Outline of America's Military Involvement in the Former Yugoslavia

During the civil war in the former Yugoslavia in the early- to mid-nineties, the United States became militarily involved, even though the conflict had nothing directly to do with American interests at home or abroad. However, many Americans were (and are still) hardly aware of this military intervention. Despite the fact that the Cold War with the Soviet Union was over (thus robbing us of our justification for world-wide military intervention), the United States maintained its military presence across the planet and continued to involve itself in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations. The following is a brief history of America's direct military involvement in the breakup of Yugoslavia.

America's military intervention in Bosnia began in July 1992 with Operation Provide Promise as part of the UN humanitarian mission. US military involvement was initially limited to flying C-130 Hercules turboprop transports with humanitarian aid to Croatia and the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. US forces were not involved in securing the area around the airport in Sarajevo; US military planners estimated that it would take 50,000 US ground troops to secure a 30-mile perimeter around the airport, a factor that contributed to President Bush's decision to leave security to troops from other nations.

In November 1992, the US established a military hospital in Croatia to care for all UN military personnel, as well as relief workers and local citizens. This marked the first time the US military established a permanent troop presence on the ground in the former Yugoslavia. Although Colin Powell, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told congress that the US would need at least 400,000 ground troops to enforce a cease-fire, the military's deployment of ground forces to the former Yugoslavia remained limited.

Also in November 1992, the UN authorized NATO to patrol the skies over the Adriatic Sea and Bosnia and enforce international embargos and sanctions against the belligerents. The NATO missions were commanded by American Admirals, and the sea blockade (Operation Sharp Guard) was carried out by U.S. carrier battle groups in the Adriatic Sea in conjunction with European naval groups.

By March 1993, President Clinton had expanded Operation Provide Promise to include airdrops of food and medicine to besieged Bosnian Muslim villages throughout Bosnia. Because the planes engaged in these airdrops often came under enemy fire, they were ordered to fly at 10,000 feet and NATO planes (mainly piloted by the US Navy and Air Force) began to patrol the no-fly zone over Bosnia, flying nearly 70 missions per day. Throughout the process, Americans were in command of the entire air effort in Bosnia.

Also in 1993, US Tenth Special Forces teams were first sent into Bosnia to provide intelligence and reconnaissance for possible air strikes. The first US combat force, a battalion of paratroopers from the 502^nd Infantry, was sent to Macedonia.

After a mortar round killed 68 civilians in a Sarajevo marketplace on February 5, 1994, The US, along with NATO and the UN, demanded that the Serb forces cease their attacks on Sarajevo and move all artillery to positions outside a 20-kilometer radius of the city by February 20 under the threat of air strikes. The Serb forces complied and no air strikes were necessary.

In March 1994, the UN authorized NATO to protect the 5,000 UN peacekeepers in Bosnia with air power. Also in 1994, the US committed itself to OPPLAN 40-104, a secret NATO plan that would be enacted if UN forces decided to withdraw from Bosnia. Under this plan, the US was committed to providing 25,000 ground troops to a force of 60,000 for the evacuation of UN personnel.

On February 28, 1994, six Yugoslav air force attack planes attempted to provide air support to Serb ground forces. US Air Force F-16 fighter jets shot four of the six planes down. This was the last Serbian attempt at using air support in conjunction with its ground forces.

On May 25 and 26, 1995, NATO responded to Serb artillery fire into Sarajevo with airstrikes against the ammunition storage depot in Pale.

Operation Deliberate Force, at that time the largest NATO combat operation ever mounted and its first air campaign, began on August 30, 1995. The plan was triggered in response to a Serb mortar attack on Sarajevo on August 29, which killed 38 civilians. According to NATO, Deliberate Force was "an air attack plan to reduce military capability to threaten or attack safe areas and UN forces." The targets of the operation included fielded forces/heavy weapons, command and control facilities, direct and essential military support facilities, and supporting infrastructure/lines of communication.

Even at this point, The United States' military intervention in the Balkans had only just begun. Although it is easy to point to the current Bush administration as being overly militaristic and interventionist, the United States has been involving itself in other countries' business for many years indeed.

References:

Peter Huchthausen, America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements from the Fall of Saigon to Baghdad (New York: Penguin Books, 2003).

Samantha Power, "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2002).

GlobalSecurity.org, Operation Determined Effort from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/determined_effort.htm; Internet.

NATO: Regional Headquarters Allied Forces Southern Europe, Operation Deliberate Force Fact Sheet from http://www.afsouth.nato.int/factsheets/DeliberateForceFactSheet.htm; Internet.