Cold War conflicts

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

war between North and South Korea, 1950–1953

The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts were in two phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, from the bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January until the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February.

1967 war between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria

1979–1989 war between the Soviet Union and Afghan insurgents

October 1962 confrontation between the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States

October 1973 war between Egypt and Syria at one side and Israel on the other side

conflict that led to the independence of the majority-Bengali country

1962 war between India and China

civil war taking place in Somalia since 1991

On 19 August 1953, Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup d'état that strengthened the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. In the months preceding the coup, Mosaddegh had consolidated power by orchestrating an unconstitutional referendum to dissolve parliament that was widely described as fraudulent, and he later refused to step down after the Shah exercised his constitutional authority to dismiss him as prime minister. It was instigated by the United Kingdom (MI6), under the name Operation Boot and the United States (CIA), under the name TP-AJAX Project or Operation Ajax. A key motive was to protect British oil interests in Iran after Mosaddegh nationalized the country's oil industry.

military overthrow of the Popular Unity coalition government in 1973 in Chile

war between the People's Republic of China and Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1979

armed conflict in Angola between 1975 and 2002

1974 military conflict on Cyprus Island

military overthrow of King Farouk

armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between Indonesia and the Dutch Empire

1977-78 Somali military offensive over the disputed Ogaden region of Ethiopia

series of anti-communist, anti-dissent campaigns in South America

1977-1991 interstate war

civil war (1970–1971) in Jordan between King Hussein’s forces and the Palestine Liberation Organisation

1960–1965 war fought in the Congo

1959–1975 civil war in Laos

aviation incident

1983 conflict in Grenada involving US and Cuban led forces

low-intensity asymmetric war, beginning in 1964, between Colombian governments, paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrillas (FARC, ELN, etc.)

civil war in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991

1948 coup in Czechoslovakia

1961–1974 armed conflicts in Africa between Portugal and independence movements

military operation

1960–1996 civil war in Guatemala

conflict in northwestern Iran

20th century armed conflict in Nicaragua

civil conflict in Southern Africa from 1964 to 1979

1948–1960 conflict in British Malaya

The Contras (from ) were the anti-communist right-wing rebels who waged a guerrilla war against the Marxist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the Junta of National Reconstruction, which came to power after the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979. The insurgency against the Sandinista government lasted from 1979 until 1990, and was one of the highest profile conflicts of the Cold War.

war on the border of South West Africa/Namibia and Angola

13 year 1979-1992 civil war in El Salvador

armed conflicts in Afghanistan since 1978

civil war in Afghanistan between 1989–1992

coup d'état in Guatemala

large scale political, state-sponsored killings in Indonesia between 30th September 1965, into 1966

12 September 1980 government coup in Turkey

overthrow of Syrian Prime Minister Nazim al-Kudsi by the Ba'ath Party

1963 border conflict between Algeria and Morocco

1965 Indonesian military faction that attempted a coup

1977 season of politically-motivated terrorist crimes in Germany which lead to the formation of cross-party crisis committees by chancellor Helmut Schmidt; widely regarded as the most serious crisis in post-WWII Germany

series of wars fought in Southeast Asia from 1946 until 1991

1975-present conflict in the Angolan exclave of Cabinda

Revolution against the Al Bu Said dynasty in Oman

armed conflict in Peru during 1980-2000 of left insurgent groups (Shining Path and MRTA) against Peruvian governments and far-right death squats

period of political rivalry in the Arab world

1976 massacre in Thailand

1975 Cuban operation in southwestern Africa

1973 shooting at a Peronist rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina

series of wars in Indochina following the end of the Vietnam War

1947 civil war in Paraguay

popular uprising that overthrew dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944

1965 civil war in the Dominican Republic

1986 failed coup d'etat and armed conflict