United States involvement in regime change#2011: Libya

{{Main|Mexican–American War|Texas annexation}}

The United States annexed the Republic of Texas, at the time considered by Mexico to be a rebellious state of Mexico.Greenberg, Amy (2012), A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico (1989: Knopf) p. 33 During the war with Mexico that ensued, the United States seized Alta California from Mexico.Zinn, Howard (2003) "Chapter 8: We take nothing by conquest, Thank God". A People's History of the United States, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers) p. 169

{{See also|Second French intervention in Mexico}}

While the American Civil War was taking place in the United States, France and other countries invaded Mexico to collect debts. France then installed Habsburg prince Maximilian I as the Emperor of Mexico. After the Civil War ended, the United States began supporting the Liberal forces of Benito Juárez (who had been the interim President of Mexico since 1858 under the liberal Constitution of 1857 and then elected as president in 1861 before the French invasion) against the forces of Maximilian. The United States began sending and dropping arms into Mexico and many Americans fought alongside Juárez. Eventually, Juárez and the Liberals took back power and executed Maximillian I.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924020431734/page/n7|title=Maximilian in Mexico. The story of the French intervention (1861–1867)|last=Falcke Martin|first=Percy|publisher=C. Scribner's sons|year=1914|location=New York City, New York, United States}}Robert H. Buck, Captain, Recorder. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Commandery of the state of Colorado, Denver. 10 April 1907. Indiana State Library.{{Cite book|title=Empire and Revolution: The American in Mexico Since the Civil War|url=https://archive.org/details/empirerevolution0000hart|url-access=registration|last=Hart|first=James Mason|publisher=University of California Press|year=2002|isbn=0-520-90077-4|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles}} The United States opposed Maximilian and had invoked the Monroe Doctrine. William Seward said afterwards "The Monroe Doctrine, which eight years ago was merely a theory, is now an irreversible fact."{{Cite journal|last1=Manning|first1=William R.|last2=Callahan|first2=James Morton|last3=Latané|first3=John H.|last4=Brown|first4=Phillip|last5=Slayden|first5=James L.|last6=Wheless|first6=Joseph|last7=Scott|first7=James Brown|date=April 25, 1914|title=Statements, Interpretations, and Applications of the Monroe Doctrine and of More or Less Allied Doctrines|journal=American Society of International Law|volume=8|pages=34–118|jstor=25656497}}

{{Main|Samoan Civil War|Samoan crisis|Second Samoan Civil War}}

File:Samoa in Oceania (small islands magnified).svg

In the 1880s, Samoa was a monarchy with two rival claimants to the throne: Malietoa Laupepa and Mata'afa Iosefo. The Samoan crisis was a confrontation between the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom from 1887 to 1889, with the powers backing rival claimants to the throne of the Samoan Islands which became the First Samoan Civil War.{{cite book|title=A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa|title-link=A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa|author=Stevenson, Robert Louis|publisher=BiblioBazaar|year=1892|isbn=978-1-4264-0754-3}}

{{Main|Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom|Republic of Hawaii}}

File:Hawaii in Oceania (-mini map -rivers).svg

Anti-monarchs, mostly Americans, in Hawaii, engineered the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. On January 17, 1893, the native monarch, Queen Lili'uokalani, was overthrown. Hawaii was initially reconstituted as an independent republic, but the ultimate goal of the action was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which was finally accomplished with the Newlands Resolution of 1898.{{cite journal |last1=Kam |first1=Ralph Thomas |last2=Lyons |first2=Jeffrey K. |year=2019 |title=Remembering the Committee of Safety: Identifying the Citizenship, Descent, and Occupations of the Men Who Overthrew the Monarchy |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/742973 |journal=The Hawaiian Journal of History |location=Honolulu |publisher=Hawaiian Historical Society |volume=53 |pages=31–54 |doi=10.1353/hjh.2019.0002 |issn=2169-7639 |oclc=60626541 |s2cid=212795443|hdl=10524/63187 |hdl-access=free }}

{{Main|History of the Philippines (1898–1946)}}

The successful Philippine Revolution saw the defeat of the Spanish Empire and the establishment of the First Philippine Republic, ending centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the archipelago. The U.S., which had allied with the revolutionaries and emerged victorious in the concurrent Spanish–American War, was "granted" the Philippines in the Treaty of Paris. Wishing to establish its own control over the country, the U.S. engaged in the Philippine–American War, the success of which saw the dissolution of the self-governing Philippine Republic and formation of an Insular Government of the Philippine Islands in 1902. The Philippines became a self-governing Commonwealth in 1935 and was granted full sovereignty by 1946.

{{Main|Secession of Panama from Colombia}}

In September 1903 Manuel Amador Guerrero, leader of the movement for Panamanian independence from Colombia, traveled to New York to determine how the United States might support the movement. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt privately supported the separatist movement, later ordering the warship USS Nashville under commander John Hubbard to proceed first to Jamaica, then to Panama.

{{Main|Banana Wars}}

File:Honduras in its region.svg

In what became known as the "Banana Wars", between the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the inception of the Good Neighbor Policy in 1934, the U.S. staged many military invasions and interventions in Central America and the Caribbean.{{cite book |first=Mark T. |last=Gilderhusrt |title=The Second Century: U.S.–Latin American Relations Since 1889 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2000 |page=49}} One of these incursions, in 1903, involved regime change rather than regime preservation. The United States Marine Corps, which most often fought these wars, developed a manual called The Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars in 1921 based on its experiences. On occasion, the Navy provided gunfire support and Army troops were also used. The United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company dominated Honduras' key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways. The U.S. staged invasions and incursions of US troops in 1903 (supporting a coup by Manuel Bonilla), 1907 (supporting Bonilla against a Nicaraguan-backed coup), 1911 and 1912 (defending the regime of Miguel R. Davila from an uprising), 1919 (peacekeeping during a civil war, and installing the caretaker government of Francisco Bográn), 1920 (defending the Bográn regime from a general strike), 1924 (defending the regime of Rafael López Gutiérrez from an uprising) and 1925 (defending the elected government of Miguel Paz Barahona) to defend US interests.{{cite web |url=http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/resources/interventions.html |title=History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America |first=Marc |last=Becker |website=www2.truman.edu}}

{{Main|Second Occupation of Cuba}}

File:Cuba in its region.svg

After the explosion of the USS Maine the United States declared war on Spain, starting the Spanish–American War.{{Cite web |date=2018-09-26 |title=U.S. Senate: H.R. 10086 Declaration of War with Spain, 1898 |url=https://www.cop.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/image/HR10086_Spanish-American-War.htm |access-date=2025-03-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926202429/https://www.cop.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/image/HR10086_Spanish-American-War.htm |archive-date=September 26, 2018 }} The United States invaded and occupied Spanish-ruled Cuba in 1898. Many in the United States did not want to annex Cuba and passed the Teller Amendment, forbidding annexation. Cuba was occupied by the U.S. and run by military governor Leonard Wood during the first occupation from 1898 to 1902, after the end of the war. The Platt Amendment was passed later on outlining U.S. Cuban relations. It said the U.S. could intervene anytime against a government that was not approved, forced Cuba to accept U.S. influence, and limited Cuban abilities to make foreign relations.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=55&page=transcript|title=Transcript of the Platt Amendment|website=Our Documents|date=April 9, 2021}} The United States forced Cuba to accept the terms of the Platt Amendment, by putting it into their constitution.{{Cite web |title=Milestones: 1899–1913 - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/platt |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20170508153130/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/platt |archive-date=2017-05-08 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=history.state.gov |language=en}} After the occupation, Cuba and the U.S. would sign the Cuban–American Treaty of Relations in 1903, further agreeing to the terms of the Platt Amendment.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=55|title=Platt Amendment (1903)|website=Our Documents|date=April 9, 2021}}

Tomás Estrada Palma became the first President of Cuba after the U.S. withdrew. He was a member of the Republican Party of Havana. He was re-elected in 1905 unopposed; however, the Liberals accused him of electoral fraud. Fighting began between the Liberals and Republicans. Due to the tensions he resigned on September 28, 1906, and his government collapsed soon afterwards. U.S. Secretary of State William Howard Taft invoked the Platt Amendment and the 1903 treaty, under approval of President Theodore Roosevelt, invading the country, and occupying it. The country would be governed by Charles Edward Magoon during the occupation. They oversaw the election of José Miguel Gómez in 1909, and afterwards withdrew from the country.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA506295|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127053426/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA506295|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 27, 2011|title=Under the Shadow of the Big Stick: U.S. Intervention in Cuba, 1906–1909|last=Vitor II|first=MAJ Bruce A.|publisher=United States Army}}

{{See also|United States occupation of Nicaragua}}

Governor Juan José Estrada, member of the Conservative Party, led a revolt against President José Santos Zelaya, member of the Liberal Party reelected in 1906. This became what is known as the Estrada rebellion. The United States supported the conservative forces because Zelaya had wanted to work with Germany or Japan to build a new canal through the country. The U.S. controlled the Panama Canal and did not want competition from another country outside of the Americas. Thomas P Moffat, a US council{{Cite book|last=Musicant|first=Ivan|url=https://archive.org/details/bananawarshistor00musi|title=The Banana Wars: A History of United States Military Intervention in Latin America from the Spanish–American War to the Invasion of Panama|publisher=MacMillan Publishing|year=1990|isbn=978-0-02-588210-2|location=New York}} in Bluefields, Nicaragua, would give overt support, in conflict with the US trying to only give covert support. Direct intervention would be pushed by the secretary of state Philander C. Knox. Two Americans were executed by Zelaya for their participation with the conservatives. Seeing an opportunity the United States became directly involved in the rebellion and sent in troops, which landed on the Mosquito Coast. On December 14, 1909 Zelaya was forced to resign under diplomatic pressure from America and fled Nicaragua. Before Zelaya fled, he, along with the liberal assembly, chose José Madriz to lead Nicaragua. The U.S. refused to recognize Madriz. The conservatives eventually beat back the liberals and forced Madriz to resign. Estrada then became the president. Thomas Cleland Dawson was sent as a special agent to the country and determined that any election held would bring the liberals into power, so had Estrada set up a constituent assembly to elect him instead. In August 1910 Estrada became President of Nicaragua under U.S. recognition, agreeing to certain conditions from the U.S. After the intervention, the U.S. and Nicaragua signed a treaty on June 6, 1911.{{Cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87078082/1909-12-01/ed-1/seq-1/|title=The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908–1914, December 01, 1909, Image 1|last=Humanities|first=National Endowment for the|newspaper=The Citizen|date=1909-12-01|access-date=2019-12-01|issn=2166-7705}}{{Cite web|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/ip/108629.htm|title=US Intervention in Nicaragua 1911/1912|website=US Department of State|date=August 19, 2008}}Langley, Lester D. (1983). The Banana Wars: An Inner History of American Empire, 1900–1934. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

{{See also|United States occupation of Nicaragua}}

File:Nicaragua in its region.svg

The Taft administration sent troops into Nicaragua and occupied the country. When the Wilson administration came into power, they extended the stay and took complete financial and governmental control of the country, leaving a heavily armed legation. U.S. president Calvin Coolidge removed troops from the country, leaving a legation and Adolfo Diaz in charge of the country. Rebels ended up capturing the town with the legation and Diaz requested troops came back, which they did a few months after leaving. The U.S. government fought against rebels led by Augusto Cesar Sandino. Franklin D. Roosevelt pulled out because the U.S. could no longer afford to keep troops in the country due to the Great Depression. The second intervention in Nicaragua would become one of the longest wars in United States history. The United States left the Somoza family in charge, who killed Sandino in 1934.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bananawarshistor00musi|title=The Banana Wars: A History of United States Military Intervention in Latin America from the Spanish–American War to the Invasion of Panama|last=Musicant|first=Ivan|publisher=MacMillan Publishing|year=1990|isbn=978-0-02-588210-2|location=New York|url-access=registration}}

Henry Lane Wilson, U.S. ambassador to Mexico under William Howard Taft, actively supported the Ten Tragic Days coup which overthrew the democratically elected president, Francisco I. Madero. Soon after taking office, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson dismissed the ambassador and refused to recognize the Mexican government of Victoriano Huerta, who had seized power in the coup. This led to the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914 and continued instability in Mexico.

