The Foreign Wars in US History

One Win out of Seven

by  Fred Krumbein

As previously noted ( Liberation of Saigon Day, Fall of Saigon Day: lessons & mislessons of America’s begotten & misbegotten war, on the 45th anniversary ), some wars in United States history have not been called wars in the US, and some military conflicts, which it has engaged in that really were not wars, have been called wars in the US ( a note on Wars ).

Five times in history, the US Congress has declared war against a foreign country (this being—again, as noted—a quaint, hoary requirement of the US Constitution).   In the cases of three of these declarations, there were actual wars:

•   the War to Conquer Canada

•   the First World War

•   the Second World War

and in the cases of two of these declarations, there were no actual wars, in that there was never any real risk that the US could lose:

•   the so-called “Mexican-American War”

•   the so-called “Spanish-American War”

In addition to those three real wars, the US has engaged in military conflicts in foreign countries in which the US Congress has not declared war against those countries.   In the cases of four of those, the military conflicts were actual wars, in that in each of these, there was a real risk that the US could lose, and there was a real risk that its opponent could lose:

•   the Korean War

•   the American-Vietnam War

•   the American-Afghanistan War

•   the American-Iraq War

In those seven actual foreign wars that the United States has engaged in, the US has had one win, five losses, and one draw.

1.   The War to Conquer Canada

This war began on June 18, 1812, and ended on February 17, 1815.

The major goals of the US were:

to annex Canada and make it part of the United States;

to stop both British impressment of American merchant seamen (capturing them from American merchant ships and forcing them to serve in the British Navy) and other British interference with America’s maritime rights as a neutral country to trade with whatever countries it chose to (specifically France, Britain’s enemy in the Napoleonic Wars);

and to keep Britain from supporting the rights of indigenous nations in America.

The United States:

failed to conquer Canada (despite thousands being killed on both sides in the war; in fact, it strengthened Canadian resolve to remain separate from the US, and some of Canada’s greatest national heroes right up to this day are those who strove to fight off the invading Americans);

never got Britain, in the treaty that ended the war, to acknowledge any American maritime rights nor ever got Britain to agree to end impressing American sailors (it only stopped after it had defeated Napoleon);

and was forced by the British, also in that war-ending treaty, to agree to uphold indigenous rights (the US, for most of the rest of the century, had to fight what it has called the “Indian Wars”—decades of many separate massacres and slaughters of many different indigenous peoples—in which neither Britain nor any other countries had been involved in the first place).

The US was obviously totally defeated in this war.

2.   The First World War

This began on July 28, 1914, as a war between the Allied Powers (principally France, Russia, and the British Empire) and the Central Powers (principally Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire), and ended on November 11, 1918.   About two thirds of the way through the war, the United States entered into it by declaring war on Germany on April 6, 1917, although the US never formally became a member of the Allies.

The main goals of the US were that this would be “the war to end all wars”—that it would ensure a “just and secure peace” and would not be “only for a new balance of power” but instead would end the causes of war by:

abolishing secret treaties;

reducing armaments;

adjusting colonial claims to serve the interests of both indigenous peoples and colonists;

and ensuring world peace in the future by:

removing economic barriers between nations,

guaranteeing self-determination for national minorities,

and creating a world organization that would protect the “political independence and territorial integrity” of both “great and small states alike”—a League of Nations.

Once the war was ended:

a “new balance of power” was really all that was established;

secret treaties weren’t abolished;

armaments weren’t reduced;

colonial claims weren’t changed at all to serve the interests of indigenous peoples;

economic barriers between nations weren’t removed;

self-determination for national minorities wasn’t guaranteed;

the League of Nations that was created was weak (the US never even joined it) and didn’t protect the “political independence” or “territorial integrity” of any country;

and so not only was world peace in the future not ensured, but some of the terms of the treaty that ended the war (such as forcing a country like Germany to pay reparations) are seen as a direct cause of the even deadlier and more destructive world war that followed only two decades later.

The US blatantly completely lost this war.

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3.   The Second World War

This began on September 1, 1939, as a war between the Allied Powers (principally the British Empire and the French Empire) and Germany (along with Japan and Italy, with which it had joined in 1936 and ’37 to form the Axis Powers), and ended on September 2, 1945.   After Germany attacked it on June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Allies, and the United States joined them after Japan attacked it on December 7, 1941.   Though many less powerful countries were also allied with them during the war, the leaders of Britain, the US, and the USSR controlled Allied strategy.

The main goals of the US were:

to stop the expansions of the Axis Powers (particulary of Germany in Europe and of Japan in Asia), which had conquered many other countries in a very short period of time;

to reverse these conquests

and, in those countries that Axis Powers had conquered, to restore the old governments or create new governments, so as to ensure that a large number of these countries would be aligned with the United States;

to ensure that the Axis countries would not be able to threaten American interests again;

to create a new world order comprising a globally dominant sphere of influence for the US and its allies;

to create a world organization—which would be stronger than the League of Nations had been—in order to maintain peace;

and to establish international principles and standards of human rights.

