Timeline of United States diplomatic history

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Main article: History of U.S. foreign policy

The diplomatic history of the United States oscillated among three positions: isolation from diplomatic entanglements of other (typically European) nations (but with economic connections to the world); alliances with European and other military partners; and unilateralism, or operating on its own sovereign policy decisions. This is in direct contrast to the European Union, whose member States have given up their national sovereignty in exchange for cooperative mediation and group policy-making, especially in the economic arena.

Timeline of United States diplomatic history

See Brune (2003) and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed. The Almanac of American History (1983) for specifics of each incident.

18th century

• 1776 - Thirteen Colonies declared independence as the United States of America on July 2; Declaration of Independence adopted on July 4
• 1776 - Three commissioners sent to Europe to negotiate treaties
• 1777 - European officers recruited to Continental Army, including Marquis de La Fayette, Johann de Kalb, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, and Tadeusz Kościuszko
• 1777 - France decides to recognize America in December after victory at Saratoga, New York
• 1778 - Treaty of Allies. America and France agreed to come to each others aid in event of a British attack from the present time and forever; abrogated in 1800.
• 1778 - Carlisle Peace Commission sent by Great Britain; offers Americans all the terms they sought in 1775, but not independence; rejected
• 1779 - Spain enters the war as an ally of France (but not of America); John Jay appointed minister to Spain; he obtains money but not recognition
• 1779 - John Adams sent to Paris, France to negotiate peace terms with Great Britain
• 1780- Russia proclaims "armed neutrality" which helps Allies
• 1780-81 - Russia and Austria propose peace terms; rejected by Adams
• 1781 - Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and Thomas Jefferson named to assist Adams in peace negotiations; Congress insists on independence; all else is negotiable
• 1782 - Holland recognizes American independence and signs treaty of commerce and friendship; Dutch bankers loan $2 million for war supplies
• 1783 - Treaty of Paris ends Revolutionary War; U.S. boundaries confirmed as British North America on north, Mississippi River on west, Florida on south.
• 1783 - A commercial treaty with Sweden^[1]
• 1784 - British allow trade with America but forbid some American food exports to West Indies; British exports to America reach £3.7 million, imports only £750,000; imbalance causes shortage of gold in U.S.
• 1784 - New York–based merchants open the China trade, followed by Salem, Boston and Philadelphia merchants
• 1785 - Adams appointed first minister to Court of Saint James's (Great Britain); Jefferson replaces Franklin as minister to France
• 1789 - Jay-Gardoqui Treaty with Spain, gave Spain exclusive right to navigate Mississippi River for 30 years; not ratified because of western opposition.
• 1793–1815 - Major worldwide war between Great Britain and France (and their allies); America neutral until 1812 and does business with both sides
• 1795 - Jay Treaty with Britain. Averts war, opens 10 years of peaceful trade with Britain, fails to settle neutrality issues; British eventually evacuate western forts; boundary lines and debts (in both directions) to be settled by arbitration. Barely approved by Senate (1795) after revision; intensely opposed, became major issue in formation of First Party System
• 1796 - Treaty of Madrid established boundaries with the Spanish colonies of Florida and Louisiana and guaranteed navigation rights on the Mississippi River. It becomes law
• 1797 - Treaty of Tripoli; peace treaty with Barbary state of Tripoli signed into law by President John Adams on June 10; America says government is non-religious in origin and practice; violated in 1801 by the Basha of Tripoli which led to the Tripolitanian War.
• 1797 - XYZ Affair; humiliation by French diplomats; threat of war with France.
• 1798–1800 - Quasi-War; undeclared naval war with France.