{{Main|United States occupation of Haiti}}

File:Haiti in its region.svg

The U.S. occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. U.S.-based banks had lent money to Haiti and the banks requested U.S. government intervention. In an example of "gunboat diplomacy", the U.S. sent its navy to intimidate to get its way.David Healy, "Gunboat Diplomacy in the Wilson Era: The U.S. Navy in Haiti, 1915–1916," (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976) Eventually, in 1917, the U.S. installed a new government and dictated the terms of a new Haitian constitution of 1917 that instituted changes that included an end to the prior ban on land ownership by non-Haitians. The Cacos were originally armed militias of formerly enslaved persons who rebelled and took control of mountainous areas following the Haitian Revolution in 1804. Such groups fought a guerrilla war against the U.S. occupation in what were known as the "Caco Wars."{{Cite journal |last=Hubert |first=Giles A. |date=1947 |title=War and the Trade Orientation of Haiti |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1053341 |journal=Southern Economic Journal |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=276–284 |doi=10.2307/1053341 |jstor=1053341 |issn=0038-4038}}

{{Main|United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924)}}

File:Dominican Republic in its region.svg

U.S. marines invaded the Dominican Republic and occupied it from 1916 to 1924, and this was preceded by US military interventions in 1903, 1904, and 1914. The US Navy installed its personnel in all key positions in government and controlled the Dominican military and police.{{cite book |editor=H. K. Hewitt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxNLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA239 |title=Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute |author=United States Naval Institute |publisher=The Lord Baltimore Press |location=Baltimore, MD |year=1879 |page=239}} Within a couple of days, President Juan Isidro Jimenes resigned.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/dominicanrepubli0000atki |url-access=registration |title=The Dominican Republic and the United States: From Imperialism to Transnationalism |publisher=Univ. of Georgia Press |author1=Atkins, G. Pope |author2=Larman Curtis Wilson |name-list-style=amp |year=1998 |location=Athens, GA |page=[https://archive.org/details/dominicanrepubli0000atki/page/49 49] |isbn=978-0-8203-1930-8}}

{{Main|United States in World War I}}

After the release of the Zimmermann Telegram the United States joined the First World War on April 6, 1917, declaring war on the German Empire, a monarchy.{{Cite web |title=U.S. Senate: 404 Error Page |url=https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/general/one_item_and_teasers/file_not_found.htm |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=www.senate.gov}} The Wilson Administration made abdication of the Kaiser and the creation of a German Republic a requirement of surrender. Woodrow Wilson had made U.S. policy to "Make the World Safe for Democracy". Germany surrendered November 11, 1918.{{Cite web|url=http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/armistice.htm|title=Armistice: The End of World War I,1918|year=2004|website=EyeWitness to History|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126000847/http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/armistice.htm|archive-date=November 26, 2018}} Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on November 28, 1918.{{Cite web|url=https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/abdication.htm|title=Primary Documents – Kaiser Wilhelm II's Abdication Proclamation, 28 November 1918|date=November 28, 1918|website=First World War.com}} While the United States did not ratify it, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 had much input from the United States. It mandated for Kaiser Wilhelm II to be removed from the government and tried, though the second part was never carried out.{{Cite web|url=https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/versailles.htm|title=Primary Documents – Treaty of Versailles, 28 June 1919|date=June 28, 1919|website=First World War.com}} Germany would then become the Weimar Republic, a liberal democracy. The United States signed the U.S.–German Peace Treaty in 1921, solidifying the agreements made previously to the rest of the Entente with the U.S.{{Cite web|url=https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/uspeacetreaty_germany.htm|title=Primary Documents – U.S. Peace Treaty with Germany, 25 August 1921|date=August 25, 1921|website=First World War.com}}

File:Austria Hungary ethnic.svg

On December 7, 1917, the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary, a monarchy, as part of World War I.[https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/image/HJRes169_WWI_Austria-Hungary.htm H.J.Res.169: Declaration of War with Austria-Hungary, WWI], United States Senate Austria-Hungary surrendered on November 3, 1918.{{Cite web|url=http://www.forost.ungarisches-institut.de/pdf/19181103-1.pdf|title=Armistice Convention with Austria-Hungary}} Austria became a republic and signed Treaty of Saint Germain in 1919 effectively dissolving Austria-Hungary.{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/saint-germain_treaty_of|title=Saint-Germain, Treaty of|website=International Encyclopedia of the First World War}} The Treaty disallowed Austria to ever unite with Germany. Even though the United States had much effect on the treaty it did not ratify it and instead signed the U.S.–Austrian Peace Treaty in 1921, solidifying their new borders and government to the United States.{{Cite web|url=https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/uspeacetreaty_austria.htm|title=Primary Documents – U.S. Peace Treaty with Austria, 24 August 1921|date=August 24, 1921|website=First World War.com}} After brief civil strife, the Kingdom of Hungary became a monarchy without a monarch, instead governed by Miklós Horthy as Regent. Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon, in 1920 with the Entente, without the United States.{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/trianon_treaty_of|title=Trianon, Treaty of|website=International Encyclopedia of the First World War}} They signed the U.S.–Hungarian Peace Treaty in 1921 solidifying their status and borders with the United States.{{Cite web|url=https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/uspeacetreaty_hungary.htm|title=Primary Documents – U.S. Peace Treaty with Hungary, 29 August 1921|date=August 29, 1921|website=First World War.com}}

{{Main|Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War}}

File:Russian civil war in the west.svg

In 1918, the U.S. military took part in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War to support the White movement and overthrow the Bolsheviks.{{Cite book|title=Genocide, War Crimes and the West: History and Complicity|last=Jones|first=Adam|year=2013|publisher=Zed Books |isbn=9781848136823|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GoJjDgAAQBAJ&q=%22united+states%22+%22Russian+Civil+War%22+%22to+overthrow+the+revolution%22&pg=PT148}} President Wilson agreed to send 5,000 United States Army troops in the campaign. This force, which became known as the "American North Russia Expeditionary Force"E.M. Halliday, When Hell Froze Over (New York City, NY, ibooks, inc., 2000), p. 44 (a.k.a. the Polar Bear Expedition) launched the North Russia Campaign from Arkhangelsk, while another 8,000 soldiers, organised as the American Expeditionary Force Siberia,Robert L. Willett, Russian Sideshow, pp. 166–167, 170 launched the Siberia intervention from Vladivostok.Beyer, Rick, "The Greatest Stories Never Told" 2003: A&E Television Networks / The History Channel, pp. 152–153, {{ISBN|0060014016}} The forces were withdrawn in 1920.A History of Russia, 7th Edition, Nichlas V. Riasanovsky & Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press, 2005.

{{Main|Military history of the United States during World War II}}

{{Main|Occupation of Japan}}

File:Surrender of Japan - USS Missouri.jpg prior to signing of the Instrument of Surrender]]

In December 1941, the US joined the Allies in war against the Empire of Japan, a monarchy. After the Allied victory, Japan was occupied by Allied forces under the command of American general Douglas MacArthur. In 1946, the Japanese Diet ratified a new Constitution of Japan that followed closely a 'model copy' prepared by MacArthur's command,Takemae, Eiji 2002, p. xxxvii. and was promulgated as an amendment to the old Prussian-style Meiji Constitution. The constitution renounced aggressive war and was accompanied by liberalization of many areas of Japanese life. While liberalizing life for most Japanese, the Allies tried many Japanese war criminals and executed some, while granting amnesty to the family of emperor Hirohito.Dower, John. 'Embracing Defeat. Penguin, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-14-028551-2}}. p. 246. The occupation was ended by the Treaty of San Francisco.

Following the United States invasion of Okinawa during the Pacific War, the U.S. installed the United States Military Government of the Ryukyu Islands. Pursuant to a treaty with the Japanese government (Message of Emperor), in 1950 the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands took over and ruled Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukyu Islands until 1972. During this "trusteeship rule", the U.S. built numerous military bases, including bases that operated nuclear weapons. U.S. rule was opposed by many local residents, creating the Ryukyu independence movement that struggled against U.S. rule.{{refn|{{Cite web |date=2016-08-15 |title=Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/260.html#260.12 |access-date=2016-09-09 |website=National Archives and Records Administration |at=260.12 Records of the U.S. Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR) 1945–72 |language=en-US}}|name="nationalarchives"}}

{{Main|Western Allied invasion of Germany|Allied-occupied Germany|Denazification}}

In December 1941, the United States joined the Allied campaign against Nazi Germany, a fascist dictatorship. The US took part in the Allied occupation and Denazification of the Western portion of Germany. Former Nazis were subjected to varying levels of punishment, depending on how the US assessed their levels of guilt. At the end of 1947, for example, the Allies held 90,000 Nazis in detention; another 1,900,000 were forbidden to work as anything but manual laborers.{{Cite web |title=Trumanlibrary.org |url=http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/marshall/large/documents/index.php?pagenumber=4&documentid=24&documentdate=1947-02-28&studycollectionid=mp&nav=OK |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241130104540/https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/marshall/large/documents/index.php?pagenumber=4&documentid=24&documentdate=1947-02-28&studycollectionid=mp&nav=OK |archive-date=2024-11-30 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=www.trumanlibrary.org}} As Germans took more and more responsibility for Germany, they pushed for an end to the denazification process, and the Americans allowed this. In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany, a parliamentary democracy in West Germany was formed.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Formation of the Federal Republic of Germany|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/Formation-of-the-Federal-Republic-of-Germany#ref297742|access-date=March 11, 2019|encyclopedia=Britannica}} The main denazification process came to an end with amnesty laws passed in 1951.{{cite book|last=Art|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/politicsnazipast00artd|url-access=limited|title=The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521673242|pages=[https://archive.org/details/politicsnazipast00artd/page/n68 53]–55}}

{{Main|Italian Civil War|Liberation of Italy}}

In July–August 1943, the US participated in the Allied invasion of Sicily, spearheaded by the U.S. Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, in which over 2,000 US servicemen were killed,Hart, Basil H. Liddel (1970). A History of the Second World War. London, Weidenfeld Nicolson. p. 627. initiating the Italian Campaign which conquered Italy from the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and its Nazi German allies. Mussolini was arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III, provoking a civil war. The king appointed Pietro Badoglio as new Prime Minister. Badoglio stripped away the final elements of Fascist rule by banning the National Fascist Party, then signed an armistice with the Allied armed forces. The Royal Italian Army outside of the peninsula itself collapsed; its occupied and annexed territories fell under German control. Italy capitulated to the Allies on 3 September 1943. The northern half of the country was occupied by the Germans with help from Italian fascists and made a collaborationist puppet state, while the south was governed by monarchist forces, which fought for the Allied cause as the Italian Co-Belligerent Army.Gianni Oliva, I vinti e i liberati: 8 settembre 1943-25 aprile 1945 : storia di due anni, Mondadori, 1994.

{{Main|Liberation of France|Operation Goodwood|Operation Cobra}}

File:The Liberation of Paris, 25 - 26 August 1944 HU66477.jpg and his entourage proudly stroll down the Champs-Élysées to Notre-Dame Cathedral for a Te Deum ceremony following Paris's liberation on 25 August 1944.]]

