On April 6, 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were assassinated when their plane was shot down near Kigali…
Crisis Management: Occupation of USIS in South Korea, 1985
On May 25, 1985, seventy-three South Korean students barged into the United States Information Services (USIS) library in Seoul and…
The Overthrow of Haiti’s Aristide
Haiti has long been plagued by coups d’état and regime changes, leading to long-time political instability and weak governance. In…
The Siberian Seven: Escaping Religious Persecution in the U.S.S.R.
From its inception, the Soviet Union became the first state in the world to actively attempt to eliminate religion from society.…
“How many people can you fit on a 747?”- Operations Sheba and Solomon
The Ethiopian Aliyah, as it is known in Israel, was the migration during the 1980’s of thousands of Ethiopian Jews…
The Sudden Rise of Muammar Qaddafi and a Hostile Libya
On September 1st, 1969, a group of young Libyan military officers overthrew the Libyan royal family and established the Libyan…
Get While the Getting’s Good: Departing Communist China
The decision to close an embassy and order departure of diplomatic personnel is a signal of last resort that bilateral…
The Rise to Power of the Butcher of Uganda
Idi Amin Dada, who came to be known as the “Butcher of Uganda,” rose to officer rank in the Ugandan…
Operation Storm — The Battle for Croatia, 1995
After the fall of Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s, the Balkans descended into a bloody ethnic and sectarian conflict. Although…
The Panama Riots of 1964: The Beginning of the End for the Canal
When President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty with Panama in 1903, the United States gained sovereignty over the portion…