At the end of the war, as previously noted ( D-Day—to Take Back a Continent: a 76th anniversary remembrance and He Dealt with Crisis—Whither the Trajectory He Left Us on?: a diamond jubilee remembrance of FDR’s passing ):

the Axis Powers had unconditionally surrendered;

their expansion was completely reversed, with their occupation of other countries being ended

and, in some cases, additional territory being ceded to those countries that they had conquered;

the old governments were restored or new ones created, which ensured that many of these countries were aligned with the United States;

the US and its wartime Allies undertook massive nation-building in Germany and Japan that lasted for many years—essentially reshaping their governments—and the US still maintains military personnel and bases there to this day, ensuring that these former Axis countries cannot militarily threaten the US;

a new world order came into being, with America as the greatest superpower in the world, having a globally dominant sphere of influence for itself and its allies;

the UN (United Nations), an organization of member countries from around the world, was created—with its main headquarters in the US—that was chartered with maintaining peace and that incorporated a council for making decisions on the use of force (the Security Council, which was set up with a smaller number of members from among the UN’s member countries—with these Security Council members including five permanent members: the US and its other four major wartime Allies);

and principles and standards of human rights were established by an international treaty, the UDHR (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

The US absolutely decisively won this war—the only one of the seven foreign wars in its history that it has won.

4.   The Korean War

This war began on June 25, 1950, as a war between North Korea and South Korea, and ended on July 27, 1953.   (Korea had been split into two different zones at the end of the Second World War, with two of the most powerful wartime Allies each occupying one of these: the USSR in the north, the US in the south.   A separate Korean government was set up in each of these zones, each one considered itself the only legitimate government of all of Korea, and the occupying power of each of them essentially took the same stance.)

At first, the north invaded the south—supported by the Soviet Union and China—with the goal of

having its government rule the whole country,

and within a couple months, the American and South Korean forces had retreated to a small area in the southeast and were on the verge of defeat.   The US got the support of the UN, and eventually 20 other countries sent soldiers to help the US in the war, although the United States still provided around 90% of the troops.   The US-led forces next counterattacked the north and were quickly moving toward the border with China, so as

to occupy the whole country.

Within days, Chinese forces entered the war and pushed them back to the south.

Fighting went back and forth for a few months; then most of the rest of the war ended up with the battlelines around the original border.

It was a stalemate, and an armistice was eventually agreed to.

And the US has kept soldiers stationed there ever since.

This war was a draw for the US.

5.   The American-Vietnam War

This war began on November 1, 1955, as a continuation by the Americans (who took over when the French gave up and left) of a war between the French—who had occupied Vietnam since the 1800s and who had set up a Vietnamese government in the south of the country—and those among the Vietnamese people—including the Vietnamese government in the north of the country—who wanted to free the country from foreign domination, and ended on April 30, 1975.

As previously noted ( Liberation of Saigon Day, Fall of Saigon Day: lessons & mislessons of America’s begotten & misbegotten war, on the 45th anniversary ), the US depicted itself in this war as the brave, heroic, and freedom-loving Americans, the last of the civilized, sophisticated, modernizing, and advanced Western democracies—helping their courageous, patriotic, democracy-loving South Vietnamese allies—who had been defending Saigon, the country’s largest city, against the traitorous, collaborating, lackey Vietnamese dupes of the Red Chinese and Soviet powers whom the US portrayed as trying to capture it, and thereby make it, and the rest of the country, the greatest domino to fall in the horrible, long-feared takeover of southeast Asia by the communists, who would thereby occupy, plunder, and exploit it.   The goal of the US was therefore

to prop up and perpetually maintain the South Vietnamese government—which France had set up—and the successors to that South Vietnamese government—which the American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) predominantly and US military had set up.

(The opponents of the US—whose goal was

to bring down this South Vietnamese government and unite the country under the government in the north

—depicted themselves as the brave, patriotic, and freedom-loving heroes among the Vietnamese people, trying to liberate Saigon, the country’s largest city, in the glorious, long-hoped-for victory over oppression, by defeating the American aggressors, whom the opponents of the US portrayed as the last of the running-dog, Western, colonialist, imperialist powers—and their traitorous, collaborating, lackey Vietnamese dupes—who had thereby occupied, plundered, and exploited it, and the rest of the country, for well over a century.)

The US eventually

just gave up and left,

the South Vietnamese government instantaneously collapsed,

and Vietnam was united under the government in the north.

The US was clearly definitively beaten in this war.

6.   The American-Afghanistan War

This war began on October 7, 2001, when the US invaded Afghanistan, and it is still ongoing.   The US has had help from over 40 allied countries—including all NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) members—over the course of the war, although the United States still has provided the great majority of the troops.

The major goals of the US were:

to overthrow the de facto government of most of the country—called the IEA (the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) and most commonly referred to as the Taliban—

for the IEA’s giving of succor and refuge to al-Qa’ida—a network of militant Islamists and Salafist jihadists—and in particular to one of al-Qa’ida’s founders, Osama bin Laden, whom the United States blamed for the attacks on US targets on September 11, 2001;

to ensure that the Taliban was defeated so decisively that it would not be able to threaten American interests again

—in particular that the Taliban would not be able to have the power to govern any of Afghanistan again;

to build new Afghan interim authorities and help them create a government that would be aligned with the United States and that would be stable and strong enough to effectively rule;

and to ensure that Afghanistan, by means of this government, would defend the human rights of its own people (for example by protecting little girls who were often gruesomely murdered in large numbers for committing what the Taliban generally considers the crime of being girls going to school and trying to get an education).