British, Canadian and United States forces were critical participants in Operation Goodwood and Operation Cobra, leading to a military breakout that ended the Nazi occupation of France. The actual Liberation of Paris was accomplished by French forces. The French formed the Provisional Government of the French Republic in 1944, leading to the formation of the French Fourth Republic in 1946.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

The liberation of France is celebrated regularly up to the present day.{{Cite web|url=http://www.senat.fr/evenement/60eme_liberation/liberation_paris.html|title=60ème Anniversaire de la Libération - La Libération de Paris - Sénat|website=www.senat.fr|access-date=March 23, 2019|archive-date=March 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319080623/http://www.senat.fr/evenement/60eme_liberation/liberation_paris.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sortiraparis.com/scenes/concert-musique/articles/75053-bal-de-celebration-des-70-ans-de-la-liberation-de-paris-sur-le-parvis-de-lhotel-|title=Bal de célébration des 70 ans de la libération de Paris sur le Parvis de l'Hôtel de Ville|website=www.sortiraparis.com}}

{{See also|Free France#Liberation of France}}

{{Main|Liberation of Belgium}}

File:117th Infantry North Carolina NG at St. Vith 1945.jpg

In the wake of the 1940 invasion, Germany established the Reichskommissariat of Belgium and Northern France to govern Belgium. United States, Canadian, British, and other Allied forces ended the Nazi occupation of most of Belgium in September 1944. The Belgian Government in Exile under Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot returned on 8 September.{{cite journal|title='A Modern Liberation'. Belgium and the Start of the American Century, 1944–1946|author=Peter Schrijvers|date=2012|journal=European Journal of American Studies|volume=7|issue=2|doi=10.4000/ejas.9695|doi-access=free}}

In December, American forces suffered over 80,000 casualties defending Belgium from a German counterattack in the Battle of the Bulge. By February 1945, all of Belgium was in Allied hands.{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-bulge|title=Battle of The Bulge – HistoryNet|website=www.historynet.com}}

The year 1945 was chaotic. Pierlot resigned, and Achille Van Acker of the Belgian Socialist Party formed a new government. There were riots over the Royal Question—the return of King Leopold III. Although the war continued, Belgians were again in control of their own country.{{cite book|last=Conway|first=Martin|title=The Sorrows of Belgium: Liberation and Political Reconstruction, 1944–1947|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-969434-1|year=2012}}

{{Main|Operation Market Garden|Operation Plunder}}

During the Nazi occupation, the Netherlands was governed by the Reichskommissariat Niederlande, headed by Arthur Seyss-Inquart. British, Canadian, and American forces liberated portions of the Netherlands in September 1944. However, after the failure of Operation Market Garden, the liberation of the largest cities had to wait until the last weeks of the European theatre of World War II. British and American forces crossed the Rhine on 23 March 1945; Canadian forces in their wake then entered the Netherlands from the east. The remaining German forces in the Netherlands surrendered on 5 May, which is celebrated as Liberation Day in the Netherlands. Queen Wilhelmina returned on 2 May; elections were held in 1946, leading to a new government headed by Prime Minister Louis Beel.{{cite book|last=Saunders|first=Tim|title=Operation Plunder|publisher=Pen & Sword|series=Battleground Europe|year=2006|location=Barnsley, UK|isbn=1-84415-221-9}}{{cite web|title=Operation Market Garden|url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/market-garden|work=National Army Museum|access-date=April 10, 2019}}

{{Main|Philippines Campaign (1944–1945)|Commonwealth of the Philippines}}

File:Douglas MacArthur lands Leyte1.jpg, President Osmeña and staff land at Palo, Leyte on October 20, 1944]]

United States landings in 1944 ended the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.{{cite book|title=Triumph in the Philippines: The War in the Pacific|last=Smith|first=Robert Ross|publisher=University Press of the Pacific|year=2005|isbn=1-4102-2495-3}} After the Japanese were defeated and the puppet regime that was controlling the Second Philippine Republic was overthrown, the United States fulfilled a promise by granting independence to the Philippines. Sergio Osmeña formed the government of the restored Commonwealth of the Philippines, overseeing democratic transition to the fully sovereign Third Philippine Republic in 1946.{{cite web |title=Philippine History |url=http://pinas.dlsu.edu.ph/history/history.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822045537/http://pinas.dlsu.edu.ph/history/history.html |archive-date=August 22, 2006 |access-date=February 11, 2007 |publisher=DLSU-Manila}}

{{Main|Allied-occupied Austria}}

Austria was annexed to Germany in the 1938 Anschluss. As German citizens, many Austrians fought on the side of Germany during World War II. After the Allied victory, the Allies treated Austria as a victim of Nazi aggression, rather than as a perpetrator. The United States Marshall Plan provided aid.Sorel, Eliot, and Pier Carlo Padoan. The Marshall Plan: Lessons Learned for the 21st Century. Paris: OECD, 2008. 15–16. Print.

The 1955 Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a free, democratic, and sovereign state. It was signed by representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. It provided for the withdrawal of all occupying troops and guaranteed Austrian neutrality in the Cold War.{{Cite web|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/lw/107185.htm|title=Austrian State Treaty, 1955|website=2001-2009.state.gov|access-date=2017-06-15|date=July 18, 2008}}

{{Main|United States Army Military Government in Korea|First Republic of Korea|Syngman Rhee}}

The Empire of Japan surrendered to the United States in August 1945, ending the Japanese rule of Korea. Under the leadership of Lyuh Woon-Hyung People's Committees throughout Korea formed to coordinate transition to Korean independence. On August 28, 1945 these committees formed the temporary national government of Korea, naming it the People's Republic of Korea (PRK) a couple of weeks later.Hart-Landsberg, Martin, Korea: Division, Reunification, & U.S. Foreign Policy, Monthly Review Press (1998), p. 65Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945–1947, Princeton University Press (1981), p. 88 On September 8, 1945, the United States government landed forces in Korea and thereafter established the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGK) to govern Korea south of the 38th parallel. The USAMGK outlawed the PRK committees which by that point had been co-opted by the communists.Cumings, Bruce, "The Autumn Uprising," The Origins of the Korean War, Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945–1947, Princeton University Press(1981){{cite news|work=The Korea Times|title=Korea Neglects Memory of Provisional Government|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/03/180_180890.html|archive-date=January 8, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108190044/http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/03/180_180890.html|date=June 15, 2015}}

In May 1948, Syngman Rhee, who had previously lived in the United States, won the 1948 South Korean presidential election, which had been boycotted by most other politicians and in which voting was limited to property owners and tax payers or, in smaller towns, to town elders voting for everyone else.{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | url = https://archive.org/details/makingmodernkore00buzo | url-access = limited | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge| location = London | isbn = 0-415-23749-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingmodernkore00buzo/page/n76 66], 69}}{{cite book|last1=Cumings|first1=Bruce|title=The Korean War: A History|url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory00cumi_528|url-access=limited|date=2010|page=[https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory00cumi_528/page/n110 111]|publisher=Modern Library |isbn=9780679643579}} Syngman Rhee, backed by the U.S. government, set up authoritarian rule that coordinated closely with the business sector and lasted until Rhee's overthrow in 1961, which led to a similarly authoritarian regime that would last ultimately until the late 1980s.{{Cite web |last=McDonald |first=Hamish |date=2008-11-15 |title=South Korea owns up to brutal past |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/south-korea-owns-up-to-brutal-past-20081115-gdt2yw.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}

{{Main|Greek Civil War}}

File:Greece in its region.svg

Greece had been under Axis occupation since 1941. Its government-in-exile, unelected and loyal to King George II, was based in Cairo. By the Summer of 1944, communist guerrillas, then known as the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), who had been armed by the Western powers, exploiting the gradual collapse of the Axis, claimed to have liberated nearly all of Greece outside of Athens from Axis occupation, while also attacking and defeating rival non-Communist partisan groups, forming a rival unelected government, the Political Committee of National Liberation. On 12 August 1944, German forces retreated from the Athens area two days ahead of British landings there, ending the occupation.Bamberry, Chris, The Second World War: A Marxist History, 2014, Pluto Press (p. 182) {{ISBN?}}

The British Armed Forces together with Greek forces under control of the Greek government (now a government of national unity led by Konstantinos Tsaldaris, elected in the 1946 Greek legislative election boycotted by the Communist Party of Greece) then fought for control of the country in the Greek Civil War against the communists, who at that time were self-proclaimed as the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE). By early 1947, the British government could no longer afford the huge cost of financing the war against DSE, and pursuant to the October 1944 Percentages Agreement between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, Greece was to remain part of the Western sphere of influence. Accordingly, the British requested the U.S. government to step in and the U.S. flooded the country with military equipment, military advisers and weapons.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/truman00mccu|title=Truman|last=McCullough|first=David|date=1992|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|isbn=9780671456542|url-access=registration}}{{rp|553–554}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/grandexpectation00patt|title=Grand Expectations|last=Patterson|first=James T.|date=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-507680-6|url-access=registration}}{{rp|129}}{{Cite web |title=Chapter 5. 1946–1949: Emphýlios » Witness of the Mountains |url=https://dangerouscitizens.columbia.edu/1946-1949/witness-of-the/1/index.html |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=wayback.archive-it.org}}{{Cite journal |last1=Iatrides |first1=John O. |last2=Rizopoulos |first2=Nicholas X. |date=2000 |title=The International Dimension of the Greek Civil War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40209681 |journal=World Policy Journal |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=87–103 |doi=10.1215/07402775-2000-2009 |jstor=40209681 |issn=0740-2775}} With increased U.S. military aid, by September 1949 the government eventually won, fully restoring the Kingdom of Greece.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/fromcolonytosupe00herr|title=From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776|last=Herring|first=George C.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-19-507822-0|location=New York}}{{rp|616–617}}

{{Main|Costa Rican Civil War}}

Christian socialist medic Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia of the National Republican Party was elected in 1944 and promoted general social reforms.{{cite web |last1=Lorenz |first1=Christopher Michael |title=COSTA RICA AND THE 1948 REVOLUTION DECEMBER 7, 2001 ETHICS OF DEVELOPMENT IN A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT TERM PAPER |url=https://elespiritudel48.org/costa-rica-and-the-1948-revolution/ |access-date=20 December 2017 |website=El Espíritu del 48|date=March 17, 2015 }} In the 1948 election, the opposition won the presidency but lost the Congress. This prompted the Congress to annul the results of the presidential election but not the results of the congressional election; on the same day as the annulment, the leader of the opposition campaign was assassinated.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CKKDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA129 |title=Crisis in Costa Rica: The 1948 Revolution - Page 129 |last=Bell |first=John Patrick |year=2014 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=9780292772588 |page=135 |accessdate=3 December 2022}} These events led to the short-lived Costa Rican Civil War of 1948, in which the US supported the opposition, and Somoza-ran Nicaragua supported Calderón. The war ended Calderón's government and led to the short de facto rule of 18 months by José Figueres Ferrer. However, Figueres also held some left-leaning ideas and continued the process of social reform.{{cite web |title=How Costa Rica Lost Its Military |url=https://bailey83221.livejournal.com/45020.html |access-date=20 December 2017 |website=bailey83221.livejournal.com}} After the war, democracy was quickly restored and a two-party system encompassed by the parties of the Calderonistas and Figueristas developed in the country for nearly 60 years.

{{See also|Albanian Subversion}}

File:LocationAlbania.svg

Albania was in chaos after World War II and the country was not as focused on peacetime conferences in comparison to other European nations, while having suffered high casualties.{{Cite web|url=https://ww2db.com/country/Albania|title=Albania in World War II|website=World War II Database}} It was threatened by its larger neighbors with annexation. After Yugoslavia dropped out of the Eastern Bloc, the small country of Albania was geographically isolated from the rest of the Eastern Bloc. The United States and United Kingdom took advantage of the situation and recruited anti-communist Albanians who had fled after the USSR invaded. The US and UK formed the Free Albania National Committee, made up of many of the emigres. Recruited Albanians were trained by the U.S. and U.K. and infiltrated the country multiple times. Eventually, the operation was found out and many of the agents fled, were executed, or were tried. The operation would become a failure. The operation was declassified in 2006, due to the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act and is now available in the National Archives.{{Cite web|url=http://www.albca.com/aclis/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=436|title=Albanian Dossier: CIA and British MI6 in Albania|website=Albanian Canadian League Information Service|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928174549/http://www.albca.com/aclis/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=436|archive-date=September 28, 2007}}Within Record Group 263. A user's guide is available to assist researchers in locating the documents.File:Syria in its region (claimed).svg

