title: Don Haskins

text: A street is named after him in El Paso's East side. In 1977, UTEP moved from Memorial Gym, home of the 1966 champions, to the larger Special Events Center. In 1998, before what would be Haskins' last season, it was renamed the Don Haskins Center in his honor.


title: Don Haskins

text: Bob Knight was Haskins' fishing partner and one of his best friends. Another good friend, Norm Ellenberger, was former coach of the New Mexico Lobos.


title: Don Haskins

text: "Glory Road", a Disney film about the then-Texas Western 1966 championship season, was released on January 13, 2006. Haskins is portrayed in the film by actor Josh Lucas. On November 29, 2005, the City of El Paso renamed the street between its two basketball arenas "Glory Road." Adolph Rupp, Jr., pointed out that his father had previously used the term "Glory Road" in his farewell speech to his fans and worried that his father would be villainized in the film. However, director Jim Gartner stated that Rupp Sr. would not be negatively portrayed in the film, claiming that Jon Voight, who played Rupp, was careful in his role, seeking not to mischaracterize Rupp as a racist.


title: Don Haskins

text: Haskins stated his disappointment at the cutting of the movie scenes of his one-on-one games with his boyhood friend Herman Carr, who is African-American. Carr was present in El Paso as a guest for the premiere screening, November 28, 2005. These scenes would have depicted a formative influence on Haskins' game of basketball. Haskins appeared in the movie as an extra by playing a gas station attendant.


title: Don Haskins

text: "Glory Road" was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and was based upon Haskins' official same-titled autobiography, written with Dan Wetzel and released by Hyperion Books in 2005. A national best seller, it was reprinted five times in its first four months of release and was selected as an "Editor's Choice" by the New York Times Book Review.


title: Don Haskins

text: Haskins died at his home on September 7, 2008. He was survived by his wife Mary, sons Brent, Steve, and David, and grandsons John Paul, Cameron, and Dominick. A fourth son, Mark, died in 1994. His son Steve is a professional golfer who began play on the Champions Tour after reaching the age of 50 and won two events on the Nationwide Tour during his regular career years. Haskins is buried at the Memory Gardens of the Valley in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida, 77 miles north of downtown Miami. , the population was 59,182. Palm Beach Gardens is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6.1 million people at the 2019 census.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: Palm Beach Gardens has a tropical rainforest climate (Af) with long, hot, and rainy summers and short, warm winters with mild nights.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: Prior to development, the land that became Palm Beach Gardens was primarily cattle ranches and pine forests, as well as swampland farther west. In 1959, wealthy landowner and insurance magnate John D. MacArthur announced plans to develop and build homes for 55,000 people. He chose the name Palm Beach Gardens after his initial choice, Palm Beach City, was denied by the Florida Legislature, because of the similarity of the name to the nearby Palm Beach. MacArthur planned to build a "garden city" so he altered the name slightly. The city was incorporated as a "paper town" (meaning that it existed only on paper) in 1959. The 1960 Census recorded that the city officially had a population of one, apparently a squatter whom MacArthur had allowed to stay on his property.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: Rapid development took place in the 1960s. By 1970 the city had a population approaching 7,000 people. To showcase his new community, MacArthur purchased an 80-year-old banyan tree located in nearby Lake Park, that was to be cut down to enlarge a dentist's office. It cost $30,000 and 1,008 hours of manpower to move it. A second banyan was moved the following year. While moving the first banyan tree over the Florida East Coast Railway, the massive tree shifted and disconnected the Western Union telephone and telegraph lines running adjacent to the railroad, cutting off most communications between Miami, to the south, and the outside world until the damage could be repaired. These trees still remain at the center of MacArthur Boulevard near Northlake Boulevard and are still featured on the city shield. In January 2007, the great-grandson of impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alexandre Renoir, presented a painting to the city which depicts the Gardens banyan tree. It is currently on display at the city hall on North Military Trail.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: City growth was slow but steady throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the population has still not reached the predicted 55,000 people envisioned by MacArthur. However, the opening of the Gardens Mall in 1988 initiated a new wave of development, as did the sell off in 1999 of approximately in the city by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Development of this property happened quickly and led to much new growth in the city. The city adopted an Art in Public Places ordinance in 1989 and has amassed an eclectic collection of works.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The city suffered much damage to its tropical landscaping in the hard freezes of 1985 and 1989, but has experienced no freezing temperatures since then. The city was hit by Hurricane Frances, Hurricane Jeanne, and Hurricane Wilma in 2004 and 2005. Much of the city lost power for days at a time after each storm, and many traffic signals and directional signs in the city were destroyed. Many homes and businesses were severely damaged during the first two storms and contractors and construction materials were at a premium. Hundreds of homes were only nearing final repair when Hurricane Wilma hit the following year damaging or destroying many of those completed or ongoing repairs.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The Gardens Mall, PGA Commons, Midtown, Legacy Place, and Downtown at the Gardens are the center of the city's retail market. They are located on the municipality's main stretch on PGA Boulevard.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: There are 12 golf courses within the city limits, including a course owned by the municipality. The Professional Golfers' Association of America has its headquarters in the city.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The Honda Classic has been held at two Palm Beach Gardens locations: from 2003 to 2006 at the Country Club at Mirasol and since 2007 at the PGA National Resort and Spa. Also, the Senior PGA Championship was held at the current BallenIsles from 1964 to 1973, and at the PGA National Golf Club from 1982 to 2000. PGA National was also the site of the 1983 Ryder Cup and the 1987 PGA Championship.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: In February 2018, the Palm Beach Gardens-based company FITTEAM concluded a 12-year deal with Major League Baseball′s Houston Astros and Washington Nationals giving it the naming rights to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches – spring training home of the Astros and Nationals – in nearby West Palm Beach. The facility was renamed FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: According to Palm Beach Gardens' 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: Public K-12 primary and secondary schools are administrated by the School District of Palm Beach County. Palm Beach Gardens Community High School and William T. Dwyer High School are the local public high schools. The Upper School campus of The Benjamin School is also located in Palm Beach Gardens.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The Edward M. Eissey Campus, a satellite campus of the Palm Beach State College, is located in Palm Beach Gardens. It includes the Eissey Theatre for the Performing Arts.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 59,182 people, 24,191 households, and 14,907 families residing in the city.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: , there were 27,663 households, out of which 17.6% were vacant. As of 2000, 23.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.8% were married couples living together, 8.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.5% were non-families. 27.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.70.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: In 2000, the city's population was spread out, with 18.7% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 28.9% from 45 to 64, and 21.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.4 males.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: In 2007, the median income for a household in the city was $69,630 and the median income for a family was $83,715. In 2000, males had a median income of $50,045 versus $33,221 for females. In 2015, The per capita income for the city was $52,191. About 3.5% of families and 5.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.9% of those under age 18 and 3.5% of those age 65 or over.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: As of 2000, 89.27% of the population spoke only English at home; Spanish was spoken by 5.60% of the population, Italian by 1.00%, French by 0.83%, and German by 0.61%. Eleven other languages were spoken in the city, each of which are reported at less than 0.5%.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department has 127 sworn officers . Its operational divisions include Road Patrol, Traffic, K-9, Detective and Crime Scene Investigation, SWAT and Hostage Negotiation. The department also has an 85-member Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) unit, including a Police Explorer Post.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: As of 2022, the Chief of Police is Clinton Shannon. In 2016 a police officer was convicted for the killing of Corey Jones, an African American man awaiting a tow truck after his vehicle broke down in Palm Beach Gardens.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The Police Department provides protection to the city and also manages NorthComm - The North County Communications Center which handles emergency communications for the City of Palm Beach Gardens, the village's of Tequesta and North Palm Beach, and the town's of Jupiter, Juno Beach and Palm Beach Shores. When someone calls 9-1-1 in one of these locations, their call is routed to NorthComm and from there they notify the nearest available police unit.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The Palm Beach Gardens Police Foundation is a non-profit foundation holding IRS 501(c)(3) status. The Mission of the Palm Beach Gardens Police Foundation is to secure private funding to enhance the integrity of the community and the effectiveness of the Police Department. It does this by providing funding for innovative police department projects, that would not otherwise be funded from the city's budget.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue Department has been serving the citizen's of the city since 1964. The department operates out of the following five stations located throughout the City:


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: On September 11, 2010, the city dedicated its "09.11.01 Memorial Plaza" at Fire Station 63 on Northlake Boulevard. The memorial commemorates the September 11, 2001 attacks. Its centerpiece is a steel section retrieved from the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: The city charter provides for a council-manager government. The city council consists of five Palm Beach Gardens residents elected to serve three-year terms. A quorum of three members may conduct city business. The city manager is appointed by a majority vote of the council.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: In December 1987, the last "missing link" of Interstate 95 (I-95) opened between PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens and State Road 714, west of Stuart, paving the way for new development immediately to the north. There are three interchanges on I-95 serving the city and a fourth at Central Boulevard is under consideration. The city also is served by two interchanges on Florida's Turnpike.


