US Military Forces and Emergency International Humanitarian Assistance

Abstract
THE US MILITARY has a long tradition of providing emergency humanitarian relief after armed confrontation and disaster, and often to peoples of other nations. After World War II and the Vietnam War, as well as after many smaller conflicts, US forces provided supplies and medical services to thousands of refugees and displaced persons.1-3Following earthquakes in Peru (1970) and Nicaragua (1972), flooding in Sudan (1988), volcanic eruption in the Philippines (1990), and tropical cyclones in East Bengal (1970), Sri Lanka (1978), and Bangladesh (1991), the US military dispatched medical teams and relief supplies to assist disaster victims.4-7Also, US military forces participated for humanitarian purposes in the United Nations (UN) intervention in Korea and more recently in Kurdistan8and Somalia.9A US military hospital is currently in Zagreb, Croatia, to provide medical care for UN peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslavia and possibly to displaced persons