{{Main|March 1949 Syrian coup d'état}}

The government of Shukri al-Quwatli, reelected in 1948, was overthrown by a junta led by the Syrian Army chief of staff at the time, Husni al-Za'im, who became President of Syria on April 11, 1949. Za'im had extensive connections to CIA operatives,{{Cite web|url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/34057/h-diplo-roundtable-america%E2%80%99s-great-game-cia%E2%80%99s-secret-arabists-and|title=H-Diplo Roundtable on "America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East" {{!}} H-Diplo {{!}} H-Net|website=networks.h-net.org|access-date=2019-03-05}} and promptly approved the construction of America's TAPLINE oil pipeline in Syria, considered an important Cold War project and blocked by Quwatly's pre-coup government.{{cite book |last1=Little |first1=Douglas |title=American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945 |date=2008 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |page=54 |edition=3rd |isbn=978-0807858981 |quote=Next door in Damascus, however, neither U.S. diplomats nor businessmen could make any headway with President Shukri Quwatly, a militant Arab nationalist who believed that TAPLINE needed Syria much more than Syria needed TAPLINE. Frustrated by two years of wrangling over the pipeline, the Truman administration secretly encouraged Syrian army chief of staff Hosni Zaim to overthrow the Quwatly regime on 31 March 1949. Six weeks later Zaim granted ARAMCO its exclusive right of way, removing “the last major barrier to the building of the long-pending Trans-Arabian pipeline.”}} The exact nature of U.S. involvement in the coup remains controversial.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RI5AAAAQBAJ|title=America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Making of the Modern Middle East|last=Wilford|first=Hugh|publisher=Basic Books|year=2013|isbn=9780465019656|pages=101, 103|quote=Predictably, this version of events has proven highly controversial ... In fact, most of the available evidence indicates that it was the Kurd himself [Za'im] who took the initiative in plotting his coup.}}{{cite journal|last=Rathmell|first=Andrew|date=January 1996|title=Copeland and Za'im: Re-evaluating the Evidence|journal=Intelligence and National Security|volume=11|issue=1|pages=89–105|doi=10.1080/02684529608432345}} cf. {{cite journal|last=Quandt|first=William B.|author-link=William B. Quandt|date=January 28, 2009|title=Capsule Review: Secret War in the Middle East: The Covert Struggle for Syria, 1949-1961|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/1996-03-01/secret-war-middle-east-covert-struggle-syria-1949-1961|journal=Foreign Affairs|volume=75 |issue=March/April 1996 |access-date=2019-03-04|quote=For example, the author does not believe that the Husni Zaim coup of 1949 was primarily the work of the cia, despite such claims by cia operatives; he does, however, provide considerable detail on the plotting against Syria by Turkey, Iraq, and the United States in 1957.}}{{cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/20/mapped-the-7-governments-the-u-s-has-overthrown/|title=Mapped: The 7 Governments the U.S. Has Overthrown|last=Stuster|first=J. Dana|date=2013-08-20|work=Foreign Policy|access-date=2019-03-04|quote=Despite continued speculation about the CIA's role in a 1949 coup to install a military government in Syria, the ouster of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh is the earliest coup of the Cold War that the U.S. government has acknowledged.}}

File:Myanmar in its region.svg

{{See also|Kuomintang in Burma#CIA assistance and opium trade}}

The Chinese Civil War had recently ended, with the communists winning and the nationalists losing. The nationalists retreated to areas such as Taiwan and north Burma.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WYSAAAAQBAJ |title=Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War |publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc. |year=2013 |isbn=978-0810878730 |editor1-last=Lew |editor1-first=Christopher R. |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=3 |editor2-last=Leung |editor2-first=Pak-Wah}}

Operation Paper began in late 1950{{cite web | author=Peter Dale Scott | title=Operation Paper: The United States and Drugs in Thailand and Burma | website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus | date=2010-11-01 | url=https://apjjf.org/-Peter-Dale-Scott/3436/article.html | access-date=2021-08-27}} or early 1951 following Chinese involvement in the Korean War.{{Cite journal |last=Kaufman |first=Victor S. |date=2001 |title=Trouble in the Golden Triangle: The United States, Taiwan and the 93rd Nationalist Division |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3451165 |journal=The China Quarterly |issue=166 |pages=440–456 |jstor=3451165 |issn=0305-7410}}

Operation Paper entailed CIA plans used by CIA military advisors on the ground in Burma to assist Kuomintang incursions into Western China over several years, under the command of General Li Mi, with Kuomintang leadership hoping to eventually retake China, despite opposition from the US State Department.{{Cite journal |last=Kaufman |first=Victor S. |date=2001 |title=Trouble in the Golden Triangle: The United States, Taiwan and the 93rd Nationalist Division |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3451165 |journal=The China Quarterly |issue=166 |pages=440–456 |jstor=3451165 |issn=0305-7410}} However, each attempted invasion was repelled by the Chinese army. The Kuomintang took control of large swaths of Burma, while the government of Burma complained repeatedly of the military invasion to the United Nations.{{Cite web |last=L |first=Aaron |date=2010-11-01 |title=Operation Paper: The United States and Drugs in Thailand and Burma 米国とタイ・ビルマの麻薬 |url=https://apjjf.org/Peter-Dale-Scott/3436/article |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |language=en-US}}

On secret flights from Thailand to Burma, CAT aircraft flown by pilots hired by the CIA brought American weapons and other supplies to the Kuomintang and on return flights the CAT aircraft transported opium from the Kuomintang to Chinese organized crime drug traffickers in Bangkok, Thailand.William R. Corson, The Armies of Ignorance: The Rise of the American Intelligence Empire (New York: Dial Press/James Wade, 1977), 320–22

{{Main|Egyptian revolution of 1952|Project FF}}

In February 1952, following January's riots in Cairo amid widespread nationalist discontent over the continued British occupation of the Suez Canal and Egypt's defeat in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr. was dispatched by the State Department to meet with Farouk I of the Kingdom of Egypt. American policy at that time was to convince Farouk to introduce reforms that would weaken the appeal of Egyptian radicals and stabilize Farouk's grip on power. The U.S. was notified in advance of the successful July coup led by nationalist and anti-communist Egyptian military officers (the "Free Officers") that replaced the Egyptian monarchy with the Republic of Egypt under the leadership of Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. CIA officer Miles Copeland Jr. recounted in his memoirs that Roosevelt helped coordinate the coup during three prior meetings with the plotters (including Nasser, the future Egyptian president); this has not been confirmed by declassified documents but is partially supported by circumstantial evidence. Roosevelt and several of the Egyptians said to have been present in these meetings denied Copeland's account; another U.S. official, William Lakeland, said its veracity is open to question. Hugh Wilford notes that "whether or not the CIA dealt directly with the Free Officers prior to their July 1952 coup, there was extensive secret American-Egyptian contact in the months after the revolution."{{cite book|last=Wilford|first=Hugh|title=America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Making of the Modern Middle East|publisher=Basic Books|year=2013|isbn=9780465019656|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americasgreatgam0000wilf/page/135 135–139]|url=https://archive.org/details/americasgreatgam0000wilf/page/135}}{{cite book |last1=Holland |first1=Matthew F. |title=America and Egypt: From Roosevelt to Eisenhower |date=1996 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-275-95474-1 |pages=26–29 }}

{{Main|Operation PBFortune}}

Operation PBFortune, also known as Operation Fortune, was an aborted covert United States operation to overthrow Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz in 1952. The operation was authorized by U.S. President Harry Truman and planned by the Central Intelligence Agency. The plan involved providing weapons to the exiled Guatemalan military officer Carlos Castillo Armas, who was to lead an invasion from Nicaragua.{{sfn|Moulton|2013|pp=47–49}}

{{Main|1953 Iranian coup d'état}}

File:Iran in its region.svg

Since 1941, Iran was a constitutional monarchy ruled by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. From the discovery of oil in Iran in the late nineteenth century major powers exploited the weakness of the Iranian government to obtain concessions that many believed failed to give Iran a fair share of the profits. During World War II, the UK, the USSR and the US all became involved in Iranian affairs, including the joint Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. Iranian officials began to notice that British taxes were increasing while royalties to Iran declined. By 1948, Britain received substantially more revenue from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) than Iran. Negotiations to meet this and other Iranian concerns exacerbated rather than eased tensions.{{cite Q|Q98960655}}.

On March 15, 1951 the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, passed legislation championed by reformist politician Mohammad Mosaddegh to nationalize the AIOC. Fifteen months later, Mosadegh was elected Prime Minister by the Majlis. International business concerns then boycotted oil from the nationalized Iranian oil industry. This contributed to concerns in Britain and the US that Mosadegh might be a communist. He was reportedly supported by the Communist Tudeh Party.{{cite web|title=Mossaddegh: Eccentric nationalist begets strange history|url=http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=coldwar-imperialism/iran53/mossaddegh-eccentric-nationalist-begets-strange-history.txt|date=16 April 2000|publisher=NewsMine|access-date=13 June 2014}}{{cite news |last=Fadaee |first=Simin |date=2023-08-18 |title=70 years ago, an Anglo-US coup condemned Iran to decades of oppression – but now the people are fighting back |url=http://theconversation.com/70-years-ago-an-anglo-us-coup-condemned-iran-to-decades-of-oppression-but-now-the-people-are-fighting-back-211698 |access-date=2023-08-18 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}

The CIA began supporting{{how|what sort of support?|date=January 2024}} 18 of their favorite candidates in the 1952 Iranian legislative election, which Mosaddegh suspended after urban deputies loyal to him were elected.{{cite interview|last=Abrahamian|first=Ervand|interviewer=Amy Goodman and Juan González|title=Newly Declassified Documents Confirm U.S. Backed 1953 Coup in Iran Over Oil Contracts|url=https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/24/newly_declassified_documents_confirm_us_backed|access-date=24 July 2017|publisher=Democracy Now!|date=24 July 2017}} The new parliament gave Mosaddegh emergency powers which weakened the power of the Shah, and there was a constitutional struggle over the roles of the Shah and prime minister. Britain strongly backed the Shah, while the US officially remained neutral. However, America's position shifted in late 1952 with the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as U.S. president. The CIA launched Operation Ajax, directed by Kermit Roosevelt Jr., with help from Norman Darbyshire, to remove Mosaddegh by persuading the Shah to replace him, using diplomacy and bribery. The 1953 Iranian coup d'état (known in Iran as the "28 Mordad coup")The date of the coup in the Persian calendar. was instigated by the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom such as MI6 (under the name "Operation Boot") and the United States (under the name "TPAJAX Project").Clandestine Service History: Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran, Mar. 1954: p. iii.{{cite book |title=Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization |year=2007 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-347-6 |pages=775 of 1082 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQnpQNKeKKAC&pg=PA775}}{{cite web|work=The New York Times|date=2000|title=Secrets of History: The United States in Iran|url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130125113825/http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html|archive-date=January 25, 2013|first=James|last=Risen}}{{cite news|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/iran/2018-02-12/cia-declassifies-more-zendebad-shah-internal-study-1953-iran-coup|title=CIA declassifies more of "Zendebad, Shah!" – internal study of 1953 Iran coup|first1=Danielle|last1=Siegel|first2=Malcolm|last2=Byrne|publisher=National Security Archive|date=February 12, 2018}}

The coup saw the transition of Pahlavi from a constitutional monarch to an authoritarian, who relied heavily on United States government support. That support dissipated during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, as his own security forces refused to shoot into non-violent crowds.{{cite book |title=U.S. Foreign Policy in Perspective: Clients, Enemies and Empire|last1=Sylvan|first1=David|last2=Majeski|first2=Stephen|year=2009|page=121|isbn=978-0-415-70134-1|location=London|publisher=Routledge|oclc=259970287}} In August 2013, the CIA admitted its role in the coup "as an act of U.S. foreign policy."{{cite news|last=Byrne|first=Malcolm|date=August 19, 2013|title=CIA Admits It Was Behind Iran's Coup|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/19/cia-admits-it-was-behind-irans-coup/|access-date=August 19, 2021|quote='[T]he military coup that overthrew Mosadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy,' the history reads...TPAJAX was the CIA’s codename for the overthrow plot, which relied on local collaborators at every stage.|website=Foreign Policy|language=en-US}}

{{Main|1954 Guatemalan coup d'état}}

{{see also|Guatemalan Civil War}}

In a 1954 CIA operation code named Operation PBSuccess, the U.S. government executed a coup that successfully overthrew the government of President Jacobo Árbenz, elected in 1950, and installed Carlos Castillo Armas, the first of a line of right-wing dictators, in its place.{{cite book |last=Blakeley |first=Ruth |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/ |title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-68617-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA92 92]}}Coatsworth, John. H. "Central America and the United States: The Clients and the Colossus," Twayne Publishers, New York: 1994, pp. 58, 226{{cite book |title=CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents |publisher=National Security Archive |editor-last=Kornbluh |editor-first=Peter |series=National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book |place=Washington, D.C. |chapter=overview |editor-last2=Doyle |editor-first2=Kate |chapter-url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124234222/http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/index.html |archive-date=November 24, 2016 |url-status=live}} The American government and CIA were motivated by the ideological aim of containment, and by fear of anti-labor exploitation laws reducing profits to the United Fruit Company, which was well connected to the CIA and the Eisenhower administration.{{Cite web |title=(DELETED) MEMO TO JAMES LAY FROM (DELETED) RE GUATEMALA 1954 COUP {{!}} CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov) |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/0000915072 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918112146/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/0000915072 |archive-date=September 18, 2016 |access-date=2019-04-29 |website=www.cia.gov}}{{cite book |last1=Talbot |first1=David |title=The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government |date=2025 |publisher=Harper Collins |pages=251–266 |isbn=978-0-06-227621-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MeE_BgAAQBAJ |access-date=4 April 2024}} In planning the operation, the CIA would become involved in assisting the new regime in the killing of perceived opponents, and lied to the president of the United States when briefing him regarding the number of casualties.{{cite book |last=Blakeley |first=Ruth |date=2009 |title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/ |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA92&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q&f=false 92] |isbn=978-0-415-68617-4}}{{cite book |title=CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents |publisher=National Security Archive |editor-last=Kornbluh |editor-first=Peter |series=National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book |place=Washington, D.C. |chapter=Document 5 |editor-last2=Doyle |editor-first2=Kate |chapter-url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124234222/http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/index.html |archive-date=November 24, 2016 |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last1=Malkin |first1=Elisabeth |date=October 21, 2011 |title=An Apology for a Guatemalan Coup, 57 Years Later (Published 2011) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/americas/an-apology-for-a-guatemalan-coup-57-years-later.html |work=The New York Times}} The perceived success of the operation made it a model for future CIA operations.

