosin Reservoir: A Withdrawal at Minus ThirtyIn late November 1950, the US 1st Marine Division and Army and South Korean units around Chosin Reservoir were surrounded by far larger Chinese forces. This article follows, through public records, the two weeks they spent coming down to the sea on one mountain road, helped by air power and a bridge dropped from the sky, and sets the differing numbers side by side.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Cold War Arms Race: From Bombers to Missiles to SatellitesHow the US-Soviet race moved from bombers to missiles and then to satellites after the nuclear monopoly ended in 1949, where the 'gaps' came from, and which treaties followed the crises, told from public records.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Cuban Missile Crisis: Thirteen Days of Nuclear DangerWhat passed between Washington and Moscow in the thirteen days after Soviet missile sites were found in Cuba in October 1962, how it ended, and what came to light decades later, told from US government records.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026Dien Bien Phu: Where France's Indochina War EndedIn November 1953, French troops parachuted into a deep valley near the Laotian border and built a base. On 7 May 1954, it fell. Contemporary U.S. government records show why they chose the valley, how a base supplied only by air held on and then fell, and why Washington hesitated.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Falklands War: Naval War and Landings at the Edge of the AtlanticFollow the 74-day war between Britain and Argentina over islands in the South Atlantic in 1982, using UK Parliament records, UN resolutions and US diplomatic papers. See the sovereignty dispute that ran back to 1833, the April 2 landing and Resolution 502, a task force that sailed about 12,900 km, the Belgrano and the Sheffield, the San Carlos landing and the surrender at Stanley, the death counts, and the lessons the UK government drew afterward.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Fall of Saigon, 1975: The End of the Vietnam WarFrom the Paris peace agreement of 1973 to the opening of the Presidential Palace gate on April 30, 1975, this article follows how South Vietnam collapsed in four months, using State Department historical documents, presidential speeches, the Ford Presidential Library, the Texas Tech Vietnam Center and the Australian War Memorial. It covers the retreat from the Central Highlands, the aid request in Washington, the shift from airplanes to helicopters, and the numbers and verdicts that differ by source.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Gulf of Tonkin Incident: What the Declassified Records SayWhat happened to two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2 and 4, 1964? This article follows the two nights separately through State Department records (FRUS), the National Archives, a Navy ship history, and material the National Security Agency (NSA) released in 2005–2006. It covers the reprisal strikes, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the conflicting readings, and the repeal.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Gulf War, 1991: From Desert Shield to Desert StormFrom Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 to the end of fighting on February 28, 1991, traced through the State Department's Office of the Historian, UN Security Council resolutions, Congressional Research Service and General Accounting Office reports, a US Navy report and the Australian War Memorial. It covers debt and border disputes, Resolutions 660, 678 and 687, five months of buildup and 43 days of air strikes, four days of ground fighting, how assessments of Patriot changed, casualty counts and the illnesses of returning veterans.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Gulf War Air Campaign: Why Stealth and Precision Weapons Drew AttentionThe 43-day air campaign of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, traced through UN resolutions, the U.S. State Department Office of the Historian and the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). It covers the invasion of Kuwait and Resolution 678, a campaign of about 90,000 sorties, why the F-117 stealth aircraft and laser-guided bombs drew so much attention, the record that only 8% of munitions were guided, and the gap between postwar claims and wartime data.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Ho Chi Minh Trail: A Jungle Supply Route and the Effort to Cut ItThe Ho Chi Minh Trail carried people and supplies from North Vietnam through Laos to South Vietnam, and it was a network rather than one road. This article uses public U.S. records to show how it grew and how U.S. efforts to cut it with bombing and a sensor barrier were recorded at the time.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Hungnam Evacuation: Refugees Taken AboardIn December 1950, UN forces on the eastern front left North Korea by sea through the single port of Hungnam, and more than 90,000 refugees boarded with them. Why the way out was by sea, how it unfolded, and how the numbers differ between sources, from public records.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026Ia Drang and Helicopter AirmobilityIn November 1965, a US battalion set down by helicopter in Vietnam's Central Highlands and met North Vietnamese regulars. Public records show how a helicopter division came about, what its helicopters carried at the Ia Drang, and what questions they left.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026IEDs and the MRAP: How a Roadside Threat Reshaped VehiclesHow roadside bombs became a leading cause of U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how U.S. vehicles moved from up-armored Humvees and armor kits to the MRAP and the M-ATV, traced through Government Accountability Office and Congressional Research Service records. It also covers how the fast purchase worked and what it cost, why the numbers on effectiveness differ, and the limits of a heavy vehicle.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Incheon Landing: Tides and Operation ChromiteWhy did the Incheon landing of September 15, 1950 happen on that day, split into a morning and an evening landing? This article follows the summer at the Naktong, MacArthur's idea and the Navy's doubts, tides of around 9 m with mud flats and a narrow channel, the Yonghung-do scouting and the deception, the Wolmi-do bombardment and the seawall, the recapture of Seoul, and the numbers and judgments that differ by source, using records from the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command and the Academy of Korean Studies.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Iran-Iraq War: Eight Years of AttritionThe Iran-Iraq War began with Iraq's invasion in September 1980 and ended with a ceasefire in August 1988. This article follows it stage by stage: the invasion and reversal, attrition in front of Basra, the Tanker War, chemical weapons and the war of the cities, Resolution 598 and the ceasefire, the explanations and criticism around Iran Air Flight 655, and casualty estimates that differ widely.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Iraq Insurgency and the Surge: The War After the WarHow an insurgency grew in Iraq after the May 2003 announcement that major combat had ended: the occupation authority's first two orders, the Samarra mosque bombing and sectarian violence, the 2007 surge and the Anbar Awakening, the scholarly debate over why violence fell, the 2011 withdrawal, and casualty counts that differ by source, from U.S. government records and international and academic sources.