Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2015 by Barbara Salazar Torreon (Congressional Research Service).
From the summary:
This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its Armed Forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes. It was compiled in part from various older lists and is intended primarily to provide a rough survey of past U.S. military ventures abroad, without reference to the magnitude of the given instance noted. The listing often contains references, especially from 1980 forward, to continuing military deployments, especially U.S. military participation in multinational operations associated with NATO or the United Nations. Most of these post-1980 instances are summaries based on presidential reports to Congress related to the War Powers Resolution. A comprehensive commentary regarding any of the instances listed is not undertaken here.
One of the first steps in security analysis is an evaluation of potential attackers. Who has a reason (in their eyes) to go to the time and trouble of attacking you?
Such a list for the United States doesn’t narrow the field by much but it may help avoid overlooking some of the less obvious candidates. To be sure the United States will keep China and North Korea as convenient whipping boys for any domestic cyber misadventures, but that’s just PR. Why would our largest creditor want to screw with our ability to pay them back? All of the antics about China are street theater, far away from where real decisions are made.
What amazes me is despite centuries of misbehavior by American administration after American administration, that places like Vietnam want to have peaceful relations with us. They aren’t carrying a grudge. Hard to say that for the engineers of one U.S. foreign policy disaster after another.
You could also think of the more recent incidents as the starting point of a list of people to hound from public office and/or public service. Either way, I think you will find it useful.
I first saw this in a tweet by the U.S. Dept. of Fear.