{{See also|CIA activities in Syria}}

In 1956, Operation Straggle was a failed coup plot against Nasserist civilian politician Sabri al-Asali. The CIA made plans for a coup for late October 1956 to topple the Syrian government. The plan entailed takeover by the Syrian military of key cities and border crossings.Saunders, Bonnie, "The United States and Arab Nationalism: The Syrian Case, 1953–1960," (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996), p. 49{{cite web|last1=Sylvan |first1=David |last2=Majeski |first2=Stephen |title=U.S. Foreign Policy in Perspective: Clients, Enemies and Empire |place=New York |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |url=http://us-foreign-policy-perspective.org/index.php?id=328&L=0 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401144440/http://us-foreign-policy-perspective.org/index.php?id=328&L=0 |archive-date=April 1, 2018 }}{{cite book|last=Blum|first=William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IbQvd13uToC|title=Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II|year=2003|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-84277-369-7|pages=86–87|language=en}} The plan was postponed when Israel invaded Egypt in October 1956 and U.S. planners thought their operation would be unsuccessful at a time when the Arab world is fighting "Israeli aggression." The operation was uncovered and American plotters had to flee the country.Saunders, Bonnie, "The United States and Arab Nationalism: The Syrian Case, 1953–1960," (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996), p. 51

In 1957, Operation Wappen was a second coup plan against Syria, planned by the CIA's Kermit Roosevelt Jr.. It called for assassination of key senior Syrian officials, staged military incidents on the Syrian border to be blamed on Syria and then to be used as pretext for invasion by Iraqi and Jordanian troops, an intense U.S. propaganda campaign targeting the Syrian population, and "sabotage, national conspiracies and various strong-arm activities" to be blamed on Damascus.{{cite news|title=Documents show White House and No 10 conspired over oil-fuelled invasion plan|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/sep/27/uk.syria1|last=Fenton|first=Ben|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603144326/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/sep/27/uk.syria1|work=The Guardian|date=September 26, 2003|archive-date=June 3, 2015}}{{Cite book |last=Prados |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JokJ7K3b5fMC&pg=PA164 |title=Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA |date=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-56663-574-5 |language=en}}Jones, Matthew. "The 'Preferred Plan': The Anglo-American Working Group Report on Covert Action in Syria, 1957," Intelligence and National Security 19(3), Autumn 2004, pp. 404–406 This operation failed when Syrian military officers paid off with millions of dollars in bribes to carry out the coup revealed the plot to Syrian intelligence. The U.S. Department of State denied accusation of a coup attempt and along with US media accused Syria of being a "satellite" of the USSR.{{Cite book |last=Dorril |first=Stephen |url=https://archive.org/details/mi6insidecovertw00dorr |title=MI6 : inside the covert world of Her Majesty's secret intelligence service |date=2002 |publisher=New York : Simon & Schuster |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-7432-1778-1}}Blum, William, "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II," (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995), pp. 88–91

There was also a third plan in 1957, called "The Preferred Plan". Alongside Britain's MI6, the CIA planned to support and arm several uprisings. However, this plan was never carried out.

{{See also|Permesta|CIA activities in Indonesia}}

File:Indonesia in its region.svg

Starting in 1957, Eisenhower ordered the CIA to overthrow Sukarno. The CIA supported the failed Permesta Rebellion by rebel Indonesian military officers in February 1958. CIA pilots, such as Allen Lawrence Pope, piloted planes operated by CIA front organization Civil Air Transport (CAT) that bombed civilian and military targets in Indonesia. The CIA instructed CAT pilots to target commercial shipping in order to frighten foreign merchant ships away from Indonesian waters, thereby weakening the Indonesian economy and thus destabilizing the government of Indonesia. The CIA aerial bombardment resulted in the sinking of several commercial shipsConboy, Kenneth; Morrison, James (1999) "Feet to the Fire CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957–1958," (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999), p. 155, {{ISBN|1557501939}} and the bombing of a marketplace that killed many civilians.Conboy, Kenneth; Morrison, James (1999) "Feet to the Fire CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957–1958," (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1999), p. 131, {{ISBN|1557501939}} Pope was shot down and captured on 18 May 1958, revealing U.S. involvement, which Eisenhower publicly denied at the time. The rebellion was ultimately defeated by 1961.Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1994, "CIA's Covert Indonesia Operation in the 1950s Acknowledged by U.S.," https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-29-mn-56121-story.html [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-29-mn-56121-story.html]Stone, Oliver and Kuznick, Peter, "The Untold History of the United States" (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2012), pp. 347–348

{{See also|CIA activities in Iraq}}

File:Iraq in its region.svg

Concerned about the influence of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) in Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim's administration, President Eisenhower questioned that "it might be good policy to help [Gamal Abdel Nasser] take over in Iraq," recommending that Nasser be provided with "money and support", thus the U.S. "moved into increasingly close alignment with Egypt with regard to Qasim and Iraq."{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |pages=51–53}} After Iraq withdrew from the anti-Soviet alliance—the Baghdad Pact—the United States National Security Council (NSC) proposed various contingencies for preventing a communist takeover of the country,{{cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7 |pages=18–20}} and "soon developed a detailed plan for assisting nationalist elements committed to the overthrow of Qasim." The U.S. also "approached Nasser to discuss 'parallel measures' that could be taken by the two countries against Iraq."{{cite book|last=Osgood|first=Kenneth|title=America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics|chapter=Eisenhower and regime change in Iraq: the United States and the Iraqi Revolution of 1958|publisher=Routledge|year=2009|isbn=9781134036721|pages=21–23}}

During a NSC meeting on September 24, two representatives from the State Department urged a cautious approach, while the other twelve representatives, namely from the CIA and the Department of Defense, "strong[ly] pitch[ed] for a more active policy toward Iraq." One CIA representative noted that there is a "small stockpile [of weapons] in the area," and that the CIA "could support elements in Jordan and the UAR to help Iraqis filter back to Iraq." That same day, the NSC would also prepare a study which called for "covert assistance to Egyptian efforts to topple Qasim," and for "grooming political leadership for a successor government." Bryan R. Gibson writes that "there is no documentation that ties the United States directly to any of Nasser's many covert attempts to overthrow the Qasim regime."{{cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7 |pages=30}} However, Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt states that the U.S. issued its "tacit support for Egyptian efforts to bring [Qasim's government] down," and Kenneth Osgood writes that "circumstantial evidence in declassified records suggests that ... [t]he United States was working with Nasser on some level, even if the precise nature of that collaboration is not known." Contemporary documents pertaining to the CIA's operations in Iraq have remained classified or heavily redacted, thus "allow[ing] for plausible deniability."{{cite book|last=Osgood|first=Kenneth|title=America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics|chapter=Eisenhower and regime change in Iraq: the United States and the Iraqi Revolution of 1958|publisher=Routledge|year=2009|isbn=9781134036721|pages=16|quote=The documentary record is filled with holes. A remarkable volume of material remains classified, and those records that are available are obscured by redactions – large blacked-out sections that allow for plausible deniability. While it is difficult to know exactly what actions were taken to destabilize or overthrow Qasim's regime, we can discern fairly clearly what was on the planning table. We also can see clues as to what was authorized.}}

Richard Sale of United Press International (UPI), citing former U.S. diplomat and intelligence officials, Adel Darwish, and other experts, reported that the unsuccessful October 7, 1959 assassination attempt on Qasim involving a young Saddam Hussein and other Ba'athist conspirators was a collaboration between the CIA and Egyptian intelligence.{{cite web |authorlink=Richard Sale (journalist) |last=Sale |first=Richard |url=https://www.upi.com/Exclusive-Saddam-key-in-early-CIA-plot/65571050017416/ |title=Exclusive: Saddam Key in Early CIA Plot |work=United Press International |date=April 10, 2003 |access-date=April 2, 2018}} Gibson has disputed Sale and Darwish's account, concluding that available declassified records show that "while the United States was aware of several plots against Qasim, it had still adhered to [a] nonintervention policy."{{cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7 |pages=25–26}} Wolfe-Hunnicutt observes that "[i]t seems more likely that it was October 7 that brought the Ba'ath to the attention of the US government."{{cite web|last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt|first=Brandon|url=https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:tm772zz7352/Concessionary%20Regime%20[e-submit]-augmented.pdf|title=The End of the Concessionary Regime: Oil and American Power in Iraq, 1958-1972|date=March 2011|access-date=2020-05-17|page=42}} On the other hand, Osgood writes that "the circumstantial evidence is such that the possibility of US–UAR collaboration with Ba'ath Party activists cannot be ruled out," concluding that: "Whatever the validity of [Sale's] charges, at the very least currently declassified documents reveal that US officials were actively considering various plots against Qasim and that the CIA was building up assets for covert operations in Iraq."

The assassins, including Saddam, escaped to Cairo, Egypt "where they enjoyed Nasser's protection for the remainder of Qasim's tenure in power."{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |pages=53–54}} One of the conspirators involved in the assassination attempt, Hazim Jawad, "received training from the UAR intelligence service in clandestine wireless telegraphy," before returning to Iraq in 1960 to coordinate "clandestine radio operations for the UAR." Wolfe-Hunnicutt writes that in the 1959–1960 period, during the "peak of US-UAR intelligence collaboration ... [i]t is quite possible that Jawad became familiar to US intelligence," as a 1963 State Department cable described him as "one of our boys."{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |pages=119–120}} Similarly, it is possible that Saddam visited the U.S. embassy in Cairo,{{cite book |authorlink1=Efraim Karsh |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |last2=Rautsi |first2=Inari |title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography |publisher=Grove Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8 |pages=20–21}} and some evidence suggests that he was "in frequent contact with US officials and intelligence agents." A former high-ranking U.S. official told Marion Farouk–Sluglett and Peter Sluglett that Iraqi Ba'athists, including Saddam, "had made contact with the American authorities in the late 1950s and early 1960s."{{cite book|last1=Farouk–Sluglett|first1=Marion|last2=Sluglett|first2=Peter|title=Iraq Since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship|publisher=I.B. Tauris|year=2001|isbn=9780857713735|page=327}}

{{Main|War in Vietnam (1959–1963)|1963 South Vietnamese coup|Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem|Buddhist crisis}}

{{See also|1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt|1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing}}

In 1959 a branch of the Worker's Party of Vietnam was formed in the south of the country and began an insurgency against the Republic of Vietnam.{{cite web|title=The History Place — Vietnam War 1945–1960|url=http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html|access-date=2008-06-11}} They were supplied through Group 559, which was formed the same year by North Vietnam to send weapons down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.Prados, John, (2006) "The Road South: The Ho Chi Minh Trail", Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land, editor By Andrew A. Wiest, Osprey Publishing, {{ISBN|1-84603-020-X}}.{{citation|author=Human Rights Watch|title=Repression of Montagnards: Conflicts over Land and Religion in Vietnam's Central Highlands|date=April 2002|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/vietnam/viet0402-03.htm#TopOfPage|contribution=III. A History of Resistance to Central Government Control}} The US supported the RoV against the communists. After the 1960 US election, President John F. Kennedy became much more involved with the fight against the insurgency.{{citation|last=Shultz|first=Richard H. Jr.|title=the Secret War against Hanoi: the untold story of spies, saboteurs, and covert warriors in North Vietnam|year=2000|publisher=Harper Collins Perennial|author-link=Richard H. Shultz}}, p. 3

File:LocationSouthVietnam.png

From mid-1963, the Kennedy administration became increasingly frustrated with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem's corrupt and repressive rule and his persecution of the Buddhist majority. In light of Diem's refusal to adopt reforms, American officials debated whether they should support efforts to replace him. These debates crystallized after the ARVN Special Forces, which took their orders directly from the palace, raided Buddhist temples across the country, leaving a death toll estimated in the hundreds, and resulted in the dispatch of Cable 243 on August 24, 1963, which instructed United States Ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., to "examine all possible alternative leadership and make detailed plans as to how we might bring about Diem's replacement if this should become necessary". Lodge and his liaison officer, Lucien Conein, contacted discontented Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers and gave assurances that the US would not oppose a coup or respond with aid cuts. These efforts culminated in a coup d'état on November 1–2, 1963, during which Diem and his brother were assassinated.{{cite book|last1=Kinzer|first1=Stephen|url=https://archive.org/details/overthrow00step|title=Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq|date=2007|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|isbn=978-1-4299-0537-4|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/overthrow00step/page/158 158–166]|url-access=registration}} By the end of 1963 the Viet Cong switched to a much more aggressive strategy in fighting the Southern government and the US.

