Vice President Kamala Harris claimed during an Oct. 22 interview that Europe “saw and has seen war” for the “first time in 70 years.”
Verdict: Misleading
Europe has seen at least one war since 1954. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 in an intervention in Kosovo.
Fact Check:
Polls show that Harris and her opponent, former President Donald Trump, are locked in a tight battle for the presidency, according to NPR. The election will come down to whoever wins a small set of states, such as Pennsylvania, the outlet reported.
Harris was interviewed by NBC News’ Hallie Jackson about a variety of topics. Jackson asked Harris about President Joe Biden’s mental state, Harris said that Biden rallied NATO over (presumably) Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which she characterized as “for the first time in 70 years saw and has seen a war.”
“I have worked with Joe Biden, whether — hours and hours and hours over these four years, whether it be in the Situation Room or the Oval Office. Joe Biden is the one who was able to bring NATO together during a crisis where for the first time in 70 years Europe saw and has seen war,” Harris said.
This claim is misleading. Europe has seen at least one major conflict since 1954. The Balkan Wars of the 1990s took place during the breakup of Yugoslavia, according to BBC News. NATO intervened in Kosovo, Operation Allied Force, in a campaign that lasted from March to June 1999.
The NATO website reads:
- “The 1989 imposition of direct rule from Belgrade of a predominantly Albanian province led to tension and waves of violence between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- President Milosovic’s policy of ethnic cleansing produced flows of refugees and internally displaced people.
- In 1999, once all diplomatic avenues had failed, NATO launched an air campaign to halt the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Kosovo.
- Operation Allied Force started on 24 March 1999 and was suspended on 10 June, lasting a total of 78 days.
- On 10 June 1999, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia accepted the withdrawal of its military, police and paramilitary forces and the deployment of an effective international civil and security presence.”
At least one expert claimed that zero wars have been fought in Europe since World War II. Scholar Laust Schouenborg wrote in a 2010 article for Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies’ Spice Digest that “no wars have been fought in Europe…”
Since the end of World War II, no wars have been fought in Europe. That is if one excludes the Balkan wars of the 1990s, something I will return to below,” Schouenborg wrote. (RELATED: Image Allegedly Showing Chris Evans Signing An Israeli Bomb Intended For Gaza Is Miscaptioned)
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the largest war in Europe since World War II, according to The New York Times. The Ukrainians fought with separatists in the Donbas from 2014 to 2022, and there is plentiful evidence that shows Russian forces intervened and fought Ukraine in the Donbas in 2014.
Check Your Fact reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.