What were some big war conflicts that happened in the 70s and 80s?

Part of my story takes place on the 70s and 80s and I want to know some major conflicts that happened besides Vietnam in the 70s.

 

Wikipedia has a list of wars between 1945 and 1989. There's plenty of choices.

 

Got it, thanks.

Do you know if there's any big controversy if I based my stories time line during the 80s with the Columbian Conflict, involving the guerrilla moment FARC?

 

The colombian conflict is a massively complicated topic filled with corruption, international involvement (and probably black-ops), crimes against humanity, murder and all that. Researching it however is an altogether different topic though, might want to talk to someone actually well read int his matter. Try contacting your local university, they might know.

Could be a very interesting setting for a story, especially if you don't go down the whole "usa saviors and communism must die!" cliche (or vice versa) (like many movies) and present more as the 'there is no bad guys, just different opinions'. Could turn out to be a very interesting political story and/or commentary.

 

Other than Vietnam, the Soviet-Afghan War is probably the biggest. You'd also have the Falklands War, the Cambodian-Vietnam War, the Nicaraguan Civil War, Indo-Pakistan War, Angolan War of Independence, the Yom Kippur War, and the Iran-Iraq War.

Probably not a big controversy, so long as you do your research.

 

Operation Condor may provide you with some interesting research opportunities.

 

I'll dig more into this, thanks. Would you know if this is less controversial than the paramilitary vs the FARC rebels?

Yeah I wouldn't show either side as good since both were doing some pretty heavy damage from both ends but since I wanted to have an American military tech adviser that's gone along with the paramilitary and meets this female Colombian FARC rebel during the mid to late 80s and they fall in love together, could this be plausible or does this sound like another Romeo and Juliet type deal?

I'll try my best to research, and the same for the other countries that were in those conflicts. Thanks.

This looks really helpful. Thanks for this info.

 

Could be the premise of an interesting political-war-romance sorta of story. Perhaps what would make it even more is an actual USA contractor (i.e what they call mercenaries these days - Mercenaries have been banned under the geneva conventions, so instead they hire "private security contractors" to "protect" "vital" "areas".) Look forward to hearing about this.

 

Thanks man! This might be a good idea for the guy that meets the rebellion Cambodian girl and since they are fighting from different sides, they would meet and maybe realize what are their causes for fighting for? They would eventually have a child that would grow up and be an important character later on. Do you know if any contractors(private mercenaries) were hired to fight along side the paramilitary during the 1980s? Like mid to late 80s? Or was it more in the 70s?

 

Private contractors are mostly a very modern *thing* as far as I know - maybe the last 20 years or so. In the 70s, they were less prominent but still existed, primarily what was more common was paramilitary troops. Paramilitary troops are a force that is not per se a government military force. instead it is a usually ad-hoc and roughly funded/supplied set of men who fight for a particular country. Typically, with such groups, money is the primary object and in many ways they full fill the role of mercenaries.

Legally however, paramilitary forces need to be volunteer fighting forces or alternate government sectors (like the police) and the opponents need to be notified that these said groups are now active recognised combatants. Typically, nowadays, paramilitary forces are local, often guerilla-like, groups of a volonteer militia. But back in the 70s it was not uncommon to see them being further funded and supplied by larger state and effectively made into an mercenary army as they are now "paid" (in a gray manner).


The idea of "live and let live" which first originated in World War 1 as a recognised and ad-hoc truce between soldiers can be illustrated. For instance, in WWI, soldier never shot at stretcher bearer, soldier working in open grounds, soldiers rescuing their friends in no man's land, people shouting "Kamarade!" (a word of frienship recognise by almost all sides). If both the contractor and the fighter girl are forced to fight (for instance, the contractor could be a former USA criminal offered reduced sentence for service. He might even he, himself, be a pacifist. The girl, maybe being forced to fight for a veriety of reason (like being a child soldier that grew up, relatives held hostage, etc...). It would be easy for both to sympathise with each other and such a truce might appear between the two.

edit: TO note: A Contractor, is a employee of a company that has been employed by a government for "private security" in certain areas. Legally they are restricted from partaking in active combat situation, though really that distinction of what is or isn't an active combat role is more-or-less left to the employees (i.e the government). So really, not much of a restriction. A paramilitary, is a non-company affiliated group or usually volunteer militia. Paramilitaries often start of as non-for-profit organisations/groups seeking to achieve a particular goal (such as political freedom). They sometimes expand from that.

PS: At least, that is how I understands these terms. But then again, I am not well versed in post-world war 1 history as it is not my primary interest.

 

Well then I guess if a hired contractor would be less likely in the 70s or 80s, what you're referring to is the paramilitary from that time? I could go that route or I could have it take place a few years after where contract mercenaries would be more common like in the 90s, 2000s, 2010s? I could still have the same kind of storyline cause it seems these events have continued to occur for many decades. I do like the idea of him being a badass merc contractor.

If it's from a legalize point of view, I could have it that he was charged with conducting a failed mission back in the military where he went crazy, destroying a village or something then offered to work as a contractor on a mission in Colombia to reduce or fee his sentence or was a criminal before joining. And he could end up becoming a pacifist later on when he realizes what's wrong I've done some research into 3rd worlds with child soldiers, which could make sense for the girl and kidnappings and hostage holds make complete sense too.

So maybe the paramilitary angle could work since there are many freedom fighters in this situation that would be willing to take in a well trained soldier on their side. I myself don't have much modern day military history knowledge too.

