Special Publications
CMH Pub 70-122-1, Paper
2013; 72 pages; illustrations, tables, maps, further readings
GPO S/N: 008-029-00558-1

In Operation Enduring Freedom, March 2002-April 2005, authors Brian Neumann, Lisa Mundey, and Jon Mikolashek provide details on the critical role of the U.S. Army in the critical three-year period following the conclusion of Operation Anaconda in March 2002. They detail the story of American and international forces working to solidify the initial invasion's crippling of al-Qaeda and removal of the Taliban. They recount the quest to build a new, democratic Afghan government capable of maintaining internal security and tending to the needs of the Afghan people. They describe the U.S. Army's search for a proper balance between counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations as the enemy rebuilt his forces from safe havens in Pakistan. Finally, they chronicle the Army's efforts to maintain an effective presence in Afghanistan while juggling the challenges of an indigenous population historically opposed to foreign forces and the decreased resources available after the start of the Iraq war in 2003.

Special Publications
CMH Pub 70-131-1, Paper
2020; 88 pages; illustrations, tables, maps, further readings
GPO S/N: 008-029-00655-3

In Operation Enduring Freedom, May 2005–January 2009, authors Brian F. Neumann and Colin J. Williams show how the United States Army balanced its ongoing commitment to combating terrorist and insurgent activity in post-Taliban Afghanistan with the expanding American war in Iraq. They tell how the Bush administration relegated Afghanistan to an economy-of-force effort and sought to transition responsibility for supporting the fledgling Afghan government to an international coalition. They also describe how a growing insurgency against coalition forces and the Afghan government threatened to derail these efforts. It resulted in a three-year period defined by minimizing American commitment and achieving unity of effort among the coalition partners.

Special Publications
CMH Pub 70-83-1, Paper
2022; 103 pages, illustrations, Maps

When Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network executed the deadly 11 September 2001 attacks, the United States responded with a global offensive against international terrorists and those who harbored them. War with al-Qaeda meant war with its hosts—the Taliban—who had gained control of most of Afghanistan in the 1990s. In October 2001, U.S. military forces began a campaign against both groups. With the help of various anti-Taliban militias, American troops fought to remove the Taliban from power, destroy al-Qaeda, find bin Laden, and preclude terrorists from using Afghanistan as a refuge. Afghanistan, therefore, would be the first conflict in the decades-long Global War on Terrorism.