Operation ALLIED FORCE

Operation ALLIED FORCE was the U.S. code name for peace operations, with NATO, in Kosovo in 1999. It was a bombing campaign intended to compel Serbia, under President Slobodan Milosevic, to stop operations against the Kosovars. The campaign was urged by Supreme Allied Commander Europe GEN Wesley Clark.

The strategy drew on the air effects produced by Operation DESERT STORM in Iraq; it was hoped that air operations alone could produce a relatively clean result. No followup operations were planned, and it did not involve a commitment of massive force as would have been called for under the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine. Andrew Bacevich criticized Clark for not being prepared for Milosevic's response, which was to disperse their forces and accelerate ethnic cleansing.