title: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

text: Public transit is available to the rest of Palm Beach County through the regional commuter bus system PalmTran. In addition, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority has proposed extending the Tri-Rail commuter rail system northward with a proposed station near PGA Boulevard north of the current terminus at Mangonia Park. A trolley system is also proposed to serve the newly developed "Downtown" area.


title: Honda PCX

text: The Honda PCX is a scooter made by the Japanese manufacturer Honda, it was first introduced for sale in November 2009. Production began in September 2009 at A.P. Honda Co., Ltd. in Bangkok, Thailand.


title: Honda PCX

text: In early 2010, the Honda PCX 125 was launched in the UK and US, while the PCX 150 was launched in the rest of Europe and Japan.


title: Honda PCX

text: For 2012, the PCX 150 was launched in Australia. The US skipped the 2012 PCX 125 as they made a switch for the PCX 150 model which arrived in the summer of 2012, these were later sold in 2013 for both Canadian and US markets. This model became known as the PCX 125/150 eSP as the label was displayed on the airbox.


title: Honda PCX

text: The 2012 update featured a redesigned engine to decrease friction; increasing efficiency, and the displacement (which was increased to ).


title: Honda PCX

text: Honda continues to produce the version (with eSP) for export to select markets, such as Europe, where local licence requirements favour this engine displacement.


title: Honda PCX

text: Also known as PCX 125/150 LED. This generation of PCX received a major facelift in 2014. Including new LED headlights, redesigned body, and a few other tweaks.


title: Honda PCX

text: Also known as PCX 125 Digital, Honda unveiled two new versions of the PCX at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show, a hybrid and an electric version. The new version of Honda PCX is expected to launch to the public in 2018. This new generation PCX featured a new tubular steel frame, ABS (Anti-Locking Braking System)


title: Honda PCX

text: Also known as PCX 125/160 ESP+. This generation of PCX received a new facelift. This includes a redesigned duplex steel "cradle" frame, additional storage space under the seat (30.4L), traction control (Honda Selectable Torque Control), and a Smart Key (keyless) ignition system.


title: Honda PCX

text: The global version of the Honda PCX is equipped with an idling stop system, which automatically shuts off the engine after a few seconds of idle.


title: Honda PCX

text: This feature is not included on the US/Canada model due to safety concerns, having a kill switch and a parking brake instead.


title: Honda PCX

text: To prevent excessive wear on a separate starter motor, the Honda PCX uses its alternator by supplying power to the stator (see Brushless DC electric motor). As a result, engine start is completely muted. This same technology was released in the new 2018 Honda Goldwing.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The Haditha massacre (also called the Haditha killings or the Haditha incident) was a series of killings on November 19, 2005, in which a group of United States Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. The killings occurred in Haditha, a city in Iraq's western province of Al Anbar. Among the dead were men, women, elderly people and children as young as 1, who were shot multiple times at close range while unarmed. The ensuing massacre took place after an improvised explosive device exploded near a convoy, killing a lance corporal and severely injured two other marines. The immediate reaction was to seize 5 men in a nearby taxi and execute them on the street.


title: Haditha massacre

text: An initial Marine Corps communique reported that 15 civilians were killed by the bomb's blast and eight insurgents were subsequently killed when the Marines returned fire against those attacking the convoy. However, other evidence uncovered by the media contradicted the Marines' account. A "Time" magazine reporter's questions prompted the United States military to open an investigation into the incident. The investigation found evidence that "supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot civilians", according to an anonymous Pentagon official. Three officers were officially reprimanded for failing to properly initially report and investigate the killings. On December 21, 2006, eight Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines were charged in connection with the incident.


title: Haditha massacre

text: By June 17, 2008, six defendants had their cases dropped and a seventh was found not guilty. The exception was former Staff Sergeant, now-Private Frank Wuterich. On October 3, 2007, the Article 32 hearing investigating officer recommended that charges of murder be dropped and Wuterich be tried for negligent homicide in the deaths of two women and five children. Further charges of assault and manslaughter were ultimately dropped; Wuterich was convicted of a single count of negligent dereliction of duty on January 24, 2012. Wuterich received a rank reduction and pay cut but avoided jail time. Iraqis expressed disbelief and voiced outrage after the six-year U.S. military prosecution ended with none of the Marines sentenced to incarceration. A lawyer for the victims stated "this is an assault on humanity" before adding that he, as well as the Government of Iraq, might bring the case to international courts.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. military forces had been stationed in and around Haditha to control the Haditha Dam, a major hydroelectric installation. The area had seen several clashes between U.S. forces and insurgent groups since the beginning of the Iraq War, with many fatalities on both sides.


title: Haditha massacre

text: A contemporary "Time" magazine poll reported that 85% of Iraq's Sunnis opposed coalition forces, as compared to 65% of Iraqis overall. Conditions in Haditha itself were known to have been deteriorating under militant rule, and attacks on U.S. troops as well as killings of suspected informants were common.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On November 19, 2005, an improvised explosive device (IED), composed of 155 mm artillery shells and explosive-filled propane tanks, was placed along their route some time before 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1) arrived in Haditha. The IED targeted a squad from 3/1 K Company, 3rd Platoon, which was on a resupply convoy. Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas was killed instantly at 7:15 a.m. Terrazas was driving the Humvee when it was hit by the bomb. Lance Corporal James Crossan was in the passenger seat and was thrown out of the vehicle and trapped under the rear passenger tire. The Humvee was bisected by the explosion. Private First Class Salvador Guzman was in the back of the vehicle conducting security for the convoy and was thrown from the Humvee. Both Crossan and Guzman were taken to a landing zone to be evacuated for medical attention. Crossan was medically discharged from the USMC due to the wounds he received that day. Guzman returned to active duty after healing and went on a 2nd deployment with 3/1 to Iraq in April 2007.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Five Iraqi men, a taxi driver and four teenagers, were ordered out of their car and shot dead in the street, principally by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. After their deaths, Lt. William T. Kallop, according to his statements to investigators, arrived on the scene. Kallop and others reported taking small-arms fire, which they attributed to a nearby house. Kallop gave the order "to take the house". Nineteen of those killed were in three adjacent houses which U.S. Marines entered, employing grenades and small arms. According to Kallop,


title: Haditha massacre

text: The Marines cleared it the way they had been trained to clear it, which is frags first. ... It was clear just by the looks of the room that frags went in and then the house was prepped and sprayed like with a machine gun and then they went in. And by the looks of it, they just ... they went in, cleared the room, everybody was down.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On November 20, 2005, a Marine press release from Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi reported the deaths of a U.S. Marine and 15 civilians. It said the civilians' deaths resulted from a roadside bomb and Iraqi insurgents. The initial U.S. military statement read:


title: Haditha massacre

text: A US marine and 15 civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb in Haditha. Immediately following the bombing, gunmen attacked the convoy with small arms fire. Iraqi army soldiers and Marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Eman Waleed, a nine-year-old child who witnessed the incident, described the U.S. Marines entering their house. She said:


title: Haditha massacre

text: I couldn't see their faces very well - only their guns sticking in to the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The director of the local hospital in Haditha, Dr Wahid, said that the 24 bodies were brought in two American humvees to the hospital around midnight on November 19. While the Marines claim that the victims had been killed by shrapnel from the roadside bomb and that the men were saboteurs, Dr Wahid said that there were "no organs slashed by shrapnel in any of the bodies". He further claimed that it appeared that "the victims were shot in the head and chest from close range."


title: Haditha massacre

text: Soon after the killings, the mayor of Haditha, Emad Jawad Hamza, led an angry delegation of elders to the Haditha Dam Marine base reportedly complaining to the base captain.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Video shot by the co-founder of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, Taher Thabet, which instigated Tim McGirk's original "Time" magazine article, and cellphone photos reportedly taken by one of the Marines the day after the killings have been put forth as evidence that the killings were methodical and without resistance. The video shot by Thabet showed the bodies of the women and children with gunshot wounds, bullet holes in the interior walls of the house, and bloodstains on the floor. Insufficient evidence has come to light to account for insurgents hiding in the houses that first came under attack.


title: Haditha massacre

text: McGirk's first article online stated that the Hammurabi Human Rights Group "coordinated with Human Rights Watch". A correction was issued when no official links could be confirmed. McGirk, who was based in Jerusalem, declined to testify at the hearings.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The intentional killing of noncombatants is prohibited by modern laws of war derived from the UN Charter, the Hague Conventions and the Geneva Conventions, and constitutes a war crime. The Marines and officers were subject to possible courts martial under American military law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Attorney Gary Myers, who worked on the case, was the first lawyer in American history to use DNA evidence in a military trial dating back to the trial stemming from the My Lai massacre.