19th century

• 1800 - Treaty of Mortefontaine with France ends the Quasi-War and ends alliance of 1778
• Early 19th century - Barbary Wars: Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, and Tunis require America to pay protection money; U.S. Navy sent in and forces abandonment of tribute; other states demanded tribute until 1815 when Stephen Decatur again prevailed.
• 1803 - Louisiana Purchase from France for $15,000,000.
• 1806 - Essex Case; British reverse policy and seize American ships trading with French colonies; America responds with Non-Importation Act stopping imports of some items from Great Britain
• 1806 - Napoleon issues Berlin Decree, a paper blockade of Great Britain
• 1806 - Monroe-Pinkney Treaty with Great Britain; rejected by Jefferson
• 1807-09 - Embargo Act, inclusive to all shipping exports.
• 1807-12 - Impressment of 6,000 sailors from American ships with U.S. citizenship into the Royal Navy; Great Britain ignores vehement American protests
• 1812 - America declares war on Great Britain, beginning the War of 1812.
• 1814 - December 24: Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812, providing status quo ante bellum (no change in boundaries); Great Britain no longer needs impressment and stops
• 1818 - London Convention of 1818, between the U.S. and Great Britain
• 1819 - Adams-Onís Treaty: Spain cedes Florida to America for $5,000,000; America agrees to assume claims against Spain, America gives up claims to Texas.
• 1823 - Monroe Doctrine. British propose America join in stating that European powers will not be permitted further American colonization. President James Monroe states it on December 2 as independent American policy.
• 1833 - Argentina. U.S. Navy shells the Falkland Islands, at the time under Argentine control, in retaliation for the seizing of American ships fishing in Argentine waters.
• 1837 - Caroline affair; Canadian military enters U.S. territory to burn a ship used by Canadian rebels.
• 1838 - Aroostook War re: Maine-New Brunswick; no combat
• 1842 - Webster-Ashburton Treaty-settles U.S.-Canadian border, settling Aroostook War and Caroline affair.
• 1844 - Oregon Question; America and Great Britain at sword's point; "54-40 or fight" is American slogan
• 1844 - Treaty of Wanghia.
• 1845 - Annexation of Republic of Texas; Mexico breaks relations in retaliation
• 1845 - Slidell Mission fails to avert war with Mexico
• 1846 - Oregon crisis ended by compromise that splits the region, with British Columbia to Great Britain, and Washington, Idaho, and Oregon to America.
• 1846 - Mexican–American War begins; Oregon settlement with Britain.
• 1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo- settled Mexican-American War, Rio Grande as U.S. border; territory of New Mexico rest of west ceded to America, especially California. U.S. pays Mexico $15,000,000 and assumes $3,250,000 liability against Mexico.
• 1850 - Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. America and Great Britain agreed that both nations were not to colonize or control any Central American republic, neither nation would seek exclusive control of Isthmian canal, if canal built protected by both nations for neutrality and security. Any canal built open to all nations on equal terms.
• 1853 - Gadsden Purchase: purchase of 30,000 square miles (78,700 km²) in southern Arizona for $10,000,000 for purpose of railroad connections
• 1854 - Kanagawa Treaty; Matthew Perry to Tokyo in 1853; returning 1854 with seven warships; treaty opened two Japanese ports and guaranteeing safety of shipwrecked American seamen.
• 1857 - Nicaragua; U.S. Navy forces the surrender of filibusterer William Walker, who had tried to seize control of the country.
• 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln proclaims blockade of Confederate States of America, giving it some legitimacy
• 1861-65 - Lincoln threatens war against any country that recognizes the Confederacy; no country does so
• 1864-65 - Maximilian Affair: In defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, French Emperor Napoleon III placed Archduke Maximilian on Mexican throne, America warns France against intervention, with 50,000 combat troops being sent to the Mexican border by President Andrew Johnson; Maximilian overthrown
• 1867 - Alaska purchase: America purchases Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000.
• 1868 - Treaty on Naturalization with North German Confederation marked first recognition by a European power of the right of its subjects to become naturalized U.S. citizens.
• 1868 - Burlingame Treaty established formal friendly relations with China and placed them on most favored nation status, Chinese immigration encouraged; reversed in 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
• 1871 - Alabama Claims. During the American Civil War, Confederate States of America raider CSS Alabama built in Great Britain, America claimed direct and collateral damage against Great Britain, awarded $15,500,000 by international tribunal.
• 1891 - Baltimore Crisis, minor scuffle with Chile over treatment of soldiers.
• 1893 - Hawaii; January 16 to April 1. Citizens outraged at Queen Liliuokalani attempt to set up absolute monarchy; overthrows her with no violence and proclaims provisional government; U.S. Marines landed to protect American lives; Hawaii and President Harrison agree to annexation but treaty withdrawn (1893) by President Grover Cleveland who rejects annexation
• 1898 - De Lôme Letter: Spanish minister writes disparagingly of President William McKinley
• 1898 - Spanish-American War; "splendid little war" with American quick victory
• 1898 - Treaty of Paris; U.S. gains Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico; pays Spain for claims; Cuba under temporary U.S. control
• 1898 - Hawaii seeks to join US; with votes lacking for 2/3 approval of a treaty on July 7. The Newlands Resolution in Congress annexes the Republic of Hawaii, with full U.S. citizenship for Hawaiian citizens regardless of race
• 1899–1901 - Philippine-American War, commonly known as the "Philippine Insurrection".
• 1899 - Open Door Policy for equal trading rights inside China; accepted by Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Japan

