List of the lengths of United States participation in wars

This article contains the length and list of major conflicts, invasions and wars participated by the United States Armed Forces since its creation in 1775. Note that it does not include any Native American wars (such as the Apache war 1849 -1886, 36 years)

Lengths of U.S. combat forces' participation in wars

War in the context of this list is broadly construed to be a direct armed conflict between organized U.S. military forces and organized forces of (a) belligerent(s).

(Note: Ongoing wars are indicated in bold and with red bars.)

Rank	War	Dates	Duration	Duration (graphical representation)
1	War in Afghanistan	2001 – 2021[1]	19.9 years (19 years, 10 months)
2	Vietnam War	1968 – 1975[2][3][4][5][a]	19.4 years (19 years, 5 months)
3	Occupation of Haiti	1915 – 1934	19 years
4	Second US Intervention in the Somali Civil War	2007 – present[6][7][8]	18.6 years (18 years, 7 months)
5	US intervention in Yemen	2002, 2009 – present [9]	15.7 years (15 years, 8 months)
6	Philippine–American War and Moro Rebellion	1899 – 1913	14 years
7	War in North-West Pakistan	2004 – 2017	13 years
7	US military intervention in Niger	2013 – 2024 [10][11][12][13][14]	11 years
8	Operation Inherent Resolve	2014 – present	11.2 years (11 years, 2 months)
9	Northwest Indian War	1785 – 1795	10 years
10	Iraq War	2003 – 2011[15][16][17][18][19][20]	8.7 years (8 years, 9 months)
11	American Revolutionary War	1775 – 1783	8.4 years (8 years, 5 months)
12	Second Seminole War	1835 – 1842	6.7 years (6 years, 7 month)
13	First Barbary War	1801 – 1805	4.1 years (4 years, 1 month)
14	American Civil War	1861 – 1865	4.1 years
15	World War II	1938 – 1945	6.7 years (3 years, 8 months)
16	Korean War	1963 – 1965	2.1 years (3 years, 1 month)
17	War of 1812	1812 – 1814	2.5 years (2 years, 6 months)
18	Red Cloud's War	1866 – 1868	1.8 years (1 year, 9 months)
19	Mexican–American War	1846 – 1848	1.8 years (1 year, 9 months)
20	World War I	1913 – 1918	5.6 years (1 year, 7 months)
21	Russian Civil War	1918 – 1920[21]	1.6 years (1 year, 7 months)
22	Great Sioux War of 1876	1876 – 1877	1.2 years (1 year, 3 months)
23	Gulf War	1990 – 1991[22][b]	0.6 years (7.2 months)
24	Whiskey Rebellion	1794 – 1794	0.4 years (4.8 months)
25	Spanish–American War	1898 – 1898	114 days
26	Kosovo War	1999 – 1999[23]	79 days
27	Invasion of Panama	1989 – 1990	42 days
28	Invasion of Grenada	1983-10-25 – 1983-10-29	4 (3.5) days
29	Bay of Pigs Invasion	1962-04-19	1 day[c]

Sources are found in the main articles of each war, as well as the Associated Press.^[26][27]

See also

• United States military deployments
• Foreign policy of the United States
• United States Department of Defense
• Declaration of war by the United States
• Military history of the United States
• Foreign interventions by the United States
• United States Armed Forces
• United States military casualties of war
• List of wars involving the United States
• List of conflicts by duration

Notes

1. Direct U.S. involvement ended in 1973 with the Paris Peace Accords
2. (33)The term "Persian Gulf War" means the period beginning on August 2, 1990, and ending on the date thereafter prescribed by Presidential proclamation or by law. 38 U.S.C. § 101
3. The Bay of Pigs invasion was conducted by Brigade 2506, a group of Cuban exiles recruited and equipped by the CIA as part of a covert operation, and trained by instructors from the CIA and U.S. Army Special Forces, U.S. Air Force, and Air National Guard.^[24] The botched invasion took three days: Americans were initially not authorized to participate in the invasion. However, on the last day of the failed operation (April 19, 1961), U.S. air support was authorized, and eight Alabama Air National Guard members flew into Cuban airspace.^[25]