late unpleasantness

late unpleasantness (plural late unpleasantnesses)

1. (euphemistic) A recent war, especially (historical) the American Civil War.
   • 2003, Zane E. Finkelstein (referring to the Vietnam War), (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, archived from the original on 28 August 2005:

     It is unlikely that anyone with significant knowledge of the Army or the late unpleasantness in Southeast Asia, upon reading these two sentences, would respond other than with a scatological barnyard expletive or some more genteel utterance representing the same level of acceptance.

• Names For The Civil War, at civilwarhome.com