20th century

• 1900 - U.S. forces participate in international rescue in Peking, in Boxer Rebellion
• 1901 - Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. American agreement with Great Britain nullifying Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850; guarantee of open passage for any nation through proposed Panama Canal.
• 1901 - Platt Amendment, March 2. Rider attached to the Army Appropriations Bill of 1901 designed to protect Cuba's independence from foreign intervention. The amendment effectively makes Cuba a U.S. protectorate and allowed for American intervention in Cuban affairs in 1906, 1912, 1917, and 1920. It also permitted America to lease Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Rising Cuban nationalism and widespread criticism led to its abrogation in 1934 by the Ramón Grau administration.^[2]
• 1902 - Drago Doctrine. Foreign Minister Luis María Drago of Argentina announced policy that no European power could use force against any American nation to collect debt, supplanted in 1904 by Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine.
• 1903 - Big Stick diplomacy: Theodore Roosevelt refers to U.S. policy as "speaking softly and carrying a big stick", applied the same year by assisting Panama's independence movement from Colombia. U.S. forces sought to protect American interests and lives during and following the Panamanian revolution over construction of the Isthmian Canal. U.S. Marines were stationed on the isthmus (1903–1914)
• 1903 - Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty with Panama; leased strip of land increased to 10 miles (16 km) wide.
• 1903 - Hay-Herbert Treaty resolved the Alaska boundary dispute between the United States and Canada in favor of U.S.; Canada angry at Britain.
• 1906 - Algeciras Conference. Roosevelt mediated the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany, essentially in French favor.
• 1908-09 - America negotiates arbitration treaties with 25 countries (but not Germany)
• 1911 - Reciprocity treaty with Canada fails on surge of Canadian nationalism led by Conservative Party.
• 1911-20 - Mexican Revolution; hundreds of thousands of refugees flee to America; President William Howard Taft recognizes Francisco I. Madero's regime; Madero assassinated by Victoriano Huerta, not recognized by America
• 1912-25 - Nicaragua; America controls Nicaraguan affairs through puppet Conservative Party presidents under the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty.
• 1912-41 - China. U.S. forces sent to protect American interests in China during chaotic revolution. In 1927, America had 5,670 troops ashore in China and 44 naval vessels in its waters.
• 1914 - Veracruz Incident a standoff between America and Huerta; Congress authorizes force at president's discretion; ABC Powers try to mediate; America seizes Veracruz; Huerta breaks diplomatic relations; war seems near
• 1915 - British passenger liner RMS Lusitania torpedoed off Irish coast by German submarine; 1,200 dead include 128 Americans; Theodore Roosevelt demands war; Woodrow Wilson issues strong protest
• 1915-34 - Haiti. U.S. forces maintained order and control customs revenue during a period of chronic political instability.
• 1916-24 - Dominican Republic; U.S. naval forces maintained order and control customs revenue during a period of chronic and threatened insurrection.
• 1916 - Pancho Villa raid into America; the Mexican Punitive Expedition under John J. Pershing chases Villa deep into Mexico; verge of war
• 1917 - Zimmermann Telegram. Germany proposes military alliance between Germany and Mexico against America. Publication outrages American opinion; Mexico rejects proposal.
• 1917 - April. America declares war on Germany and Austria (but not Turkey or Bulgaria); remains independent of Great Britain and France
• 1917 - Lansing-Ishii Agreement. America recognizes Japan's claim to special interests in China, particularly in contiguous territory. Objection to Japan assuming German Asian territories.
• 1918 - Fourteen Points. Statement of American war aims by Wilson, served as basis for Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.
• 1919 - Versailles Treaty - Wilson one of "The Big Four" negotiators; signed by Wilson but not ratified by Senate.
• 1919 - League of Nations - part of Versailles Treaty; America did not join.