The Pentagon Papers concluded that "Beginning in August of 1963 we variously authorized, sanctioned and encouraged the coup efforts of the Vietnamese generals and offered full support for a successor government. In October we cut off aid to Diem in a direct rebuff, giving a green light to the generals. We maintained clandestine contact with them throughout the planning and execution of the coup and sought to review their operational plans and proposed new government."{{cite news|date=July 1, 1971|title=U.S. and Diem's Overthrow: Step by Step|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/01/archives/us-and-diems-overthrow-step-by-step-pentagon-papers-the-diem-coup.html|access-date=July 21, 2018}}

{{Main|Cuban Project|Bay of Pigs Invasion|Assassination attempts on Fidel Castro}}

File:BayofPigs.jpg

Fulgencio Batista was a military dictator who seized power in Cuba in March 1952 via a coup d'état and was backed by the U.S. government until March 1958. His regime was overthrown on December 31, 1958, thus bringing an end to the Cuban Revolution that was led by Fidel Castro and his 26th of July Movement. Castro became President in February 1959. The CIA backed a force composed of CIA-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba with support and equipment from the US military, in an attempt to overthrow Castro's government. The invasion was launched in April 1961, three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States, but the Cuban armed forces defeated the invading combatants within three days.{{cite news|author=NPR Staff|date=April 17, 2011|title=50 Years Later: Learning From The Bay Of Pigs|language=en|publisher=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135444482/50-years-later-learning-from-the-bay-of-pigs|access-date=November 18, 2021}}

Operation MONGOOSE was a year-long U.S. government effort to overthrow the government of Cuba.{{Cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d291 |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=history.state.gov}} The operation included an embargo against Cuba, "to induce failure of the Communist regime to supply Cuba's economic needs", a diplomatic initiative to isolate Cuba, and psychological operations "to turn the peoples' resentment increasingly against the regime."{{Cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d291 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241209130423/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d291 |archive-date=2024-12-09 |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=history.state.gov |language=en}} The economic warfare prong of the operation also included the infiltration of CIA operatives to carry out many acts of sabotage against civilian targets, such as a railway bridge, a molasses storage facilities, an electric power plant, and the sugar harvest, notwithstanding Cuba's repeated requests to the United States government to cease its armed operations.Domínguez, Jorge I. "The @#$%& Missile Crisis (Or, What Was 'Cuban' About US Decisions During the Cuban Missile Crisis)," Diplomatic History: The Journal of the Society for Historians of Foreign Relations, Vol. 24, No. 2, Spring 2000: 305–15 In addition, the CIA planned a number of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, head of government of Cuba, including attempts that entailed CIA collaboration with the American mafia.{{cite news|last=Johnson|first=M. Alex|date=June 26, 2007|title=CIA acknowledges Castro plot went to the top|work=NBC News|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19444072}}Escalante Font, Fabián, "Executive Action: 634 Ways to Kill Fidel Castro," Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2006{{cite news|last=Campbell|first=Duncan|date=August 2, 2006|title=638 ways to kill Castro|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/03/cuba.duncancampbell2}} In April 2021, documents released by the National Security Archive showed that the CIA was also involved in a plot to assassinate Raúl Castro in 1960.{{cite news|author=AFP|date=April 17, 2021|title=CIA planned to assassinate Raul Castro in 1960: Declassified documents|website=CNA|url=https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/cia-plan-assassinate-raul-castro-1960-declassified-pilot-225366}}

{{Main|Bangkok Plot}}File:LBJ nhu.jpg

In December 1958 Ngo Dinh Nhu{{snds}}Ngo Dinh Diem's younger brother and chief adviser{{snds}}broached the idea of a coup to overthrow Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk.{{cite book|author=Burchett, William G.|authorlink2=Norodom Sihanouk|author2=Norodom, Sihanouk|title=My War with the CIA: Cambodia's fight for survival|year=1973|publisher=Penguin Books|location=United States of America|isbn=0-14-021689-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/105 105]|url=https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/105}} Nhu contacted Dap Chhuon, Sihanouk's Interior Minister, who was known for his pro-American sympathies, to prepare for the coup against his boss.{{cite book|authorlink=David P. Chandler|author=Chandler, David P.|title=The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War and Revolutions since 1945|year=1991|publisher=Yale University Press|location=United States of America|isbn=0-300-05752-0|page=101}} Chhuon received covert financial and military assistance from Thailand, South Vietnam, and the CIA.{{cite book|authorlink=Milton Osborne|author=Osborne, Milton E.|title=Sihanouk Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness|year=1994|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America|isbn=978-0-8248-1639-1|page=110}} In January 1959 Sihanouk learned of the coup plans through intermediaries who were in contact with Chhuon.{{cite book|author=Burchett, William G.|authorlink2=Norodom Sihanouk|author2=Norodom, Sihanouk|title=My War with the CIA: Cambodia's fight for survival|year=1973|publisher=Penguin Books|location=United States of America|isbn=0-14-021689-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/107 107]|url=https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/107}} The following month, Sihanouk sent the army to capture Chhuon, who was summarily executed as soon as he was captured, effectively ending the coup attempt.{{cite book|author=Burchett, William G.|authorlink2=Norodom Sihanouk|author2=Norodom, Sihanouk|title=My War with the CIA: Cambodia's fight for survival|year=1973|publisher=Penguin Books|location=United States of America|isbn=0-14-021689-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/108 108]|url=https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/108}} Sihanouk then accused South Vietnam and the U.S. of planning the coup attempt.{{cite book|authorlink=David P. Chandler|author=Chandler, David P.|title=The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War and Revolutions since 1945|year=1991|publisher=Yale University Press|location=United States of America|isbn=0-300-05752-0|page=106}} Six months later, on 31{{nbsp}}August 1959, a small packaged lacquer gift, which was fitted with a parcel bomb, was delivered to the royal palace. An investigation traced the origin of the parcel bomb to an American military base in Saigon.{{cite book|author=Burchett, William G.|authorlink2=Norodom Sihanouk|author2=Norodom, Sihanouk|title=My War with the CIA: Cambodia's fight for survival|year=1973|publisher=Penguin Books|location=United States of America|isbn=0-14-021689-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/110 110]|url=https://archive.org/details/mywarwithciathe00noro/page/110}} While Sihanouk publicly accused Ngo Dinh Nhu of masterminding the bomb attack, he secretly suspected that the U.S. was also involved.{{cite book|authorlink=Milton Osborne|author=Osborne, Milton E.|title=Sihanouk Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness|year=1994|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America|isbn=978-0-8248-1639-1|page=112}} The incident deepened his distrust of the U.S.{{cite book|authorlink=David P. Chandler|author=Chandler, David P.|title=The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War and Revolutions since 1945|year=1991|publisher=Yale University Press|location=United States of America|isbn=0-300-05752-0|page=107}}

{{Main|Patrice Lumumba|Congo Crisis}}

File:Democratic Republic of Congo.png

Patrice Lumumba was elected the first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in May 1960, and in June 1960, the country achieved full independence from Belgium.{{Cite book |last=Reid |first=Stuart A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=niGlEAAAQBAJ |title=The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination |date=2023 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-5247-4881-4}}{{rp|4, 104–6}} In July, the Congo Crisis erupted with a mutiny among army, followed by the regions Katanga and South Kasai seceding with support from Belgium, who wished to keep power over resources in the region.{{rp|127, 150–1, 278}} Lumumba called in the United Nations to help him, but the U.N. force only agreed to keep peace and not stop the separatist movements. Lumumba then agreed to receive help from the USSR in order to stop the separatists, worrying the United States, due to the supply of uranium in the country. The CIA sent official Sydney Gottlieb with a poison to liaison with an African CIA asset code-named WI/Rogue who was to assassinate Lumumba, but Lumumba went into hiding before the operation was completed.Monte Reel, "A Brotherhood of Spies: The U2 and the CIA's Secret War," (New York: Anchor Books, 2019), pp. 209–210

After Lumumba was killed, the US began funding Mobutu Sese Seko in order to secure him against the separatists and opposition. Many of Lumumba's supporters went east and formed the Free Republic of the Congo with its capital in Stanleyville in opposition to Mobutu's government. Eventually, the government in Stanleyville agreed to rejoin with the Leopoldville government under the latter's rule,{{sfn|Hoskyns|1965|pp=375–377}}{{harvnb|LaFontaine|1986|p=16}} however in 1963, Lumumba supporters formed another separate government in the east of the country and launched the Simba rebellion. The rebellion had support from the Soviet Union and many other countries in the Eastern Bloc.{{sfnp|Villafana|2017|pp=72–73}} In November 1964, the U.S. and Belgium launched Operation Dragon Rouge to rescue hostages taken by Simba rebels in Stanleyville. The operation was a success and expelled the Simba rebels from the city, leaving them in disarray. The Simbas were ultimately defeated the following year by the Congolese army.{{sfnp|Martell|2018|pp=74–75}}Traugott (1979)

After the March 1965 elections, Mobutu launched a second coup in November with the support of the U.S. and other powers. Mobutu Sese Seko claimed democracy would return in five years and he was popular initially.{{sfn|Nugent|2004|p=233}} However, he instead took increasingly authoritarian powers eventually becoming the dictator of the country.{{sfn|Nugent|2004|p=233}}

{{Main|Laotian Civil War|1960 Laotian coups}}

On August 9, 1960, Captain Kong Le with his Royal Lao Army paratroop battalion seized control of the administrative capital city of Vientiane in a bloodless coup on a "neutralist" platform with the stated aims of ending the civil war raging in Laos, ending foreign interference in the country, ending the corruption caused by foreign aid, and better treatment for soldiers.{{Cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+la0039) |access-date=2025-03-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041031091831/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+la0039) |archive-date=October 31, 2004 }}Castle, Timothy, "At War in the Shadow of Vietnam: United States Military Aid to the Royal Lao Government, 1955–1975," (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), pp. 32–33 With CIA support, Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, the Prime Minister of Thailand, set up a covert Royal Thai Armed Forces advisory group, called Kaw Taw. Kaw Taw together with the CIA backed a November 1960 counter-coup against the new Neutralist government in Vientiane, supplying artillery, artillerymen, and advisers to General Phoumi Nosavan, first cousin of Sarit. It also deployed the Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit (PARU) to operations within Laos, sponsored by the CIA.Castle, Timothy, "At War in the Shadow of Vietnam: United States Military Aid to the Royal Lao Government, 1955–1975," (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), pp. 33–35, 40, 59 With the help of CIA front organization Air America to airlift war supplies and with other U.S. military assistance and covert aid from Thailand, General Phoumi Nosavan's forces captured Vientiane in November 1960.{{Cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+la0039) |access-date=2025-03-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041031091831/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+la0039) |archive-date=October 31, 2004 }}Castle, Timothy, "At War in the Shadow of Vietnam: United States Military Aid to the Royal Lao Government, 1955–1975," (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), pp. 21–25, 27

{{Main|Rafael Trujillo}}

In May 1961, the ruler of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo was killed with weapons supplied by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).{{cite web|date = 9 December 2018|url = https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/the-assassination-of-rafael-trujillo/|title = The Assassination of Rafael Trujillo|publisher = Sovereign Media|access-date = 17 January 2019|last = Kross|first = Peter|archive-date = August 28, 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180828204134/http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/the-assassination-of-rafael-trujillo/|url-status = dead}}{{cite web |date=24 November 1972|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84-00499R001000100003-2.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123002412/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84-00499R001000100003-2.pdf|url-status = dead|archive-date=January 23, 2017|title=The Kaplans of the CIA – Approved For Release 2001/03/06 CIA-RDP84-00499R001000100003-2|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |access-date=17 January 2019 | pages=3–6}} An internal CIA memorandum states that a 1973 Office of Inspector General investigation into the assassination disclosed "quite extensive Agency involvement with the plotters." The CIA described its role in "changing" the government of the Dominican Republic as a 'success' in that it assisted in moving the Dominican Republic from a totalitarian dictatorship to a Western-style democracy."[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/family_jewels_full_ocr.pdf CIA "Family Jewels" Memo, 1973 (see page 434)] Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency){{cite book |url =http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/plwordab.htm| last=Ameringer | first=Charles D. | title=U.S. Foreign Intelligence: The Secret Side of American history | edition=1990 | publisher = Lexington Books | isbn= 978-0669217803| date=1990-01-01 }} Juan Bosch, an earlier recipient of CIA funding, was elected president of the Dominican Republic in 1962 and was deposed in 1963.{{cite journal |date=24 April 2013|title = "Who Will Impose Democracy?": Sacha Volman and the Contradictions of CIA Support for the Anticommunist Left in Latin America|journal = Diplomatic History|volume = 37|issue = 5|pages = 995–1028|last=Iber|first=Patrick |doi = 10.1093/dh/dht041|doi-access = free}}

{{Main|Ramadan Revolution}}

File:Qasim in uniform.png (pictured), and desecrated his corpse on Iraqi television.]]