title: Haditha massacre

text: In his memoir "Call Sign Chaos," then I Marine Expeditionary Force commander James N. Mattis explains his experience and actions in relation to the Haditha massacre. He claims to have read "more than nine thousand pages" of investigative material. He concluded that "several have made tragic mistakes, but others had lost their discipline", which is why he recommended courts-martial for some Marines but not for others. The battalion commander was not aware of the details on the same day of the incident, and the killings were brought to light by a "Time" magazine reporter. Mattis relieved the battalion commander because the lack of reporting and the number of civilian deaths "should have alerted him that something very out of the ordinary ... had occurred." He then recommended letters of reprimand for the division commander and two colonels, stating, "[b]y their actions or inactions, they demonstrated lack of due diligence." This action forced the senior officers to leave active service.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Upon being told of questions by reporters concerning the Haditha killings, Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli instructed his public affairs office to brief them with the results of the military investigation. It was then he learned there had been no investigation. On February 14, 2006, Chiarelli ordered a preliminary investigation, after video evidence which conflicted with the initial U.S. report, was released. On March 9, a criminal investigation was launched, led by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, to determine if the troops deliberately targeted Iraqi civilians.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On March 19, 2006, U.S. military officials confirmed that, contrary to the initial report, U.S. Marines, not Iraqi insurgents, killed 15 civilians.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Several official investigations began. The first, under United States Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, examined how the incident was reported through the chain of command. A second investigation, headed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, examined the criminal aspects of the incident. A third investigation was launched by the Iraqi government. The conduct of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the squad leader, came under scrutiny.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On June 2, 2006, news outlets reported that 24 Iraqis had been killed, none as a result of the bomb explosion. This news anticipated the results of the U.S. military investigation, which found that the 24 unarmed Iraqis—including children as young as two years old and women—were killed by 12 members of K Company in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.


title: Haditha massacre

text: "The Times" published the result of the first investigation, under U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, including eyewitness interviews. It noted that the "official investigation has already resulted in the removal of Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, the commanding officer, and Captain Luke McConnell and 10-years-veteran Captain James Kimber (born 1973), two company commanders, from their duties. Bargewell's investigation found:


title: Haditha massacre

text: Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get "the job done" no matter what it takes. These comments had the potential to desensitize the Marines to concern for the Iraqi populace and portray them all as the enemy even if they are noncombatants.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On June 1, 2006, the Associated Press reported that the Iraqi government decided to launch its own probe into the alleged killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in the previous year. Adnan al-Kazimi, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the decision was made during a Cabinet meeting. The probe was to be carried out by a special committee made up of the Justice and Human Rights ministries, along with security officials.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The U.S. Marines investigation avoided public pronouncements about the killings, but on June 17, 2006, the "New York Times" reported that "Investigators have also concluded that most of the victims in three houses died from well-aimed rifle shots, not shrapnel or random fire, according to military officials familiar with the initial findings." Many of those killed had wounds from close-range fire, and their death certificates record "well-aimed shots to the head and chest" as the cause of death.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On December 21, 2006, the U.S. military charged eight Marines in connection with the Haditha incident. Four of the eight, Frank Wuterich, Sanick P. Dela Cruz, James Donahue and Stephen Tatum, were accused of unpremeditated murder. Tatum was further charged with negligent homicide and assault, while Dela Cruz was also charged with making a false statement. Squad leader Frank Wuterich was charged with 12 counts of unpremeditated murder against individuals and one count of the murder of six people "while engaged in an act inherently dangerous to others". The battalion commander, Jeffrey Chessani, was charged with one count of violating a lawful order and two counts of dereliction of duty. First Lieutenant Andrew Grayson was charged with obstruction of justice, dereliction of duty, and making a false statement, while Captain Randy Stone and Captain Lucas McConnell were charged with dereliction of duty. Stone also faced an additional count of violating a lawful order. All charges against Stone were later dropped.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Testimony in an Article 32 investigation for Capt. Randy W. Stone, equivalent to a civilian grand jury proceeding, began on May 8, 2007.


title: Haditha massacre

text: At the hearing, Marine Lt. William Kallop, the platoon commander who ordered Marines to "clear" four houses, testified that the rules of engagement were followed and that no mistakes had been made. He stated that a Marine on the scene had reported seeing a suspected insurgent in the vicinity. Kallop also believed that small arms fire was being directed from the first house attacked by the Marines.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On May 9, Sergeant Sanick De la Cruz, who received immunity in return for testimony, testified that he watched Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich shoot five Iraqis who were attempting to surrender. Cruz further testified that both he and Wuterich fired into the bodies of the five after they were dead, and that he had urinated on one of the dead Iraqis.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The US military attempted to subpoena material from a "60 Minutes" interview with Staff Sergeant Wuterich, specifically material where Wuterich admitted to ordering his men to "shoot first and ask questions later." The interview includes Wuterich insisting he perceived a threat from house 1, but saw no gun fire from that house and that he saw no insurgent enter that house. He suggests he saw the dead family in house 1 and proceeded to assault house 2 based on a guess that the gunman may have entered that house. The Marines knocked on the door of house 2 and when someone came to answer they fired through the door killing what they saw to be an unarmed man. They then assaulted the house and killed the family inside. Wuterich later said he believed there was probably no threat to begin with.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The Article 32 investigation recommended Capt. Randy W. Stone's criminal charge be dismissed, but that he face a new lesser charge that would be handled administratively for failing to investigate the incident properly.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani was recommended to face court-martial for having "failed to thoroughly and accurately report and investigate a combat action that clearly needed scrutiny." On June 17, 2008 Military Judge Colonel Steven Folsom dismissed all charges against Lt Colonel Jeffrey Chessani on the grounds that General James Mattis, who approved the filing of charges against Chessani, was improperly influenced by an investigator probing the incident. The ruling was without prejudice, which allows the prosecution to refile.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Lt. Col. Paul Ware, the Investigating Officer for several of the enlisted Marines, recommended on July 11, 2007, that LCpl. Justin Sharratt be cleared of these charges. Ware stated, "[t]he government version is unsupported by independent evidence... To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary." The charges against Sharratt were dropped on August 9.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Article 32 hearings for LCpl. Stephen Tatum began July 16, and for SSgt. Frank Wuterich began in August. The investigating officer recommended charges be dropped against Tatum.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On April 17, 2007, the Marine Corps dropped all charges against Sgt. Sanick P. De la Cruz in exchange for his testimony. Seven other Marines involved in the incident were also granted immunity.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On August 9, 2007, all charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, Lance Cpl. James Donahue, and Capt. Randy Stone were dropped. On October 19, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt's commanding officer decided the charges should be lowered to involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On September 18, 2007, all charges against Captain Lucas McConnell were dropped in exchange for immunity and his cooperation with the investigation.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On June 17, 2008, all charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani were dismissed by the military judge citing unlawful command influence. The Marine Corps appealed that ruling in 2008. On March 17, 2009, a military appeals court upheld the dismissal of the war crimes charges against Chessani. Facing an administrative Board of Inquiry, it also found no misconduct and recommended that Chessani be allowed to retire without loss of rank.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On June 5, 2008, 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson was acquitted of all charges stemming from the Haditha incident. He had been charged with deleting photos of the deceased Iraqis in order to obstruct the investigation. He had also been charged with failing to notify the Marine Corps administrative chain of command of his legal status when his term of service was expired and he was discharged from the Marine Corps.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The court martial of Wuterich, the only defendant to stand trial for the Haditha killings, took place in January 2012. During the trial Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz testified that he urinated on the skull of one of the dead Iraqis. He also testified, after describing how Wuterich shot the passengers of the car himself from close range, "Sergeant Wuterich approached me and told me if anyone asks, the Iraqis were running away from the car and the Iraqi army shot them". In a plea deal, Wuterich pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty, while charges of assault and manslaughter were dropped. He was convicted of a single count of negligent dereliction of duty on January 24, 2012, receiving a rank reduction and pay cut but avoiding jail time.


title: Haditha massacre

text: In mid April 2012, The Secretary of the Navy informed the Commandant of the Marine Corps that he had reviewed the Haditha Incident and ordered Sgt Mendoza and Sgt Dela Cruz separated after they had testified in the trial of SSgt Wuterich. The Navy secretary said in the letter that his review of Dela Cruz and Mendoza's cases "revealed troubling information about their conduct". He cited false statements Dela Cruz made about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of five men found next to a white car at the scene. Mabus said Mendoza also lied and withheld information, without citing specifics. "Such conduct is wholly inconsistent with the core values of the Department of the Navy," Mabus said in the letter to Commandant Gen. Jim Amos. "You are directed to immediately initiate administrative processing for Sgt. Dela Cruz and Sgt. Mendoza for administrative separation in the best interest of the service." During Wuterich's trial, Mendoza and Dela Cruz acknowledged on the witness stand that they had lied to investigators to protect the squad. They told jurors that later they decided it was time to tell the truth. Both Marines were allowed to submit rebuttals to the separation proceeding. Both Marines were separated.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The coverup at Haditha reportedly began instantly. However, an Iraqi journalism student shot a video the day after of the bloodstained and bullet-riddled houses where the massacre had occurred. That video made its way to an Iraqi human rights group and finally to Tim McGirk, a correspondent from "Time" magazine. When "Time" made its first queries, the Marine spokesman, Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool, who had issued the first statement on Haditha as an action against terrorists months earlier, told reporters that they were falling for al-Qaida propaganda. 'I cannot believe you're buying any of this,' he wrote in an e-mail. Nonetheless, word reached Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq, that there had been no investigation and he ordered one immediately.