• 1922 - Washington Naval Conference held in Washington, D.C. concluding in the Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty, and Nine-Power Treaty; major naval disarmament
• 1924 - American-led conference results in the Dawes Plan. Eased reparations for Germany and improvement of its economic situation.
• 1926-33 - Nicaragua; The coup d'état of General Emiliano Chamorro Vargas aroused revolutionary activities leading to the landing of U.S. Marines intermittently until January 3, 1933.
• 1927 - Naval Disarmament Conference in Geneva; failure to reach an agreement.
• 1927 - Clark Memorandum repudiates Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine.
• 1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact, multilateral treaty outlawing War by moral force of 60 signatory nations.
• 1929 - Young Plan reduces amount of reparations due from Germany to $8.0 billion over 58 years.
• 1930 - Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised American tariffs on imports; 1000 economists protest it will worsen depression; retaliation by Canada and others.
• 1931 - Stimson Doctrine America will not recognize Japanese takeover of parts of China; policy endorsed by the League of Nations.
• 1932 - Lausanne Conference cancels 90% of reparations owed by Germany; remainder is never paid
• 1933 - Montevideo Convention. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares the "Good Neighbor Policy", U.S. opposition to armed intervention in inter-American affairs.
• 1933 - London Economic Conference, to deal with Great Depression, collapses after U.S. withdraws.
• 1933 - U.S. extends diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union.
• 1935 - Neutrality Act of 1935; when war breaks out prohibits all arms shipments (allowing shipment of oil, steel, chemicals); U.S. citizens can travel on belligerent ships only at own risk
• 1936 - Neutrality Act of 1936; no loans to belligerents
• 1936 - Spanish Civil War; U.S. neutral; American Catholics support Nationalist forces; left-wing elments support Republican forces
• 1937 - Neutrality Act of 1937; 1935 laws apply to civil wars
• 1937 - Japan invades China, with full-scale war and many atrocities against Chinese; Japan conquers major cities and seacoast; Americans strongly sympathetic to China; Roosevelt does not invoke neutrality laws
• 1938 - Munich Pact sacrifices Czechoslovakia in the name of appeasement; U.S. does not object
• 1939 - World War II begins, America initially neutral.
• 1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor. United States is attacked by Japanese forces during World War II, bringing America into the conflict.
• 1941 - Atlantic Charter. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill agree (1) no territorial gains sought by America or Great Britain, (2) territorial adjustments must conform to people involved, (3) people have right to choose their own govt. (4) trade barriers lowered, (5) there must be disarmament, (6) there must be freedom from want and fear ("Four Freedoms" of FDR), (7) there must be freedom of the seas, (8) there must be an association of nations. Charter is accepted by Allies, who call themselves "the United Nations"
• 1943 - Cairo Conference. Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek meet to make decisions about postwar Asia: Japan returns all territory, independent Korea.
• 1943 - Casablanca Conference. Roosevelt and Churchill meet to plan European strategy. Unconditional surrender of Axis countries demanded, Soviet aid and participation, invasion of Sicily and Italy planned
• 1943 - Tehran Conference. Roosevelt and Churchil meet with Stalin
• 1944 - Monetary and Financial Conference held in July in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire; International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) created to aid nations devastated by the war and to stabilize the international monetary system.
• 1944 - Dumbarton Oaks Conference held in August in Washington;
• 1945 - February 4–11 Yalta Conference with Joseph Stalin and Churchill; agreement on division of Eastern Europe
• 1945 - Surrender of Germany (V-E Day)
• 1945 - July 17 - August 2 Potsdam Conference; President Harry S. Truman meets with Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee; tells Stalin of atomic bomb; gives Japan last warning to surrender; Germany (and Austria) divided into 4 zones of occupation
• 1945 - United Nations is established at San Francisco Conference on International Organization. Security Council veto powers established.