It has long been suspected that the Ba'ath Party collaborated with the CIA in planning and carrying out its violent coup that overthrew Iraq's leader, Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim, on February 8, 1963.{{Cite journal |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=B. |date=2015-01-01 |title=Embracing Regime Change in Iraq: American Foreign Policy and the 1963 Coup d'etat in Baghdad |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/dh/dht121 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=98–125 |doi=10.1093/dh/dht121 |issn=0145-2096 |quote=While scholars and journalists have long suspected that the CIA was involved in the 1963 coup, as yet, there is very little archival analysis of the question. The most comprehensive study put forward thus far finds "mounting evidence of U.S. involvement" but ultimately runs up against the problem of available documentation.}} Pertinent contemporary documents relating to the CIA's operations in Iraq have remained classified{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |page=117 |quote=What really happened in Iraq in February 1963 remains shrouded behind a veil of official secrecy. Many of the most relevant documents remain classified. Others were destroyed. And still others were never created in the first place.}}{{Cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Weldon C. |date=9 November 2011 |title=The Kennedy Administration, Counterinsurgency, and Iraq's First Ba'thist Regime |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/kennedy-administration-counterinsurgency-and-iraqs-first-bathist-regime/B4DA680E1CD37E8293DCEE8788C7C826 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=635–653 |doi=10.1017/S0020743811000882 |s2cid=159490612 |issn=1471-6380 |quote=Archival sources on the U.S. relationship with this regime are highly restricted. Many records of the Central Intelligence Agency's operations and the Department of Defense from this period remain classified, and some declassified records have not been transferred to the National Archives or cataloged.}} and as of 2021, "[s]cholars are only beginning to uncover the extent to which the United States was involved in organizing the coup,"{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |page=110}} but are "divided in their interpretations of American foreign policy."{{cite journal |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |year=2017 |title=Oil Sovereignty, American Foreign Policy, and the 1968 Coups in Iraq |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/09592296.2017.1309882 |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |publisher=Routledge |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=235–253 |doi=10.1080/09592296.2017.1309882 |s2cid=157328042}} Bryan R. Gibson, writes that although "[i]t is accepted among scholars that the CIA ... assisted the Ba’th Party in its overthrow of [Qasim's] regime," that "barring the release of new information, the preponderance of evidence substantiates the conclusion that the CIA was not behind the February 1963 Ba'thist coup."{{cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7 |pages=xvii, 58, 200}} Peter Hahn argues that "[d]eclassified U.S. government documents offer no evidence to support" suggestions of direct U.S. involvement.{{cite book|last=Hahn|first=Peter|title=Missions Accomplished?: The United States and Iraq Since World War I|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2011|isbn=9780195333381|page=48}} On the other hand, Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt cites "compelling evidence of an American role," and that publicly declassified documents "largely substantiate the plausibility" of CIA involvement in the coup.{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |pages=264}} Eric Jacobsen, citing the testimony of contemporary prominent Ba'athists and U.S. government officials, states that "[t]here is ample evidence that the CIA not only had contacts with the Iraqi Ba'th in the early sixties, but also assisted in the planning of the coup."{{Cite journal |last=Jacobsen |first=E. |date=2013-11-01 |title=A Coincidence of Interests: Kennedy, U.S. Assistance, and the 1963 Iraqi Ba'th Regime |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/dh/dht049 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=1029–1059 |doi=10.1093/dh/dht049 |issn=0145-2096}} Nathan J. Citino writes that "Washington backed the movement by military officers linked to the pan-Arab Ba‘th Party that overthrew Qasim," but that "the extent of U.S. responsibility cannot be fully established on the basis of available documents," and that "[a]lthough the United States did not initiate the 14 Ramadan coup, at best it condoned and at worst it contributed to the violence that followed."{{cite book |last=Citino |first=Nathan J. |title=Envisioning the Arab Future: Modernization in US-Arab Relations, 1945–1967 |chapter=The People's Court |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-108-10755-6 |pages=182–183, 218–219, 222}}

Ba'athist leaders maintained supportive relationships with U.S. officials before, during, and after the coup.{{Cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Weldon C. |date=9 November 2011 |title=The Kennedy Administration, Counterinsurgency, and Iraq's First Ba'thist Regime |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020743811000882/type/journal_article |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=635–653 |doi=10.1017/S0020743811000882 |s2cid=159490612 |issn=0020-7438 |quote=[Kennedy] Administration officials viewed the Iraqi Ba'th Party in 1963 as an agent of counterinsurgency directed against Iraqi communists, and they cultivated supportive relationships with Ba'thist officials, police commanders, and members of the Ba'th Party militia. The American relationship with militia members and senior police commanders had begun even before the February coup, and Ba'thist police commanders involved in the coup had been trained in the United States.}}{{Cite journal |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=B. |date=2015-01-01 |title=Embracing Regime Change in Iraq: American Foreign Policy and the 1963 Coup d'etat in Baghdad |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/dh/dht121 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=98–125 |doi=10.1093/dh/dht121 |issn=0145-2096}} A March 1964 State Department memorandum would state that U.S. "officers assiduously cultivated" a "Baathi student organization, which triggered the revolution of February 8, 1963 by sponsoring a successful student strike at the University of Baghdad,"{{Cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Weldon C. |date=11 November 2011 |title=The Kennedy Administration, Counterinsurgency, and Iraq's First Ba'thist Regime |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/kennedy-administration-counterinsurgency-and-iraqs-first-bathist-regime/B4DA680E1CD37E8293DCEE8788C7C826 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=635–653 |doi=10.1017/S0020743811000882 |s2cid=159490612 |issn=1471-6380}} and according to Wolfe-Hunnicutt, documents at the Kennedy Library suggest that the Kennedy administration viewed two prominent Ba'athist officials as "assets".

Senior National Security Council official Robert Komer wrote to President John F. Kennedy on February 8, 1963, that the Iraqi coup "is almost certainly a net gain for our side ... CIA had excellent reports on the plotting, but I doubt either they or UK should claim much credit for it."{{cite web |last=Komer |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Komer |date=1963-02-08 |title=Secret Memorandum for the President |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwk-oiHeEQzzMTMwYmUzYWQtZWY0ZS00ODYyLWE0NzQtMzU4MTRlMTRmMjdh/view |access-date=2017-05-01}}Rositzke later claimed "the CIA's major source, in an ideal catbird seat, reported the exact time of the coup and provided a list of the new cabinet members." See: {{cite book |last=Rositzke |first=Harry |title=The CIA's Secret Operations |publisher=Reader's Digest Press |year=1977 |isbn=0-88349-116-8 |page=109}} The U.S. offered material support to the new Ba'athist government after the coup, amidst an anti-communist purge and Iraqi atrocities against Kurdish rebels and civilians,{{cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7 |pages=59–61, 68–72, 80}} and while it is unlikely that the Ba'athists would've needed assistance in identifying Iraqi communists,{{cite book |last=Batatu |first=Hanna |title=The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq's Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba'thists and Free Officers |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0863565205 |pages=985–987 |authorlink=Hanna Batatu}}{{Cite web |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |date=March 2011 |title=The End of the Concessionary Regime: Oil and American Power in Iraq, 1958-1972 |url=https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:tm772zz7352/Concessionary%20Regime%20%5Be-submit%5D-augmented.pdf |pages=84–85}} it is widely believed that the CIA provided the Ba'athist National Guard with lists of communists and other leftists, who were then arrested or killed.{{cite book |last1=Farouk–Sluglett |first1=Marion |title=Iraq Since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship |last2=Sluglett |first2=Peter |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2001 |isbn=9780857713735 |page=86 |quote=Although individual leftists had been murdered intermittently over the previous years, the scale on which the killings and arrests took place in the spring and summer of 1963 indicates a closely coordinated campaign, and it is almost certain that those who carried out the raid on suspects' homes were working from lists supplied to them. Precisely how these lists had been compiled is a matter of conjecture, but it is certain that some of the Ba'th leaders were in touch with American intelligence networks, and it is also undeniable that a variety of different groups in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East had a strong vested interest in breaking what was probably the strongest and most popular communist party in the region.}} Gibson emphasizes that the Ba'athists compiled their own lists, citing Bureau of Intelligence and Research reports.{{cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7 |page=59}} On the other hand, Citino and Wolfe-Hunnicutt consider the assertions plausible because the U.S. embassy in Iraq had actually compiled such lists, were known to be in contact with the National Guard during the purge, and because National Guard members involved in the purge received training in the U.S.{{cite book |last=Citino |first=Nathan J. |title=Envisioning the Arab Future: Modernization in US–Arab Relations, 1945–1967 |chapter=The People's Court |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-108-10755-6 |pages=220–222}} Furthermore, Wolfe-Hunnicutt, citing contemporary U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine, notes that the assertions "would be consistent with American special warfare doctrine" regarding U.S. covert support to anti-communist "Hunter-Killer" teams "seeking the violent overthrow of a communist dominated and supported government",{{Cite web |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |date=March 2011 |title=The End of the Concessionary Regime: Oil and American Power in Iraq, 1958-1972 |url=https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:tm772zz7352/Concessionary%20Regime%20%5Be-submit%5D-augmented.pdf |website= |pages=84–85 |quote=One study from 1961 or 1962 included a section on "the capability of the U.S. Government to provide support to friendly groups, not in power, who are seeking the violent overthrow of a communist dominated and supported government." The study went on to discuss providing "covert assistance" to such groups and advised that, "Pinpointing of enemy concentrations and hideouts can permit effective use of 'Hunter‐Killer' teams." Given the Embassy's concern with the immediate suppression of Baghdad's sarifa population, it seems likely that American intelligence services would be interested in providing support to the Ba'thist "'Hunter‐Killer' teams."}} and draws parallels to other CIA operations in which lists of suspected communists were compiled, such as Guatemala in 1954 and Indonesia in 1965–66.{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |pages=111–112 |quote=The CIA had long employed the method of targeted assassination in its global crusade against Communism. In 1954, a CIA team involved in the overthrow of Guatemalan leader Jacobo Arbenz compiled a veritable "Handbook of Assassination," replete with precise instructions for committing "political murder" and a list of suspected Guatemalan Communists to be targeted for "executive action." In the 1960s, the Kennedy administration made this rather ad hoc practice into a science. According to its special warfare doctrines, covertly armed and trained "Hunter-Killer teams" were a highly effective instrument in the root-and-branch eradication of Communist threats in developing nations. In what became known as the "Jakarta Method"—named for the systematic CIA-backed purge of Indonesian Communists in 1965—the CIA was involved in countless campaigns of mass murder in the name of anti-Communism.}}

According to author John Prados, the CIA conducted a covert political campaign against left-wing Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan due to a fear of the spread of the Cuban Revolution across the Americas. The CIA supported trade unions during a strike against Jagan in 1963, and funded rival political parties during the 1964 election, while establishing the Justice Party as a CIA front. Political violence escalated, with nearly 200 murders and the bombing of Jagan's People's Progressive Party (PPP) headquarters.{{Cite web |title=CIA Covert Operations: The 1964 Overthrow of Cheddi Jagan in British Guiana {{!}} National Security Archive |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2020-04-06/cia-covert-operations-overthrow-cheddi-jagan-british-guiana-1964 |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}

{{Main|1964 Brazilian coup d'état|Operation Brother Sam|Operation Condor}}

File:Brazil in South America (-mini map -rivers).svgSince the Cuban Revolution, the United States started watching Latin America to keep any socialist governments out,{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} and in 1961, when the Brazilian president Jânio Quadros resigned and the vice-president João Goulart assumed power after the scandal of the Legality Campaign,{{Cite book |last=Tavares |first=Flávio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QuAXthbq83QC |title=1961 - O Golpe Derrotado |publisher=L&PM Editores |year=2012 |isbn=9788525425874 |language=pt}} the United States started to get worried, as João Goulart had already shown sympathy for socialism, and slowly, the relationship between Brazil and the United States began deteriorating, with Washington getting favorable on inciting a coup d'état to oust him.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} When João Goulart started talking about an agrarian reform,{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} many groups, especially in the military, started conspiring against him, with the idea of a coup d'état to overthrow him appearing and gaining force within the Brazilian population and military.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} Political chaos would ensue until the March of the Family with God for Liberty happened, of which many of those who opposed João Goulart went to the streets to protest against him.{{Cite book|title=A ditadura militar no Brasil : a história em cima dos fatos|date=2007|publisher=Caros Amigos Editora|editor=Severiano, Mylton|isbn=9788586821837|location=Brazil|oclc=654432961}} When the coup d'état broke out on March 31, 1964, the United States sent its Navy{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} and Air Force{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} to help the military rebels through Operation Brother Sam. When the coup d'état ended up being successful and João Goulart was overthrown, a right-wing military dictatorship assumed power and ended up running the country until March 1985.