title: Haditha massacre

text: According to the "Los Angeles Times", military and congressional sources distinguished between two squads: the original Marine squad involved in the explosion and shootings, and a Marine intelligence squad that took photos shortly after the shootings. According to "LA Times" sources, no investigation occurred until after a March 2006 "Time" magazine story alleging a massacre, even though the intelligence squad's photos were inconsistent with the Marine squad's report of a firefight. According to the "Time" story, military officials blamed the delay of the investigation on the Marine squad's efforts to cover up the events:


title: Haditha massacre

text: ...Military officials say they believe the delay in beginning the investigation was a result of the squad's initial efforts to cover up what happened."


title: Haditha massacre

text: However, both military and congressional sources said that the "intelligence team" that took photos after the firefight did not appear to participate in any improper action:


title: Haditha massacre

text: ...Military and congressional sources said there was no indication that the members of the intelligence team did anything improper or delayed reporting their findings."


title: Haditha massacre

text: There is no question that the Marines involved, those doing the shooting, they were busy in lying about it and covering it up—there is no question about it. But I am confident, as soon as the command learned there might be some truth to this, they started to pursue it vigorously. I don't have any reason now to think there was any foot dragging.


title: Haditha massacre

text: In June 2006, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the killings and called for a swift investigation, saying: "The crime and misery of Haditha ... is a terrible crime where women and children were eliminated."


title: Haditha massacre

text: John Dickerson and Dahlia Lithwick of "Slate" suggested that the Iraqis should be able to put the Marines on trial:


title: Haditha massacre

text: Let's let the Iraqis put the Americans alleged to have committed these crimes on trial. The United States wants to encourage the fledgling Iraqi institution of democracy, right? That's why we wanted Saddam tried in Iraq, and through the Iraqi judicial system--both to build up its legitimacy and to give Iraqis the sense of ownership that comes with having control over the legal process. Why, then, shouldn't we also turn over our own soldiers who were involved in either the Haditha massacre or any of the other possible massacres for trial under the Iraqi justice system?


title: Haditha massacre

text: On May 17, 2006, Democratic Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine colonel and critic of the war, stated at a news conference that an internal investigation had confirmed the story.


title: Haditha massacre

text: There was no firefight, there was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On August 2, 2006, Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Frank D. Wuterich, who led the accused squad, filed suit for libel and invasion of privacy. The filing alleged that Murtha "tarnished the Marine's reputation by telling news organizations in May that the Marine unit cracked after a roadside bomb killed one of its members and that the troops 'killed innocent civilians in cold blood'. Murtha also said repeatedly that the incident was 'covered up'." Wuterich was charged with nine counts of manslaughter in 2008, and Wuterich's lawsuit against Murtha was dismissed in 2009, as the court had determined Murtha was immune, having made his comments as a lawmaker.


title: Haditha massacre

text: On September 25, 2008, former Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, one of the Marines that had criminal charges that had been subsequently dropped, filed a slander suit against Rep. Murtha. The lawsuit stated that "Sharratt, in being labeled repeatedly by Murtha as a 'cold-blooded murderer', and by Murtha outrageously claiming that the Haditha incident was comparable to the infamous (My Lai) massacre of Vietnam, has suffered permanent, irreversible damage to his reputation."


title: Haditha massacre

text: Many news reports compared the Haditha Killings to the 1968 My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, with some commentators describing it as "Bush's My Lai", or "Iraq's My Lai". Very often, the killings have been described as part of a wider pattern of human rights abuses committed by American forces in Iraq. As a "Spiegel" reporter notes in an interview with Michael Sallah, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigation of atrocities committed by the Tiger Force unit in Vietnam, "you would have difficulties finding a single newspaper in Germany, or elsewhere in Europe, that does not deal with My Lai, Abu Ghraib, and Haditha in the same commentary." It was suggested that the Haditha killings might, like the My Lai Massacre, have resulted in further reduction of American public support for the conflict. Some rejected that comparison, however, including prominent journalist Christopher Hitchens who stated in a June 5, 2006 essay that:


title: Haditha massacre

text: ...all the glib talk about My Lai is so much propaganda and hot air. In Vietnam, the rules of engagement were such as to make an atrocity – the slaughter of the My Lai villagers took almost a day rather than a white-hot few minutes – overwhelmingly probable. The ghastliness was only stopped by a brave officer who prepared his chopper-gunner to fire. In those days there were no precision-guided missiles, but there were "free-fire zones", and "body counts", and other virtual incitements to psycho officers such as Capt. Medina and Lt. Calley. As a consequence, a training film about My Lai – "if anything like this happens, you have really, truly screwed up" – has been in use for U. S. soldiers for some time.


title: Haditha massacre

text: The most frequent parallel drawn between the killing of 504 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai and the two dozen Iraqis killed in Haditha is the military instinct to cover-up and whitewash civilian deaths. Martin Shaw pointed out on the analysis website OpenDemocracy, that of the 22 officers put on trial for the My Lai massacre, all were acquitted except for Lieutenant William Calley, who served only three and a half years of his life sentence. Professor Shaw observed that "in the few cases in which soldiers have been accused over atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan, convictions have been few and far between."


title: Haditha massacre

text: Comparisons have also been made to the case of Ilario Pantano, who was initially charged with premeditated murder in Iraq but this was dropped after it was determined there was no credible evidence or testimony. Pantano himself has spoken out in defense of the "Haditha Marines", objecting to what he called a "rush to judgement".


title: Haditha massacre

text: The killings have also been compared to killings in Afghanistan, particularly the 2007 Shinwar shooting.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Family, friends, defense lawyers and right-wing radio host Michael Savage strongly criticized the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for its role in the case. They highlighted the string of immunities that were granted as a sign of NCIS bungling. In mid-December 2011, 400 pages of classified notes from top-secret interviews with US soldiers about the 2005 killing of 24 civilians in Haditha were discovered in a dump on the outskirts of Baghdad. The Washington Post published NCIS photographs of the aftermath of the notorious incident.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Iraqis expressed disbelief and voiced outrage after the six-year US military prosecution ended with none of the Marines sentenced to jail. The Iraqi government said that the ruling did "not fit the crime" and that it plans legal action on behalf of families of victims killed. Survivor Awis Fahmi Hussein commented.


title: Haditha massacre

text: I was expecting that the American judiciary would sentence this person to life in prison and that he would appear and confess in front of the whole world that he committed this crime, so that America could show itself as democratic and fair.


title: Haditha massacre

text: Youssef Ayid, who lost four brothers in the Haditha raid, said, "We are sad to see the criminals escape justice". "This is an assault on humanity" said Khalid Salman, a Haditha councillor and lawyer for the victims. He also said the sentence did not "mean the end" of his legal efforts.


title: Haditha massacre

text: "There are orphans, widows and old people who are still suffering and hurting from that terrible massacre. ...If we find no way, we will go to the international courts.".


title: Haditha massacre

text: "Battle for Haditha" is a 2007 drama film directed by British director Nick Broomfield based on the incident. "House Two" is a 2018 documentary directed by Michael Epstein that investigates the Iraq War's worst war crime cases more than ten years later.


title: CryptoKitties

text: CryptoKitties is a blockchain game on Ethereum developed by Canadian studio Dapper Labs, a company spun-off from Axiom Zen, that allows players to purchase, collect, breed and sell virtual cats. It is one of the earliest attempts to deploy blockchain technology for recreation and leisure. The game's popularity in December 2017 congested the Ethereum network, causing it to reach an all-time high in the number of transactions and slowing it down significantly.


title: CryptoKitties

text: Players purchase, breed and trade virtual cats that have different visual features of varying levels of rarity. Players must purchase Ether cryptocurrency to join the game, and spend it to perform each breeding and trade action within the game.


title: CryptoKitties

text: The virtual cats are breedable and carry a unique number and 256-bit distinct genome with DNA and different attributes (cattributes) that can be passed to offspring. Several traits can be passed down from the parents to the offspring. There are a total of 12 'cattributes' for any cat, including pattern, mouth shape, fur, eye shape, base color, accent color, highlight color, eye color, and optional wild, environment, 'purrstige' and 'secret'. Other features like cool down times are not passed down but are instead a function of the 'generation' of the offspring, which is one more than the 'generation' of the highest 'generation' attribute.


title: CryptoKitties

text: A CryptoKitty does not have a permanently assigned gender. While they can only engage in one breeding session at one time, each cat is able to act as either matron or sire. There is a 'cooldown' time that indicates how soon the cat can breed again, which goes up with the number of breeds, capped at one week.


title: CryptoKitties

text: "CryptoKitties" operates on Ethereum's underlying blockchain network. Each CryptoKitty is a non-fungible token (NFT). Each is unique and owned by the user, validated through the blockchain, and its value can appreciate or depreciate based on the market. CryptoKitties cannot be replicated and cannot be transferred without the user's permission even by the game developers. Users can interact with their CryptoKitties, having the ability to buy, sell, and sire (breed) them. However, the CryptoKitty art is not on the blockchain and is instead owned by Axiom Zen. The company released some of the art under a new 'Nifty' license that lets players use the image of their CryptoKitty in a limited way.