• 1945 - June 26 - United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco. America becomes a founding member and has veto power on the Security Council along with Great Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union.
• 1945 - August--Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; surrender of Japan (V-J Day); beginning of the nuclear age.
• 1945-47 - Marshall Mission to China tries and fails to force coalition government of nationalists and Communists
• 1947 - Truman Doctrine gives military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to halt spread of Communism
• 1947-89 - Cold War, the period of tension and hostility between America, Western Europe, and Japan, and Eastern Europe, China and the Soviet Union.
• 1947 - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Signed in Geneva by 23 nations including America, membership has since increased, for the purpose of eliminating trade barriers of all kinds on industrial and agricultural goods.
• 1948-51 - Marshall Plan (formally, "European Recovery Plan"); U.S. gives out $11 billion to rebuild and modernize Western European economies. Increased trade between Europe and the America; no repayment asked for.
• 1948 - Berlin Blockade imposed on June 24 by the Soviet Union, blocking traffic into western sectors of Berlin, followed by Operation Vittles, America airlifted massive amounts of food, fuel and supplies into city. Soviet blockade lifted on May 12, 1949.
• 1949 - America and eleven other nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO, a military alliance with the purpose of countering the Soviet Union and its allies.
• 1949 Dean Acheson becomes Secretary of State
• 1950-53 - Korean War; U.N. orders defense of South Korea against invasion by North Korea. (Soviet Union boycotted U.N. and did not veto.) U.S. forces deployed in Korea exceeded 300,000 during the last year of the conflict.
• 1951 - ANZUS Treaty united America, Australia and New Zealand in a defensive regional pact
• 1952 - Guatemala. Central Intelligence Agency attempts to overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in collaboration with Nicaraguan leader Anastasio Somoza García, authorized by President Truman. The mission is known as Operation PBFORTUNE.^[3]
• 1953 - Iran. U.S., and U.K. governments support shah's coup against Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq
• 1954-77 - SEATO alliance in Southeast Asia. South Vietnam not a signatory
• 1954 - Baghdad Pact. Central Treaty Organization (or CENTO) initiated by John Foster Dulles, members were Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey, U.S. aid.
• 1954 - Guatemala. Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes Operation PBSUCCESS, a program of "psychological warfare and political action" and "subversion," that succeeds in removing the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán with the help of Guatemalan military general Carlos Castillo Armas.^[3]
• 1957 - Eisenhower Doctrine gives the president authority to determine the necessity to assist any nation requesting assistance against armed aggression from any country controlled by international communism, applied in Lebanon the following year.
• 1957 - Americans embarrassed when Soviets launch Sputnik space satellite and leapfrog America in high technology.
• 1958 - U.S. foreign aid appropriation, $3.2 billion for military and economic aid; lending authority of the Export-Import Bank raised to $7 billion; U.S. admits 32,000 Hungarian refugees from 1956 revolt
• 1959 - Cuba. Fidel Castro comes to power. first of 1 million Cuban exiles go to U.S., concentrating in Miami, Florida
• 1960 - Nikita Khrushchev cancels summit conference with Eisenhower after U.S. U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union
• 1960 - Act of Bogotá makes social reform a prior condition for American economic aid
• 1960 - Cuba. America suspends sugar quota; (sugar was 80% of Cuban exports to America); Soviet Union agrees to buy Cuban sugar and provide oil; Cuba seizes $1.5 billion of American properties; America imposes complete trade embargo (except food, medicine);
• 1961 - President John F. Kennedy launches Space Race, promising Americans on the Moon; they landed July 20, 1969
• 1961 McGeorge Bundy becomes U.S. National Security Advisor.
• 1961 - Cuba. America breaks diplomatic relations as Castro aligns with Soviet Union.