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Iraq War, 2003: Three Weeks to BaghdadWhy the 2003 Iraq War began, the plan built around a smaller force, the two-pronged advance from Kuwait to Baghdad, the disorder after the capital fell, and the weapons of mass destruction that were never found, traced through U.S. government records, a UN resolution, and official U.S. and British inquiries.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026Hill Battles and the Armistice: Two Years of NegotiationThe truce talks that opened at Kaesong in July 1951 and ended at Panmunjom in July 1953, followed side by side with the hill battles fought on the ridges while the talks went on: the five agenda items, the prisoner question that took a year and a half, Bloody Ridge, Heartbreak Ridge, White Horse Hill and Sniper Ridge, the release of anti-communist prisoners, the signing and last shot of July 27, and the demarcation line and demilitarized zone, drawn from the Academy of Korean Studies, the United Nations Command, the Naval History and Heritage Command, and British parliamentary records.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026MiG Alley: The Jet Air War over KoreaAfter the MiG-15 appeared over the Yalu in November 1950, the narrow sky between the Chongchon and the Yalu became a place where jet fighters met jet fighters. Where it was, why the border was not crossed, and how the numbers differ depending on who counted, from public records.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Outbreak of the Korean War: Dawn, June 25, 1950The first four days of the war that began along the 38th parallel before dawn on June 25, 1950, followed through U.S. embassy telegrams from that day, UN Security Council resolutions and entries in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. It covers how the 38th parallel came about, the gap in troops and equipment, the attack times by sector, how the news reached Washington and New York, Uijeongbu and Chuncheon, and the Han River bridges and the fall of Seoul.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Kosovo Air War, 1999: Seventy-Eight Days of Air Power AloneFrom March 24 to June 10, 1999, NATO fought Yugoslavia with air strikes and no ground troops. This article follows those 78 days through NATO, UN, ICTY and U.S. State Department records: Kosovo's lost autonomy, Racak and Rambouillet, more than 38,000 sorties, the ground-troop debate, the Chinese embassy strike, the Military Technical Agreement and Resolution 1244, civilian death counts that differ by source, and the split over whether the intervention was lawful.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War: Forty-Four Days That Spotlit DronesThe war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that began on September 27, 2020, and stopped with a cease-fire at 00:00 on November 10, traced through a Congressional Research Service report, the text of the trilateral statement, records from both governments, OSCE material and think-tank analysis. It covers the roots of the dispute, the six weeks of fighting, the cease-fire terms, why drones drew so much attention and how analysts disagreed about it, and the human toll.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Pusan Perimeter: Dabu-dong and the Last LineHow South Korean and UN forces held the last line along the Naktong River in August and September 1950: the shape of the line and its size in different sources, the North Korean August and September offensives, Dabu-dong on the road to Daegu, supply and support from the sea and air, the killing of prisoners and the student soldiers, and the counterattack that began with the Incheon landing, drawn from the National Archives of Korea, the Academy of Korean Studies, U.S. Army and Navy history, and British parliamentary records.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026South Korean Forces in Vietnam: The Decision, the Deployment, the DebatesSouth Korea's troop deployment to Vietnam from 1964 to 1973, traced through the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the National Institute of Korean History's Uri History Net, and the US Foreign Relations series (FRUS). It covers how a medical team grew into two divisions, the Brown Memorandum and the National Assembly vote, troop and loss figures that differ by record, the 'Vietnam boom', and the debates that remain: the mercenary charge, pay, Agent Orange, and allegations of harm to Vietnamese civilians.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Russia-Ukraine War: A Timeline from Public Records Since 2022From Crimea in 2014 to the full-scale invasion of February 24, 2022, UN General Assembly votes, rulings by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, the Black Sea grain deal and the Kakhovka dam, Finland and Sweden joining NATO, Security Council Resolution 2774 in 2025, and the civilian harm verified by the UN monitoring mission: the dates and events of the Russia-Ukraine war as the UN and other official bodies recorded them.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Six-Day War, 1967: A War Changed by the First Day's Air StrikesThe Six-Day War began with Israeli air strikes on the morning of 5 June 1967 and stopped six days later. Using the U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian, U.S. Army studies and UN records, this article follows how the May crisis became a war, what an army built around its air force did on the first day, the ceasefire and Resolution 242, the refugees and losses, and what the victory left behind for the 1973 war.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Soviet-Afghan War: Ten Years of InterventionThe Soviet intervention in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989: the coups and a reluctant decision before the troops, the UN and US response, a longer war and aid to the resistance, the Geneva Accords and the two-phase withdrawal, and the harm left to the Afghan people.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Tet Offensive: When the Military Result and Public Opinion SplitDuring the 1968 lunar new year holiday, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces struck most of South Vietnam's cities at once. The attackers were pushed back within weeks, yet US war policy changed course within two months. US government records of the time trace how the two results split.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Vietnam War at a Glance: 1955 to 1975A one-page timeline of the Vietnam War, from the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and a country split at the 17th parallel to the growth of U.S. involvement from advisers to ground troops, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, helicopters and laser-guided bombs, the Tet Offensive, the Paris agreement and the fall of Saigon in 1975, with start dates and death tolls that differ by source set side by side from public records.
• Cold War and Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Yom Kippur War, 1973: The Shock of Antitank and Surface-to-Air MissilesThe Yom Kippur War began with a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on 6 October 1973. This article follows it through the U.S. State Department Office of the Historian, a U.S. Army study and United Nations records: what infantry antitank missiles and ground-launched surface-to-air missiles did in the first days, how the tide turned, the ceasefire and the U.S. nuclear alert, and the talks and doctrine changes the war left behind.