title: CryptoKitties

text: A test version of "CryptoKitties" was unveiled at ETH Waterloo on October 19, 2017, an Ethereum hackathon. As of December 2, 2017, Genesis, the first high selling cat was sold for ETH246.9255 (~US$117,712) on that day.


title: CryptoKitties

text: On March 20, 2018, it was announced that "CryptoKitties" would be spun off into its own company, Dapper Labs, and raised $12 million from several top venture capital firms and angel investors. The investment round was led by New York based Union Square Ventures and San Francisco based Andreessen Horowitz.


title: CryptoKitties

text: On May 12, 2018, a CryptoKitty was sold for $140,000. In May 2018, "CryptoKitties" launched their first celebrity-branded CryptoKitty with Stephen Curry, an American professional basketball player. As part of the partnership, Curry was given three CryptoKitties with special imagery, the first of which he put up for auction. The company later suspended the auction, claiming that Stephen Curry was not as involved as they initially thought. The company was later sued for trade secret theft over the Stephen Curry collectibles. The court ruled in the company's favour, stating that "[t]he evidence demonstrates that Defendant, not Plaintiff, developed the idea to license digital collectibles using the likeness of celebrities first…".


title: CryptoKitties

text: In October 2018, "CryptoKitties" reached the milestone of 1 million cats being bred with a volume of 3.2 million transactions on its smart contracts. In November 2018, Dapper Labs, which was spun out of Axiom Zen as the developer of "CryptoKitties", raised an additional $15 million in a venture round led by Venrock. The company doubled its valuation in this round.


title: CryptoKitties

text: In 2018, "CryptoKitties" was used by the German museum ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe to showcase blockchain technology.


title: CryptoKitties

text: A CryptoKitty's ownership is tracked via a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. Each CryptoKitty is represented as a non-fungible token using the ERC-721 token standard on Ethereum. Generation 0 CryptoKitties were sold to players in an auction at the rate of one every 15 minutes (672 per week) for one year. New CryptoKitties are created by breeding existing CryptoKitties.


title: CryptoKitties

text: Based on the limited number of cats going into circulation and their limited genomes, there is a limit of around 4 billion total cats that can be bred. Each cat has a distinct visual appearance ("phenotype") determined by its immutable genes ("genotype") stored in the smart contract. Because cats are tokens on a blockchain, they can be bought, sold, or transferred digitally, with strong guarantees of ownership.


title: CryptoKitties

text: Axiom Zen developed the game. Until November 2018, Axiom Zen intended to continually release a new CryptoKitty every 15 minutes, with the rest of supply determined by breeding of CryptoKitties. CryptoKitty owners may put them up for sale via an auction for a price set in Ether (ETH). They could also put them up for sire, where another player can pay to breed with a specific CryptoKitty.


title: CryptoKitties

text: Shortly after launch, there were concerns that "CryptoKitties" was crowding out other businesses that use the Ethereum platform. The game caused an increase in pending transactions on Ethereum, and at one point accounted for about 25% of network traffic on Ethereum. Ethereum miners increased the gas limit in response to "CryptoKitties", which allowed for more data per block and increasing transactions per second. A variety of similar websites such as Etheremon, Ethertulips, and CryptoBots, were also created. Marketplace sites such as OpenSea and RareBits were created as a response. In March 2021 CryptoKitties announced plans to switch to the Flow blockchain in the "near future".


title: Military history of the United States

text: The military history of the United States spans a period of over two centuries. During those years, the United States evolved from a newly formed nation fighting for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain (1775–1783), through the American Civil War (1861–1865) and, after collaborating with the Allies during World War II (1941–1945), to world superpower status from the latter part of the 20th century to the present.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In 1775, the Continental Congress established the Continental Army, Continental Navy, and Continental Marines and named General George Washington its commander. This newly formed military, fighting alongside French soldiers and sailors, triumphed over the British during the war, which led to independence via the Treaty of Paris. In 1789, the new Constitution made the president the commander in chief, and gave Congress the authority to levy taxes, create laws, and declare war.


title: Military history of the United States

text: As of 2021, the United States Armed Forces consists of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Space Force, all under the command of the Department of Defense, and the Coast Guard, which is controlled by the Department of Homeland Security.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The President of the United States is the commander-in-chief, and exercises the authority through the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who supervises combat operations. Governors have control of each state's Army and Air National Guard units for limited purposes. The president also has the ability to federalize National Guard units, bringing them under the sole control of the Department of Defense.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The beginning of the United States military lies in civilian frontier settlers, armed for hunting and basic survival in the wilderness. These were organized into local militias for small military operations, mostly against Native American tribes but also to resist possible raids by the small military forces of neighboring European colonies. They relied on the British regular Army and Navy for any serious military operation.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In major operations outside the locality involved, the militia was not employed as a fighting force. Instead the colony asked for (and paid) volunteers, many of whom were also militia members.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In the early years of the British colonization of North America, military action in the thirteen colonies that would become the United States were the result of conflicts with Native Americans, such as in the Pequot War of 1637, King Philip's War in 1675, the Yamasee War in 1715 and Father Rale's War in 1722.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Beginning in 1689, the colonies became involved in a series of wars between Great Britain and France for control of North America, the most important of which were Queen Anne's War, in which the British conquered French colony Acadia, and the final French and Indian War (1754–63) when Britain was victorious over all the French colonies in North America. This final war was to give thousands of colonists, including Virginia colonel George Washington, military experience which they put to use during the American Revolutionary War.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In the struggle for control of North America, the contest between Great Britain and France was the vital one, the conflict with Spain, a declining power, important but secondary. This latter conflict reached its height in the "War of Jenkins Ear," a prelude to the War of Austrian Succession, which began in 1739 and pitted the British and their American colonists against the Spanish.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In the colonies the war involved a seesaw struggle between the Spanish in Florida and the West Indies and the English colonists in South Carolina and Georgia. Its most notable episode, however, was a British expedition mounted in Jamaica against Cartagena, the main port of the Spanish colony in Colombia. The mainland colonies furnished a regiment to participate in the assault as British Regulars under British command. The expedition ended in disaster, resulting from climate, disease, and the bungling of British commanders, and only about 600 of over 3,000 Americans who participated ever returned to their homes.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Ongoing political tensions between Great Britain and the thirteen colonies reached a crisis in 1774 when the British placed the province of Massachusetts under martial law after the Patriots protested taxes they regarded as a violation of their constitutional rights as Englishmen. When shooting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, militia units from across New England rushed to Boston and bottled up the British in the city. The Continental Congress appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the newly created Continental Army, which was augmented throughout the war by colonial militia. In addition to the Army, Congress also created the Continental Navy and Continental Marines. He drove the British out of Boston but in late summer 1776 they returned to New York and nearly captured Washington's army. Meanwhile, the revolutionaries expelled British officials from the 13 states, and declared themselves an independent nation on 4 July 1776.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The British, for their part, lacked both a unified command and a clear strategy for winning. With the use of the Royal Navy, the British were able to capture coastal cities, but control of the countryside eluded them. A British sortie from Canada in 1777 ended with the disastrous surrender of a British army at Saratoga. With the coming in 1777 of General von Steuben, the training and discipline along Prussian lines began, and the Continental Army began to evolve into a modern force. France and Spain then entered the war against Great Britain as Allies of the US, ending its naval advantage and escalating the conflict into a world war. The Netherlands later joined France, and the British were outnumbered on land and sea in a world war, as they had no major allies apart from Indian tribes, Loyalists and Hessians.


title: Military history of the United States

text: A shift in focus to the southern American states in 1779 resulted in a string of victories for the British, but General Nathanael Greene engaged in guerrilla warfare and prevented them from making strategic headway. The main British army was surrounded by Washington's American and French forces at Yorktown in 1781, as the French fleet blocked a rescue by the Royal Navy. The British then sued for peace.