• 1961 - Alliance for Progress. inter-regional agreement funded by America to counter the growing regional appeal of the Cuban Revolution.
• 1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion in April; CIA-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba and were defeated at the Bay of Pigs; captured and ransomed by President Kennedy
• 1961 - Berlin Crisis. Soviets give East Germany control over East Berlin; in August the Berlin Wall is built to stem wave of refugees escaping to the Western side. Kennedy proclaims "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin") to cheering West Berliners.
• 1962 - Organization of American States (OAS) excludes Cuba, sets up trade embargo; dropped in 1975.
• 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis. John F. Kennedy on October 22 announces that there exist S.U. missiles in Cuba and demanded their removal while imposing an air sea blockade. S.U. missiles are withdrawn on condition that America will not invade Cuba.
• 1963 - Partial Test Ban Treaty. America and the Soviet Union agreed not to conduct nuclear tests in space, in the atmosphere or underwater. Underground tests permitted; signed by 100 nations, excluding France and the People's Republic of China.
• 1964–Military coup in Brazil overthrows the elected government of president João Goulart with support from the US government.
• 1964 - Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gives President Lyndon B. Johnson Congressional approval to act in Vietnam; repealed in 1970.
• 1965 - Indonesia; America supports coup against Sukarno's pro-Communist government
• 1965 - Intervention in Dominican Republic.
• 1968 - Tet Offensive in Vietnam causes political crisis at home.
• 1969 - Henry Kissinger becomes U.S National Security Advisor.
• 1972 - SALT I signed by President Richard Nixon
• 1973 - Paris Peace Accords end the American war in Vietnam; POW's returned
• 1973 - Chilean military coup against Salvador Allende given American approval
• 1975 - North Vietnam invades and conquers South Vietnam; over 1 million refugees eventually come to America
• 1978 - Camp David Accords, Anwar Al Sadat, Menachem Begin, and Jimmy Carter meet to determine "land for peace" exchange in Middle East
• 1979 - The U.S. switches diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China and passes the Taiwan Relations Act.
• 1979-89 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan; America works with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in funding, training, and arming Muslim mujahideen insurgency against S.U. occupation.
• 1979 - After Afghanistan, President Carter agrees détente has failed; calls for boycott of Moscow Summer Olympics in 1980
• 1979-90 - Nicaragua; America supports the Contras fighting against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
• 1979-81 - Iran becomes an Islamic republic after the overthrow of American-backed shah; militants seize 63 American diplomats for 444 days during the Iran hostage crisis; America seizes $12 billion in Iranian assets; American rescue effort fails; hostages and assets are freed on January 20, 1981.
• 1980 - Cuba. 125,000 Cuban refugees arrive in America during the Mariel Boatlift.
• 1980-88 - Iran–Iraq War. America officially neutral in war between Iraq and Iran; America flags oil tankers to protect flow of oil in Persian Gulf, and sells arms and weaponry to both sides of the conflict.
• 1981 - President Ronald Reagan escalates Cold War with heavy new military spending and research in new weapons; forward strategy for Navy;
• 1983 - U.S. invades Grenada in response to a coup d’état by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard on the Caribbean island.
• 1986 - Iran-Contra Affair: White House officials sell weapons to Iran and give the profits to Contras; President Reagan embarrassed
• 1989 - End of Eastern Bloc; fall of Berlin Wall; all East European satellites break away from Moscow
• 1990 - Panama; America invades to oust Manuel Noriega
• 1991 - Gulf War; America leads a U.N.-authorized coalition to repel an Iraqi invasion out of neighboring Kuwait.
• 1991–2003 - Iraq sanctions; America and Great Britain maintain no-fly-zones in the north and south of Iraq with periodic bombings.
• 1991-93 - START II accords held by America and Russia to limit nuclear weapons
• 1991 - The Soviet Union is dissolved; Mikhail Gorbachev resigns
• 1999 - The US and NATO bomb the FR Yugoslavia, which brings an end to the Kosovo war.

