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President Eisenhower Little Rock, AR
This executive order of September 23, 1957, signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, sent federal troops to maintain order and peace while the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, AR, took place. -
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President Kennedy Cuban Missile Crisis
After many long and difficult meetings, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. The aim of this "quarantine," as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. -
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President Johnson Vietnam War
On 8 March 1965, two battalions of U.S. Marines waded ashore on the beaches at Da Nang. Those 3,500 soldiers were the first combat troops the United States had dispatched to South Vietnam to support the Saigon government in its effort to defeat an increasingly lethal Communist insurgency. -
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President Nixon Operation Linebacker
Rather than accept the prospect of defeat, Nixon sent massive air force and naval reinforcements to bases in Indochina and Guam. On May 4 he decided to mine North Vietnam's harbors and open a sustained air offensive, Operation Linebacker, against North Vietnam. -
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President Ford Yom Kippur War
Ford entered the presidency with U.S.-Soviet relations on very shaky ground, however. The 1973 Yom Kippur War in the Middle East had nearly led to the massive military involvement of the superpowers. -
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President Carter Iran Hostage Crisis
On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. This terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days. -
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President Reagan Lebanon Civil War (U.S. Involvement)
With the approval of Congress, Reagan in 1983 sent forces to Lebanon to reduce the threat of civil war. The American peacekeeping forces in Beirut, a part of a multinational force during the Lebanese Civil War, were attacked on October 23, 1983. -
President H. W. Bush Panama Invasion
American armed forces invade Panama to capture Manuel Antonio Noriega, the country's military dictator. Noriega, who had been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges, surrendered on January 3, 1990. He was convicted on drug charges on April 9, 1992, and sent to prison. -
President Clinton Cruise Missile Strikes on Iraq
The U.S. Navy, under President Clinton's orders, attacks Iraqi intelligence operations in downtown Baghdad after learning that Iraqis had plotted to kill former President Bush during his April 1993 visit to Kuwait. The twenty-three tomahawk missiles fired reportedly kill eight people. -
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President W. Bush Invasion of Iraq
His most controversial act was the invasion of Iraq on the belief that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein posed a grave threat to the United States. Saddam was captured, but the disruption of Iraq and the killing of American servicemen and friendly Iraqis by insurgents became the challenge of Bush’s government as he began his second term. -
President Obama Killing of Osama bin Laden
On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot several times and killed at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group.