title: Military history of the United States

text: General George Washington (1732–1799) proved an excellent organizer and administrator, who worked successfully with the Continental Congress and the state governors, selecting and mentoring his senior officers, supporting and training his troops, and maintaining an idealistic Republican Army. His biggest challenge was logistics, since neither Congress nor the states had the funding to provide adequately for the equipment, munitions, clothing, paychecks, or even the food supply of the soldiers. As a battlefield tactician Washington was often outmaneuvered by his British counterparts. As a strategist, however, he had a better idea of how to win the war than they did. The British sent four invasion armies. Washington's strategy forced the first army out of Boston in 1776, and was responsible for the surrender of the second and third armies at Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781). He limited the British control to New York and a few places while keeping Patriot control of the great majority of the population. The Loyalists, on whom the British had relied too heavily, comprised about 20% of the population but were never well organized. As the war ended, Washington watched proudly as the final British army quietly sailed out of New York City in November 1783, taking the Loyalist leadership with them. Washington astonished the world when, instead of seizing power, he retired quietly to his farm in Virginia.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Patriots had a strong distrust of a permanent "standing army", so the Continental Army was quickly demobilized, with land grants to veterans. General Washington, who throughout the war deferred to elected officials, averted a potential coup d'état and resigned as commander-in-chief after the war, establishing a tradition of civil control of the U.S. military.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Following the American Revolutionary War, the United States faced potential military conflict on the high seas as well as on the western frontier. The United States was a minor military power during this time, having only a modest army, marine corps, and navy. A traditional distrust of standing armies, combined with faith in the abilities of local militia, precluded the development of well-trained units and a professional officer corps. Jeffersonian leaders preferred a small army and navy, fearing that a large military establishment would involve the United States in excessive foreign wars, and potentially allow a domestic tyrant to seize power.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In the Treaty of Paris after the Revolution, the British had ceded the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River to the United States, without consulting the Shawnee, Cherokee, Choctaw and other smaller tribes who lived there. Because many of the tribes had fought as allies of the British, the United States compelled tribal leaders to sign away lands in postwar treaties, and began dividing these lands for settlement. This provoked a war in the Northwest Territory in which the U.S. forces performed poorly; the Battle of the Wabash in 1791 was the most severe defeat ever suffered by the United States at the hands of American Indians. President Washington dispatched a newly trained army to the region led by General Anthony Wayne, which decisively defeated the Indian confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.


title: Military history of the United States

text: When revolutionary France declared war on Great Britain in 1793, the United States sought to remain neutral, but the Jay Treaty, which was favorable to Great Britain, angered the French government, which viewed it as a violation of the 1778 Treaty of Alliance. French privateers began to seize U.S. vessels, which led to an undeclared "Quasi-War" between the two nations. Fought at sea from 1798 to 1800, the United States won a string of victories in the Caribbean. George Washington was called out of retirement to head a "provisional army" in case of invasion by France, but President John Adams managed to negotiate a truce, in which France agreed to terminate the prior alliance and cease its attacks. After France and Britain signed the Peace of Amiens leading to a lull in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, President Thomas Jefferson scaled back military spending.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Berbers along the Barbary Coast (modern day Libya) sent pirates to capture merchant ships and hold the crews for ransom. The U.S. paid protection money until 1801, when President Thomas Jefferson refused to pay and sent in the Navy to challenge the Barbary States, the First Barbary War followed. After the was captured in 1803, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a raid which successfully burned the captured ship, preventing Tripoli from using or selling it. In 1805, after William Eaton captured the city of Derna, Tripoli agreed to a peace treaty. The other Barbary states continued to raid U.S. shipping, until the Second Barbary War in 1815 ended the practice.


title: Military history of the United States

text: By far the largest military action in which the United States engaged during this era was the War of 1812. With Britain locked in a major war with Napoleonic France, its policy was to block American shipments to France. The United States sought to remain neutral while pursuing overseas trade. Britain cut the trade and impressed seamen on American ships into the Royal Navy, despite intense protests. Britain supported an Indian insurrection in the American Midwest, with the goal of creating an Indian barrier state there that would block American expansion. The United States finally declared war on the United Kingdom in 1812, the first time the U.S. had officially declared war. Not hopeful of defeating the Royal Navy, the U.S. attacked the British Empire by invading British Canada, hoping to use captured territory as a bargaining chip. The invasion of Canada was a debacle, though concurrent wars with Native Americans on the western front (Tecumseh's War and the Creek War) were more successful. After defeating Napoleon in 1814, Britain sent large veteran armies to invade New York, raid Washington and capture the key control of the Mississippi River at New Orleans. The New York invasion was a fiasco after the much larger British Army retreated to Canada. The raiders succeeded in the burning of Washington on 25 August 1814, but were repulsed in their Chesapeake Bay Campaign at the Battle of Baltimore and the British commander killed. The major invasion in Louisiana was stopped by a one-sided military battle that killed the top three British generals and thousands of soldiers. The winners were the commanding general of the Battle of New Orleans, Major General Andrew Jackson, who later became president, and the Americans, who basked in a victory over a much more powerful nation. The peace treaty proved successful, and the U.S. and Britain never again went to war. The losers were the Indians, who never gained the independent territory in the Midwest promised by Britain.


title: Military history of the United States

text: With the rapid expansion of the farming population, Democrats looked to the west for new lands, an idea which became known as "Manifest Destiny." In the Texas Revolution (1835–1836), the settlers declared independence as the Republic of Texas and defeated the Mexican Army, but Mexico was determined to reconquer the lost province and threatened war with the U.S. if it annexed Texas. The U.S., much larger and more powerful, did annex Texas in 1845 and war broke out in 1846 over boundary issues.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In the Mexican–American War 1846–1848, the U.S. Army under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott and others, invaded and after a series of victorious battles (and no major defeats) seized Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California, and also blockaded the coast, invaded northern Mexico, and invaded central Mexico, capturing the national capital of Mexico City. The peace terms involved American purchase of the area from California to New Mexico for $10 million.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Long-building tensions between the Northern and Southern States over slavery suddenly reached a climax after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln of the new anti-slavery Republican Party as U.S. president. Southern states seceded from the U.S. and formed a separate Confederacy. Within the Confederate states, many U.S. forts with garrisons still loyal to the Union were cut off. Fighting started in 1861 when Fort Sumter was fired upon by Confederate troops and waves of patriotism swept both the North and the South.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The civil war caught both sides with weak military forces. Neither the North's small standing army nor the South's scattered state militias were capable of winning a civil war. Both sides raced to raise new armies—larger than any U.S. forces before—first with repeated calls for volunteers, but eventually resorting to unpopular large-scale conscription for the first time in U.S. history.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Union Army initially sought a quick victory by trying to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, not far from the U.S. capital at Washington, D.C. The Confederate States Army hoped to win by getting Britain and France to intervene, or else by exhausting the North's willingness to fight.


title: Military history of the United States

text: As the fighting between the two capitals stalled, the North found more success in campaigns elsewhere, using rivers, railroads, and the seas to help move and supply their larger forces, putting a stranglehold on the South—the Anaconda Plan. The war spilled across the continent, and even to the high seas. After four years of appallingly bloody conflict, with more casualties than all other U.S. wars combined, the North's larger population and industrial might slowly ground the South down. The resources and economy of the South were ruined, while the North's factories and economy prospered filling government wartime contracts.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The American Civil War is sometimes called the "first modern war" due to the mobilization and destruction of the civilian base—total war—and due to by many technical military innovations involving railroads, telegraphs, rifles, trench warfare, and ironclad warships with turret guns.


title: Military history of the United States

text: After the Civil War, population expansion, railroad construction, and the culling of the buffalo herds heightened military tensions on the Great Plains. Specifically, according to Colville scholar Dina Gilio-Whitaker in her book As Long as Grass Grows, "While the railroads wreaked havoc on Indian lives in numerous ways, one of the most destructive and tragic outcomes of the United States' industrial expansion was the near extermination of the Plains buffalo herds, with the railroads as the strategic prerequisite to carry out the plan". So extreme was the buffalo extermination that by the 1890s fewer than one thousand remained, scattered mostly on private ranches. Several tribes, especially the Sioux and Comanche, fiercely resisted confinement to reservations. The main role of the Army was to keep indigenous peoples on reservations and to end their wars against settlers and each other, William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan were in charge. A famous victory for the Plains Nations was the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, when Col. George Armstrong Custer and two hundred plus members of the 7th Cavalry were killed by a force consisting of Native Americans from the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho nations. The last significant conflict came in 1891 and ended in the Wounded Knee Massacre.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Spanish–American War was a short but decisive war marked by quick, overwhelming American victories at sea and on land against the Spanish Empire. The Navy was well-prepared and won laurels, even as politicians tried (and failed) to have it redeployed to defend East Coast cities against potential threats from the feeble Spanish Navy fleet. The Army performed well in combat in Cuba. However, it was too oriented to small posts in the West and not as well-prepared for an overseas conflict. It relied on volunteers and state militia units, which faced logistical, training and food problems in the staging areas in Florida. The United States freed Cuba (after an occupation by the U.S. Army). By the peace treaty Spain ceded to the United States its colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Navy set up coaling stations there and in Hawaii (which was forcibly overthrown in 1893, via a coup d'état against Queen Liliʻuokalani and annexed later in 1898). The U.S. Navy now had a major forward presence across the Pacific Ocean and (with the lease of Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba) a major base in the Caribbean guarding the approaches to the Gulf Coast and the Panama Canal.