21st century

• 2001 - September 11 terrorist attacks, orchestrated by Al-Qaeda terrorist network, occur on American soil.
• 2001 - U.S. and NATO forces invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban.
• 2003 - U.S.-led coalition invades Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein; troops remain to fight insurgency against the U.N.-approved elected government.
• 2006 - President George W. Bush signs the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act into law.
• 2009 - President Barack Obama lifts all travel restrictions to see relatives in Cuba and send remittances. However later that year, Obama approved continuing the Trading with the Enemy Act, which regulates sanctions on Cuba.
• 2011 - New START treaty with Russia goes into effect.
• 2011 - Navy Seals under presidential order raid Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, killing Bin Laden ;seize computers, Pakistan was not informed

2011 - Have to redesign agreement with Libya after Mummar Gaddafi's death.

Footnotes

1. ^ See text
2. ^ Louis A. Perez, Jr. Cuba under the Platt Amendment, 1902–1934. Univ of Pittsburgh Pr. ISBN 0822935333
   Platt Amendment. Our Documents.com National Archives.
   An Amendment's End. Time Magazine.
3. ^ ^{a b} CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents. U.S. National Archive.

References

• Bailey, Thomas A. Diplomatic History of the American People (1940), standard older textbook
• Beisner, Robert L. ed, American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature (2003), 2 vol. 16,300 annotated entries evaluate every major book and scholarly article.
• Bemis, Samuel Flagg. A Diplomatic History of the United States (1952) old standard textbook
• Bemis, Samuel Flagg and Grace Gardner Griffin. Guide to the Diplomatic History of the United States 1775–1921 (1935) bibliographies; out of date and replaced by Beisner (2003)
• Brune, Lester H. Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations (2003), 1400 pages
• Burns, Richard Dean, ed. Guide to American Foreign Relations since 1700 (1983) highly detailed annotated bibliography
• Deconde, Alexander, et al. eds. Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy 3 vol (2001), 2200 pages; 120 long articles by specialists.
• DeConde, Alexander; A History of American Foreign Policy (1963) online edition
• Findling, John, ed. Dictionary of American Diplomatic History 2nd ed. 1989. 700pp; 1200 short articles.
• Herring, George. From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 (Oxford History of the United States) (2008), 1056pp
• Hogan, Michael J. ed. Paths to Power: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations to 1941 (2000) essays on main topics
• Hogan, Michael J., and Thomas G. Paterson, eds. Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations (1991) essays on historiography
• Lafeber, Walter. The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, 1750 to Present (2nd ed 1994) university textbook; 884pp online edition
• Paterson, Thomas, et al. American Foreign Relations: A History (7th ed. 2 vol. 2009), university textbook

See also

• Timeline of United States history
• History of United States diplomatic relations by country
• Timeline of British diplomatic history
• List of United States treaties
• American diplomatic missions