Sheridan Circle is part of the Washington, D.C. area known as Embassy Row. It is named for General Phil Sheridan, a figure of the American Civil War involved in genocide campaigns against the Sioux and other Native American tribes. A statue of Sheridan on horseback stands on a low platform in the grassy center of the Circle.

A number of embassies ring Sheridan Circle, including the former Turkish chancery and the Romanian embassy on the southern side, and the Embassy of Pakistan to the northwest.

Looking back along Massachusetts Avenue one sees Dupont Circle in the distance; in the other direction, the avenue rises toward a bridge over Rock Creek Park.

On September 21, 1976, Orlando Letelier, who had been foreign minister in the ousted Allende government of Chile, was killed in a car bombing, along with colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt. The bombing was blamed on Chilean DINA agents. Michael Townley, a DINA U.S. expatriate among those convicted for the crime, confessed that he had hired five anti-Castro Cubans exiles to booby-trap Letelier's car. According to Jean-Guy Allard, after consultations with the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) leadership, including Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, those elected to carry out the murder were Cuban-Americans José Dionisio "Bloodbath" Suárez, Virgilio Paz Romero, Alvin Ross Díaz and brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampoll [1][2]. According to the Miami Herald, Luis Posada Carriles was at this meeting that decided on Letelier's death and also about the Cubana bombing two weeks later. For the Biblical Dina, see Dinah. ... Michael Townley, a U.S. expatriate, first worked for the CIA before working for the DINA, Chilean secret police under Augusto Pinochets dictatorship, where he participated in operation Condor. ... Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) has been described by the FBI as an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization. It has taken part in operation Condor, organizing Chilean former minister Orlando Leteliers assassination in Washington, D.C. in 1976. ... Luis Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is an anti-Castro Cuban émigré who is alleged to have been involved in numerous violent terrorist plots, including hotel bombings and the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Flight 455 in which seventy-three people were killed. ... Orlando Bosch is a Cuban exile and former CIA-backed terrorist, head of CORU organization, which the FBI has described as an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization. He has been accused of having taken part in Operation Condor and of a variety of terrorist attacks. ... Virgilio Paz Romero is an anti-castro Cuban exile, involved in various terrorist acts. ... The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by Knight Ridder. ... Luis Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is an anti-Castro Cuban émigré who is alleged to have been involved in numerous violent terrorist plots, including hotel bombings and the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Flight 455 in which seventy-three people were killed. ... Cubana Flight 455 was a Cubana de Aviación flight departing from Barbados, via Trinidad, to Cuba. ...

Letelier and Moffitt are commemorated with a small plaque embedded in the grass along the curb where they died, near the Irish and Romanian embassies.