title: Military history of the United States

text: To win its first colonies, the U.S. had lost 385 KIA (369 Army, 10 Navy, 6 Marines); 1,662 WIA (1,594 Army, 47 Navy, 21 Marines); and 2,061 dead of disease in the combat zones (a total of 5,403 died of disease at all locations, including stateside posts). Total Spanish combat deaths in action against U.S. forces were about 900.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Philippine–American War (1899–1902) was an armed conflict between a group of Filipino revolutionaries and the American forces following the ceding of the Philippines to the United States after the defeat of Spanish forces in the Battle of Manila. The Army sent in 100,000 soldiers (mostly from the National Guard) under General Elwell Otis. Defeated in the field and losing its capital in March 1899, the poorly armed and poorly led rebels broke into armed bands. The insurgency collapsed in March 1901 when the leader Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by General Frederick Funston and his Macabebe allies. Casualties included 1,037 Americans killed in action and 3,340 who died from disease; 20,000 rebels were killed. The war resulted in at least 200,000 Filipino civilian deaths, mostly due to famine and disease. Some estimates for total civilian dead reach up to a million. Atrocities were committed by the U.S. during the conflict, including reprisals, scorched earth campaigns, and the forcible relocation of many civilians.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom began on 16 January 1893, with a coup d'état against Queen Liliʻuokalani on the island of O'ahu. The coup d’état was predated by several events, such as the 1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, also referred to as the Bayonet Constitution which was prepared by pro-American residents to strip the Hawaiian monarchy of its power and consolidate power among the non-Native settlers in Hawai'i. It became known as the Bayonet Constitution because of the armed militia used to intimidate King Kalākaua and force him to sign it or be removed.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The coup d'état was led by the Committee of Safety, a 13-member group made up of non-native Hawaiian's. The Committee of Safety initiated the overthrow by organizing a group armed non-native men to depose Queen Liliʻuokalani. The United States Military forces involved in the coup d’état consisted of 1 cruiser, the USS Boston, and 162 US Navy and USMC personnel. This military presence was justified by the supposed threats to non-combatant American lives, property, and economic interests, largely of plantations. The insurgency led to the house arrest of Queen Liliʻuokalani who stayed in ʻIolani Palace until her death in 1917. The ultimate goal of the coup d’état was eventual annexation into the United States. The insurgents formed the Republic of Hawai'i which instated Sanford B. Dole, as the republic's first President. It was backed by the sugar plantation owners in Hawai'i, such as Dole. Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898. The United States military still has a prominent presence in Hawai'i, and they have been linked to several instances of environmental degradation and causes of pollution.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Navy was modernized in the 1880s, and by the 1890s had adopted the naval power strategy of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan—as indeed did every major navy. The old sailing ships were replaced by modern steel battleships, bringing them in line with the navies of Britain and Germany. In 1907, most of the Navy's battleships, with several support vessels, dubbed the Great White Fleet, were featured in a 14-month circumnavigation of the world. Ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was a mission designed to demonstrate the Navy's capability to extend to the global theater.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Secretary of War Elihu Root (1899–1904) led the modernization of the Army. His goal of a uniformed chief of staff as general manager and a European-type general staff for planning was stymied by General Nelson A. Miles but did succeed in enlarging West Point and establishing the U.S. Army War College as well as the General Staff. Root changed the procedures for promotions and organized schools for the special branches of the service. He also devised the principle of rotating officers from staff to line. Root was concerned about the Army's role in governing the new territories acquired in 1898 and worked out the procedures for turning Cuba over to the Cubans, and wrote the charter of government for the Philippines.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske was at the vanguard of new technology in naval guns and gunnery, thanks to his innovations in fire control 1890–1910. He immediately grasped the potential for air power, and called for the development of a torpedo plane. Fiske, as aide for operations in 1913–15 to Assistant Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt, proposed a radical reorganization of the Navy to make it a war-fighting instrument. Fiske wanted to centralize authority in a chief of naval operations and an expert staff that would develop new strategies, oversee the construction of a larger fleet, coordinate war planning including force structure, mobilization plans, and industrial base, and ensure that the US Navy possessed the best possible war machines. Eventually, the Navy adopted his reforms and by 1915 started to reorganize for possible involvement in the World War then underway.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Banana Wars is an informal term for the minor intervention in Latin America from 1898 until 1935. These include military presence in Cuba, Panama with the Panama Canal Zone, Haiti (1915–1935), Dominican Republic (1916–1924) and Nicaragua (1912–1925; 1926–1933). The U.S. Marine Corps began to specialize in long-term military occupation of these countries, primarily to safeguard customs revenues which were the cause of local civil wars. For example, in May 1912, during the Negro Rebellion by Afro-Cuban rebels, President William H. Taft sent 1,292 men to Cuba to protect the American-owned sugarcane plantations and their associated properties, as well as copper mines, railroads, and trains. The rebellion occurred primarily in Oriente Province. In the end, between 3,000 and 6,000 Afro-Cubans, including civilians were killed by the Cuban Army during the suppression of the rebellion which was completed by July 1912. The rebels attacked the Marines only once, at El Cuero, but were repulsed without casualties on either side.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Banditry and guerrilla resistance was endemic throughout the period of occupation. U.S. Marine losses in the Dominican Republic, 1916–1922, totaled 17 killed, 54 dead, 55 wounded (from a peak strength of 3,000). The Marines inflicted about 1,000 Dominican casualties. The most serious insurgencies occurred in Haiti, where some 5,000 rough mountaineers of the north, called Cacos, rebelled in 1915–17, losing 200 killed, to Marine losses of 3 KIA, 18 WIA, of 2,029 deployed. In 1918, the Cacos, angered by the Marine-enforced practice of corvée (forced labor), followed the leadership of Charlemagne Peralte and Benoit Batraville into rebellion again, against the 1,500-man 1st Marine Brigade and the 2,700-man Haitian Gendarmerie. The rebellion lasted for more than 19 months, 17 October 1918 – 19 May 1920. Both Caco leaders were killed in battle, along with at least 2,004 of their men. The Marines lost 28 slain in action and the Gendarmerie lost 70 killed.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Moro Rebellion was an armed insurgency between Muslim Filipino tribes in the southern Philippines between 1899 and 1913. Pacification was never complete as sporadic antigovernment insurgency continues into the 21st century, with American advisors helping the Philippine government forces.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Mexican Revolution involved repeated coups overthrowing the national government. This was a violation of democracy that President Woodrow Wilson would not permit. He sent U.S. forces to occupy the Mexican city of Veracruz for six months in 1914, when the "Tampico Affair" of 9 April 1914 occurred, involving the arrest of American sailors by soldiers of the regime of Mexican President Victoriano Huerta. In early 1916, the Mexican general Pancho Villa, a presidential contender who had suffered defeats, sent 500 soldiers on a murderous raid on the American city of Columbus, New Mexico. Wilson sent the U.S. Army under General John J. Pershing to punish Villa in the Pancho Villa Expedition. Villa fled deep into Mexico, with the Americans in pursuit. Mexican nationalism turned against the U.S., and with war looming with Germany, Wilson ordered Pershing to withdraw, and Villa escaped.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The United States originally wished to remain neutral when World War I broke out in August 1914. However, it insisted on its right as a neutral party to immunity from German submarine attack, even though its ships carried food and raw materials to Britain. In 1917 the Germans resumed submarine attacks, knowing that it would lead to American entry. When the United States declared war in early April 1917, the United States Army was still small by European standards (most of which had conscription) and mobilization would take at least a year. Meanwhile, the United States continued to provide supplies and money to Britain and France, and initiated the first peacetime draft. Industrial mobilization took longer than expected, so divisions were sent to Europe without equipment, relying instead on the British and French to supply them.


title: Military history of the United States

text: By summer 1918, a million American soldiers, or "doughboys" as they were often called, of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) were in Europe, serving on the Western Front under the command of General John Pershing, with 10,000 more arriving every day. The failure of the German Army's Spring Offensive exhausted its manpower reserves and it was unable to launch new offensives. The Imperial German Navy and home front then revolted and a new German government signed a conditional surrender, the Armistice, ending the war on the Western Front on 11 November 1918.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The so-called Polar Bear Expedition was the involvement of 5,000 U.S. troops, during the Russian Civil War, in blocking the Bolsheviks in Arkhangelsk, Russia as part of the greater Allied military expedition in the Russian Civil War. There was no significant combat for the Americans.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The U.S. sponsored a major world conference to limit the naval armaments of world powers, including the U.S., Britain, Japan, and France, plus smaller nations. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes made the key proposal of each country to reduce its number of warships by a formula that was accepted. The conference enabled the great powers to reduce their navies and avoid conflict in the Pacific. The treaties remained in effect for ten years, but were not renewed as tensions escalated.