 

Normally - or at least as far as I know (so feel free to correct me in anyone knows for sure) - they only hire people from prison into the army if A) they cannot get anyone else or B) That person someone has a particular skill. For instance, if let say that he was a marine in his previous life. Maybe a scout marine or marksmen or something that is high-skill (but not elite like navy seals, since they are mentally screened for that). He went AWOL or something, killed a couple people and finished up in Leavenworth or something. There, he got recruited because of his ultra-high skill for an extremely dangerous black-ops mission in colombia. They using him because he already has military training, his skilled and expendable. Additionally, he is not part of their actual army so the government can deny it if they get caught and say he is acting on his own.

Perhaps after that, you could have him "advise" on a paramilitary group in colombia, using that group as a staging post for his actual mission (whatever they may be). That is a lot more 'covert' style and less close to any provable reality (I am sure it exists, just no country will front up and admit to it). Anyway, that could be a plausible entry point for the story and/or character.

In terms of the child soldier. Typically, what they did is that they selected male children, told them that if they ran away, disappeared, or rebelled they would shoot their families (who are already dead, but the child doesn't know). Sometimes, they would actually keep the father (or mother) as a hostage and rite of passage. The child soldier would then be brainwashed into being a fierce fighter - and they are terrifyingly fierce and cruel. Typically, the child soldier would be administered drug, something called "brown-brown" is common in africa (a mixture of gunpowder and drugs, usually cocaine, but sometimes also other forms like heroine)., The creation of an addiction makes the child soldier even more loyal and less prone to escape. Some groups would then make the children shoot a victim, sometimes even their own parents, as a last mark of rite of passage. Usually, however, the family would be dead by that point and the child would simply be given a random set of victims to kill.

It is rare that these child soldier ever live to adulthood. The mixture of the drugs and harsh life is not a healthy choice (along with the poor living conditions associate with groups that use child soldiers). Additionally, their ferocity in battle means they are often killed outright. Additionally, when the grow older then become harder to control and unless they suffer from extreme cases of stockholms or have become extremely loyal, they would usually be disposed of, such as sometimes suicidal missions.

A small number too escape that life. Women are rarely ever chosen as child soldiers simply because they have, naturally speaking, less muscle mass and are often more resistant to those forms of control. I do not say, however, that they would never take one. Just that it doesn't happen often. Something that would need to be accounted for in the backstory of your woman/girl character.


So, in terms of your backstory, I think you need to think about what exactly you would like to have as characters and work from there. Do you want some ex-military jarhead with more brawns that wit or do you want some highly-trained spec-ops military guy on mission? These two form very different characters but both have similar stories. Plus, they both can use the same forms of entry points into the conflict (such as advisor, PC, PM, etc...).

Edit: As stated earlier, this is by far not my area of expertise and I have not done any proper research into those topics. I would suggest you do some research.

 

From some of the research I've done, a lot of the paramilitary groups in Columbia stopped around 2008. I could be wrong, but if that's the case and I decided to have this take modern day then he would have served in Iraq or Afghanistan before serving time in prison then go to Columbia around 06 or 07? If this took place 70s or 80s then most likely he would of served in Vietnam before his sentence before going to Colombia in mid 70s? Mid 80s? For the girl being a child soldier i could make her special in a way that they would of picked her like she had a special skill that showed this she's capable of using her, similar to how the contractor is used for his skills. And from the info I gathered, child soldiers and kidnappings by the FARC rebels was much closer to the modern day than it was in the past so I don't know if I could have it be in the 79s or 80s just the info I gathered for when these events taken place. If I'm mistaken let me know

EDIT: Oh and I think it would be better if this hired soldier was a tough jarhead kind of guy with some good skills and maybe while sent over for hire he becomes more covert op from some training with others there? Or maybe he gets some training from another hired US soldier who's a skilled covert op that helps him a bit so he can better prepare for his real mission being over there when ready.

 

There were so many! The Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli War in 1973 came very close to going nuclear. The Iran Iraq War, 1980 to 1989, was the biggest, longest and potentially the most dangerous. Chemical weapons were used and it left both Iran and Iraq aspiring to acquire nukes. The Falklands was the first modern naval war in which air to ship missiles demonstrated their lethality. You already listed the Colombian drug wars. ANgola was a proxy with active Cuban involvement, probably the high point of their military. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan precipitated both the rise of Islamic terror and the fall of the Soviet system... I remember some very prescient analysts commenting in the 1980s that the mujaheddin we were arming were not going to like us perverted, heathen Americans any more than they did the Soviets.

 

So would it make no difference if I had this US mercenary supporting paramilitaries in Columbia and then meeting the female rebel soldier during the 70s into the 80s? Or more in the 2010s?

 

Good choices here, my question about the Iran -Iraq war, were there any female soldiers at that time that could if crossed paths with US soldiers?

 

The Nintendo/Sega Wars was a pretty nasty as well.

 

I never thought of it that way. Maybe a cool story revolving around some secretive covert wars from both sides of the companies with gun for hires and spies fighting on both sides, like a second cold war that lasted through the late 80s until the mid 90s

US mercenary hired to fight on either side with secret mecha controlled robots in a gaming cold war. Eventually meets a Japanese woman from one of the other sides of the console company oppressing against the one he's hired to fight for, when in the end, both sides lose or turns to a draw and then they fall in love realizing this Sega/Nintendo battle is worthless!

Until the next secret cold war battle, Playstation/Saturn wars beings..

Do you like my new story idea!

 

I knew it was rough in Ohio!

 

So in the 70s or 80s it would make sense for a US merc to of been hired to support Colombian government forces against FARC rebels? Or is this more plausible to happen today?