The US very quickly

overthrew the Taliban from power,

but within a couple years the Taliban regrouped,

regained power in some areas,

now controls large parts of Afghanistan,

and threatens many other parts;

a new government that was aligned with the United States was created,

but this government is very corrupt, and it is not really stable or strong enough to effectively rule;

so this Afghan government is not really able to defend the human rights of its own people (for example little girls are often still gruesomely murdered in large numbers for attempting to go to school and try to get an education);

the US has for some time been negotiating with the Taliban for conditions under which the US would leave; and so the basic question now is whether the US and Taliban will finally be able to come to terms by which the Taliban will

accept the conditional surrender of the United States

or whether the US will

just give up and leave.

Though this war is still ongoing, it is certainly already a miserable loss for the US.

7.   The American-Iraq War

This war began on March 20, 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, and ended (ostensibly—as the Americans generally would purport) on December 18, 2011.   The US had help from a coalition of a few allied countries—including Britain in particular—over the course of the war, although the United States provided the great majority of the troops.

The main goals of the US were:

to overthrow the government of Iraq, which was headed by the dictator Saddam Hussein;

to create a new democratic government that would be aligned with the United States and that would be stable and strong enough to effectively rule;

and to ensure that Iraq, by means of this government,

would defend the human rights of its own people (that had been brutally violated by the government of Saddam Hussein),

would keep the people safe and protected,

would build up and maintain the civil infrastructure of a modern society—assuring that the people shared in the prosperity provided by the country’s natural resources wealth (specifically by petroleum)—

would be able to defend its own territory,

and would provide a further stabilizing dynamic in the center of this volatile region (that the US and its allies considered and still consider very strategically important to their interests).

The US-led coalition forces very quickly

overthrew Saddam Hussein’s government, set up a provisional governmental authority for a little over a year, and in 2005 oversaw the installation of a democratically-elected government.

But both the provisional governmental authority and the new government that the US-led coalition installed were full of corruption and mismanagement.   These factors, along with the power vacuum that followed the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein government:

led to widespread civil war between different religious sects and other factions—with years of sectarian revenge-killing and bloodletting;

led to a lengthy insurgency, both from factions within Iraq and from forces outside of Iraq, against the US-led coalition;

and kept the new Iraqi government from ever becoming stable or strong enough to effectively rule.

Because of the new Iraqi government’s inability to effectively rule:

Iraq never came to be able to defend the human rights of its own people or to keep them safe or protected—on the contrary, numerous surveys estimate there were many hundreds of thousands of civilians killed during the war, with some estimates that well over half a million Iraqis were killed (including by sectarian bloodletting and by the bombing and other military operations of the US-led coalition forces themselves) in just the first three to four years of the war;

Iraq has never come to be able to build up or maintain the civil infrastructure of a modern society—on the contrary, vast parts of the country are without the most basic services;

the Iraqi people have never come to share in any kind of prosperity—on the contrary, poverty and squalor is the norm;

the alignment of Iraq’s government with the United States is very tenuous and has now been in doubt for years;

Iraq has never come to be able to defend its own territory—on the contrary, when the US brought its engagement in the war to an end by withdrawing from Iraq, it signed a treaty with the Iraqi government, guaranteeing to defend the country if necessary, by bringing forces back into Iraq;

and Iraq has never come to have any kind of stabilizing dynamic in this region—on the contrary, it has become overwhelmingly more volatile, due to destabilizing factors both from within Iraq and from many of the neighboring countries, as well as from other factions and countries, such as Russia.  

In fact, just a couple years after the US withdrew from Iraq, another civil war began to break out:

further sectarian conflict had built up, due in large part to the US withdrawing and leaving behind the Iraqi government it had set up—which many felt was betraying them and treating them brutally, due primarily to its perceived sectarian biases, as well as to its other factional allegiances;

Iraq was unable to keep ISIL (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant—a militant, fundamentalist, Salafi jihadist group) from beginning to conquer and occupy large parts of Iraq;

and Iraq was also unable to keep the Syrian Civil War from spilling over into Iraqi territory.  

So the US, along with several more of its allies, had to send forces back into Iraq to try to restore just minimal peace and stability in the country again.   This became another massive three-year-long civil war, during which many tens of thousands more civilians were killed and over 5,000,000 more civilians were displaced.   To this day, Iraq remains so totally unable to defend its own country, and the region has become so much more volatile, that the US has not been at all able to withdraw so many of its forces as it did at the end of 2011.   It now still has a significant force stationed in Iraq, and it appears that this will continue permanently.   It is therefore in doubt—other than for a two-and-a-half-year lull from 2012 to 2014—whether this war, or the United States’s involvement in it, has ever actually ended.

It definitely seems that this war was (or perhaps more accurately put: is) a huge loss for the US.

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