title: Military history of the United States

text: After the costly U.S. involvement in World War I, isolationism grew within the nation. Congress refused membership in the League of Nations, particularly due to Article X of the League's charter. Pursuant to Article X, the charter would have required by contract the United States Military to intervene if a member of the League were attacked; this prompted the United States Senate to vehemently oppose the Treaty of Versailles. Isolationism further grew after the events of the Nye Committee, which investigated corrupt military spending and fueled the "Merchants of death" argument, thus increasing anti-war opinions.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia, the gradually more restrictive Neutrality Acts were passed, which were intended to prevent the U.S. from supporting either side in a war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to support Britain, however, and in 1940 signed the Lend-Lease Act, which permitted an expansion of the "cash and carry" arms trade to develop with Britain, which controlled the Atlantic sea lanes.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Roosevelt favored the Navy (he was in effective charge in World War I), and used relief programs such as the Public Works Administration to support Navy yards and build warships. For example, in 1933 he authorized $238 million in PWA funds for thirty-two new ships. The Army Air Corps received only $11 million, which barely covered replacements and allowed no expansion.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Due to the underlying pressure against military involvement by both citizens and politicians, the United States was reluctant to intervene in any overseas conflicts. The involvement that the United States had toward the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria in 1931 only extended as far as non-recognition. Other events such as Benito Mussolini's Italian Conquest of Ethiopia went ignored by the U.S. along with the League of Nations being unable to act upon the usage of chemical weapons by the Italian fascists. No official involvement was waged during the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War, though both wars utilized loopholes for U.S. involvement, such as volunteering and using British ships as a middleman for delivering provisions (since the Neutrality Acts only specified American ships). This, along with Roosevelt's Quarantine Speech, produced mixed opinions among Americans that were still anxious about military involvement. Non-interventionists were mainly constituent in the Republican Party, but other Democratic politicians, such as Louis Ludlow, attempted to pass bills to compromise and even amend the United States Constitution for the purpose of calling for public Referendum to decide military involvement in cases that do not immediately follow an attack on the United States. This amendment was introduced many times, but failed to gain enough support, including opposition even by Roosevelt.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The overall neglect for military involvement eventually resulted in appeasement in the early stages of World War II, at the distress of Roosevelt (who wanted to continue cash-and-carry for the European theater and the Pacific). After being rebuffed by Congress for attempting to reinstate cash-and-carry for the European theater, Roosevelt eventually won the favor of restoring the arms trade with belligerent nations after Germany's invasion of Poland, which is said by many to have fixed the United States economy. Total involvement in the war began after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, where isolationism began to cede.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Starting in 1940 (18 months before Pearl Harbor), the nation mobilized, giving high priority to air power. American involvement in World War II in 1940–41 was limited to providing war material and financial support to Britain, the Soviet Union, and the Republic of China. The U.S. entered officially on 8 December 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japanese forces soon seized American, British and Dutch possessions across the Pacific and Southeast Asia, with Hawaii and Australia serving as the main staging points for the eventual liberation of these territories.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The loss of eight battleships and 2,403 Americans at Pearl Harbor forced the U.S. to rely on its remaining aircraft carriers, which won a major victory over Japan at Midway just six months into the war, and on its growing submarine fleet. The Navy and Marine Corps followed this up with an island hopping campaign across the central and south Pacific in 1943–1945, reaching the outskirts of Japan in the Battle of Okinawa. During 1942 and 1943, the U.S. deployed millions of men and thousands of planes and tanks to the UK, beginning with the strategic bombing of Nazi Germany and occupied Europe and leading up to the Allied invasions of occupied North Africa in November 1942, Sicily and Italy in 1943, France in 1944, and the invasion of Germany in 1945, parallel with the Soviet invasion from the Eastern Front. That led to the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945. While the final European Axis Powers were defeated within a year of Operation Overlord, the fighting in Central Europe was especially bloody for the United States, with more US military deaths occurring in Germany than in any other country during the war.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In the Pacific, the U.S. experienced much success in naval campaigns during 1944, but bloody battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945 led the U.S. to look for a way to end the war with minimal loss of American lives. The U.S. used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to destroy the Japanese war effort and to shock the Japanese leadership, which quickly caused the surrender of Japan. Following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the Allied forces on 15 August 1945, ending 35 years of Japanese occupation of Korean Peninsula. American forces under General John R. Hodge arrived at the southern part of the Korean Peninsula on 8 September 1945, while the Soviet Army and some Korean Communists had stationed themselves in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The United States was able to mobilize quickly, eventually becoming the dominant military power in most theaters of the war (excepting only Central and Eastern Europe), and the industrial might of the U.S. economy became a major factor in the Allies' mobilization of resources. Strategic and tactical lessons learned by the U.S., such as the importance of air superiority and the dominance of the aircraft carrier in naval actions, continue to guide U.S. military doctrine into the 21st century.


title: Military history of the United States

text: World War II holds a special place in the American psyche as the country's greatest triumph, and the U.S. military personnel of World War II are frequently referred to as "the Greatest Generation." Over 16 million served (about 11% of the population), and over 400,000 died during the war. The U.S. emerged as one of the two undisputed superpowers along with the Soviet Union, and unlike the Soviet Union, the U.S. homeland was virtually untouched by the ravages of war. During and following World War II, the United States and Britain developed an increasingly strong defense and intelligence relationship. Manifestations of this include extensive basing of U.S. forces in the UK, shared intelligence, shared military technology (e.g. nuclear technology), and shared procurement.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Following World War II, the United States emerged as a global superpower vis-a-vis the Soviet Union in the Cold War. In this period of some forty years, the United States provided foreign military aid and direct involvement in proxy wars against the Soviet Union. It was the principal foreign actor in the Korean War and Vietnam War during this era. Nuclear weapons were held in ready by the United States under a concept of mutually assured destruction with the Soviet Union.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The National Security Act of 1947, meeting the need for a military reorganization to complement the U.S. superpower role, combined and replaced the former Department of the Navy and War Department with a single cabinet-level Department of Defense. The act also created the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Air Force.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Korean War was a conflict between the United States and its United Nations allies and the communist powers under influence of the Soviet Union (also a UN member nation) and the People's Republic of China (which later also gained UN membership). The principal combatants were North and South Korea. Principal allies of South Korea included the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, although many other nations sent troops under the aegis of the United Nations Command. Allies of North Korea included the People's Republic of China, which supplied military forces, and the Soviet Union, which supplied combat advisors and aircraft pilots, as well as arms, for the Chinese and North Korean troops.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The war started badly for the US and UN. The Korean People's Army struck massively in the summer of 1950 and nearly drove the outnumbered US and ROK defenders into the sea. However the United Nations intervened, naming Douglas MacArthur commander of its forces, and UN-US-ROK forces held a perimeter around Pusan, gaining time for reinforcement. MacArthur, in a bold but risky move, ordered an amphibious invasion well behind the front lines at Inchon, cutting off and routing the North Koreans and quickly crossing the 38th Parallel into North Korea. As UN forces continued to advance toward the Yalu River on the border with Communist China, the Chinese crossed the Yalu River in October and launched a series of surprise attacks that sent the UN forces reeling back across the 38th Parallel. Truman originally wanted a Rollback strategy to unify Korea; after the Chinese successes he settled for a Containment policy to split the country. MacArthur argued for rollback but was fired by President Harry Truman after disputes over the conduct of the war. Peace negotiations dragged on for two years until President Dwight D. Eisenhower threatened China with nuclear weapons; an armistice was quickly reached with the two Koreas remaining divided at the 38th parallel. North and South Korea are still "de jure" in a state of war, having never signed a peace treaty, and American forces remain stationed in South Korea as part of American foreign policy.


title: Military history of the United States

text: In the 1958 Lebanon crisis that threatened civil war, Operation Blue Bat deployed several hundred Marines to bolster the pro-Western Lebanese government from 15 July to 25 October 1958.


title: Military history of the United States

text: On 28 April 1965, 400 Marines were landed in Santo Domingo to evacuate the American Embassy and foreign nationals after dissident Dominican armed forces attempted to overthrow the ruling civilian junta. By mid-May, peak strength of 23,850 U.S. soldiers, Marines, and Airmen were in the Dominican Republic and some 38 naval ships were positioned offshore. They evacuated nearly 6,500 men, women, and children of 46 nations, and distributed more than 8 million tons of food.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The intervention cost the U.S. 27 KIA and 172 WIA. Another 20 Americans died from non-hostile causes; 111 were seriously injured. Ten of the KIA were Marines; 13 were from the 82nd Airborne. Among the 2,850 Dominican dead were 325 National Police officers and 500 members of the armed forces. An estimated 600 rebels were killed. Civilians accounted for the remainder.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1955 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos ("see" Secret War) and in the strategic bombing ("see" Operation Rolling Thunder) of North Vietnam. American advisors came in the late 1950s to help the RVN (Republic of Vietnam) combat Communist insurgents known as "Viet Cong." Major American military involvement began in 1964, after Congress provided President Lyndon B. Johnson with blanket approval for presidential use of force in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.


title: Military history of the United States

text: Fighting on one side was a coalition of forces including the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam or the "RVN"), the United States, supplemented by South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. The allies fought against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) as well as the National Liberation Front (NLF, also known as Viet communists Viet Cong), or "VC", a guerrilla force within South Vietnam. The NVA received substantial military and economic aid from the Soviet Union and China, turning Vietnam into a proxy war.


title: Military history of the United States

text: The military history of the American side of the war involved different strategies over the years. The bombing campaigns of the Air Force were tightly controlled by the White House for political reasons, and until 1972 avoided the main Northern cities of Hanoi and Haiphong and concentrated on bombing jungle supply trails, especially the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The most controversial Army commander was William Westmoreland whose strategy involved systematic defeat of all enemy forces in the field, despite heavy American casualties that alienated public opinion back home.