Arrival of IFOR Troops

The Nato-Led Implementation Force

NATO conducted its first major crisis-response operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) was deployed in December 1995 to implement the military aspects of the Dayton Peace Agreement and was replaced a year later by the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR). SFOR helped to maintain a secure environment and facilitate the country’s reconstruction in the wake of the 1992-1995 war.

Admiral Leighton W. Smith Jr., Commander in Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe (CINCSOUTH), served as the first Joint Force Commander for the operation, also known as Commander IFOR (COMIFOR).

Contributing Countries

Over the course of these missions, a total of 36 Allied and partner countries contributed troops. In addition, soldiers from five countries that were neither NATO members nor Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries participated at different times, namely Argentina, Australia, Chile, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Troop Numbers

• IFOR was a 60,000-strong force that was deployed for one year.
• SFOR originally comprised 31,000 troops. By early 2001, they had been reduced to 19,000 and in spring 2002, the decision was taken to reduce troops to 12,000 by the end of 2002. By 2004, they totalled 7,000.

Paris – Washington D.C. (after Paris ceremony)

We flew home on Air Force One. The President was in a good mood as we flew home. He came back to the second cabin to ask Clark, Kerrick and me how we thought implementation would proceed.

HOLBROOKE: ”We will have far fewer casualties than the public and the Congress expect.”

But none of us could have imagined just how low the casualty rate actually would be - zero American forces killed or wounded from hostile action in the first years after Dayton.

(Excerpts from Richard Holbrooke’s book “To End a War”)