The United States would also go on to support the Brazilian military dictatorship through Operation Condor.{{Cite web|url=http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195375701/pdf/SPD12_US_Support_Brazil_Coup.pdf|title=Document No. 12. U.S. Support for the Brazilian Military Coup d'État, 1964|access-date=October 20, 2023|archive-date=March 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320222215/https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195375701/pdf/SPD12_US_Support_Brazil_Coup.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|last=Blakeley|first=Ruth|url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/|title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-68617-4|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 94]}}{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=Phyllis R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeBPBAAAQBAJ |title=Brazil and the Quiet Intervention, 1964 |date=2014-08-04 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-1-4773-0162-3 |language=en}}

{{Main|Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66}}

File:LocationIndonesia.svg

Junior army officers and the commander of President Sukarno's palace guard accused senior Indonesian National Armed Forces officers of planning a CIA-backed coup against Sukarno and killed six senior generals on October 1, 1965 in what came to be called the 30 September Movement.

The movement failed and subsequently the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) was accused of planning the killing of the six generalsStone, Oliver and Kuznick, Peter, "The Untold History of the United States" (New York, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2012), p. 350 citing David F. Schmitz, "The United States and Right-Wing Dictatorships, 1965–1989" (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 45 in a propaganda campaign launched by the army. Civilian mobs were incited to attack those believed to be PKI supporters and other political opponents. Indonesian government forces with collaboration of some civilians perpetrated mass killings over many months. Scholars estimate the number of civilians killed range from a half million to over a million.{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Geoffrey B. |date=2018 |title=The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965–66 |url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=3 |isbn=978-1-4008-8886-3 }}{{cite book |last=Melvin |first=Jess |date=2018 |title=The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder |url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Army-and-the-Indonesian-Genocide-Mechanics-of-Mass-Murder/Melvin/p/book/9781138574694 |publisher=Routledge |page=1 |isbn=978-1-138-57469-4 }}{{Cite magazine |last=Kwok |first=Yenni |date=2015-09-30 |title=Indonesia Still Haunted by 1965-66 Massacre |url=https://time.com/4055185/indonesia-anticommunist-massacre-holocaust-killings-1965/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |magazine=TIME |language=en}} US Ambassador Marshall Green encouraged the military leaders to act forcefully against the political opponents.{{cite book|author=Mark Aarons|date=2007|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA69|chapter=Justice Betrayed: Post-1945 Responses to Genocide|editor=David A. Blumenthal|editor2=Timothy L. H. McCormack|name-list-style=amp|url=http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance|title=The Legacy of Nuremberg: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance? (International Humanitarian Law)|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=978-9004156913|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA81 81]|access-date=August 5, 2018|archive-date=January 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105053952/http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance|url-status=dead}}

In 2017, declassified documents from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta have confirmed that the US had knowledge of, facilitated and encouraged mass killings for its own geopolitical interests.{{cite news|author=|date=October 17, 2017|title=Files reveal US had detailed knowledge of Indonesia's anti-communist purge|agency=Associated Press|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/indonesia-anti-communist-killings-us-declassified-files|access-date=August 5, 2018|newspaper=The Guardian}}{{cite web |url=http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/telegrams-confirm-scale-of-us-complicity-in-1965-genocide/ |title=Telegrams confirm scale of US complicity in 1965 genocide |last=Melvin |first=Jess |date=October 20, 2017 |website=Indonesia at Melbourne |publisher=University of Melbourne |access-date=July 27, 2018 |quote=The new telegrams confirm the US actively encouraged and facilitated genocide in Indonesia to pursue its own political interests in the region, while propagating an explanation of the killings it knew to be untrue.}}{{cite news |last=Scott |first=Margaret |date=October 26, 2017 |title=Uncovering Indonesia's Act of Killing |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/10/20/uncovering-indonesias-act-of-killing/ |work=The New York Review of Books |access-date=August 5, 2018 |quote=According to Simpson, these previously unseen cables, telegrams, letters, and reports "contain damning details that the U.S. was willfully and gleefully pushing for the mass murder of innocent people."}}{{cite news |last=Bevins |first=Vincent |date=October 20, 2017 |title=What the United States Did in Indonesia |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/the-indonesia-documents-and-the-us-agenda/543534/ |work=The Atlantic |access-date=October 21, 2017}} In 1990, US diplomats admitted to journalist Kathy Kadane that they had provided the Indonesian army with thousands of names of alleged PKI supporters and other alleged leftists, and that the U.S. officials then checked off from their lists those who had been killed.{{cite news |last=Kadane |first=Kathy |date=May 21, 1990 |title=U.S. Officials' Lists Aided Indonesian Bloodbath in '60s |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/05/21/us-officials-lists-aided-indonesian-bloodbath-in-60s/ff6d37c3-8eed-486f-908c-3eeafc19aab2/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 5, 2018}}{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Geoffrey B. |date=2018 |title=The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965–66 |url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=203 |isbn=978-1-4008-8886-3 |quote=a US Embassy official in Jakarta, Robert Martens, had supplied the Indonesian Army with lists containing the names of thousands of PKI officials in the months after the alleged coup attempt. According to the journalist Kathy Kadane, "As many as 5,000 names were furnished over a period of months to the Army there, and the Americans later checked off the names of those who had been killed or captured." Despite Martens later denials of any such intent, these actions almost certainly aided in the death or detention of many innocent people. They also sent a powerful message that the US government agreed with and supported the army's campaign against the PKI, even as that campaign took its terrible toll in human lives.}}

President Sukarno's base of support was largely annihilated or imprisoned and the remainder terrified, enabling him to be forced out of power in 1967, replaced by an authoritarian military regime led by Suharto.{{cite book |last=Simpson |first=Bradley |date=2010 |title=Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.–Indonesian Relations, 1960–1968 |url=https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=7853 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=193 |isbn=978-0-8047-7182-5 |quote="Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party's unarmed supporters might not go far enough, permitting Sukarno to return to power and frustrate the [Johnson] Administration's emerging plans for a post-Sukarno Indonesia. This was efficacious terror, an essential building block of the neoliberal policies that the West would attempt to impose on Indonesia after Sukarno's ouster."}}Stone, Oliver and Kuznick, Peter, "The Untold History of the United States" (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2012), p. 352 Historian John Roosa states that "almost overnight the Indonesian government went from being a fierce voice for cold war neutrality and anti-imperialism to a quiet, compliant partner of the US world order."{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent |title=The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World |date=2020 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1541742406 |page=158 |author-link=Vincent Bevins}}{{rp|158}} This campaign is considered a major turning point in the Cold War, and was such a success that it served as a model for other U.S.-backed coups and anti-communist extermination campaigns throughout Asia and Latin America.{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent|author-link=Vincent Bevins |title=The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World|date=2020 |publisher= PublicAffairs|pages= 238–243 |isbn= 978-1541742406}}

{{Main|Cambodian Civil War|1970 Cambodian coup d'état|Cambodian–Vietnamese War|Third Indochina War|Allegations of United States support for the Khmer Rouge}}

File:Cambodia_on_the_globe_(Cambodia_centered).svg

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who came to power by the 1955 parliamentary election, had for years kept the Kingdom of Cambodia out of the Vietnam War by being friendly with China and North Vietnam, and had integrated left wing parties into mainstream politics. However a leftist uprising occurred in 1967 and the communist Khmer Rouge began an insurgency against the prince the following year.Chandler, p. 128. Following the 1968 Tet Offensive, Sihanouk became convinced that North Vietnam was going to lose the war so he improved relations with the United States.

In March 1970 Sihanouk was deposed by right-wing General Lon Nol following a vote of no confidence in Cambodia's National Assembly, and in October 1970, the Khmer Republic was declared by Lon Nol, officially ending the Kingdom and starting a period of military dictatorship. The overthrow followed Cambodia's constitutional process and most accounts emphasize the primacy of Cambodian actors in Sihanouk's removal. Historians are divided about the extent of U.S. involvement in or foreknowledge of the ouster, but an emerging consensus posits some culpability on the part of U.S. military intelligence.{{cite book|last=Clymer|first=Kenton|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatescamb00clym|title=The United States and Cambodia, 1969–2000: A Troubled Relationship|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0415326025|pages=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatescamb00clym/page/n35 21]–23|quote=Sihanouk's dismissal (which followed constitutional forms, rather than a blatant military coup d'état) immediately produced much speculation as to its causes. ... most others see at least some American involvement.|url-access=limited}} There is evidence that "as early as late 1968" Lon Nol floated the idea of a coup to U.S. military intelligence to obtain U.S. consent and military support for action against Prince Sihanouk and his government.{{cite book|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|url=https://archive.org/details/howpolpotcametop00kier_0/page/300|title=How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2004|isbn=9780300102628|pages=[https://archive.org/details/howpolpotcametop00kier_0/page/300 300]-301|quote=Prince Sihanouk has long claimed that the American CIA 'masterminded' the coup against him. ... There is in fact no evidence of CIA involvement in the 1970 events, but a good deal of evidence points to a role played by sections of the US military intelligence establishment and the Army Special Forces. ... While [Samuel R.] Thornton's allegation that 'the highest level' of the US government was party to the coup plans remains uncorroborated, it is clear that Lon Nol carried out the coup with at least a legitimate expectation of significant US support.|author-link=Ben Kiernan}}

The coup further destabilized the country and ushered in years of a civil war that from 1970 onwards, was being fought between Lon Nol's forces and the communist Khmer Rouge. Sihanouk created a government in exile called GRUNK which aligned itself with the Khmer Rouge to fight Lon Nol as a common enemy. To stop the Khmer Rouge from taking power in the country and also to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines that passed through Cambodia, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger approved an intensified U.S. bombing in the countryside, in Operations Menu and Freedom Deal,{{Cite book|last1=Kennedy|first1=David M.|last2=Cohen|first2=Lizabeth|last3=Piehl|first3=Mel|title=The Brief American Pageant: A History of the Republic, Volume II: Since 1865|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2016|isbn=9781305887886|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u8YaCgAAQBAJ&q=cambodia+war+powers+act.+freedom+deal&pg=PA669|page=669|language=en}} causing mass civilian loss which the Khmer Rouge used to promote recruitment and gain CPK support.{{cite web |url=https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/cambodia-u-s-bombing-civil-war-khmer-rouge |title=Cambodia: U.S. bombing and civil war |date=August 7, 2015 |website=sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings}} Later, Henry Kissinger suggested that Sihanouk had approved this U.S. bombing of North Vietnamese targets in Cambodia as early as 1969, although this has been heavily disputed by other sources.{{cite book|last=Clymer|first=Kenton|title=The United States and Cambodia, 1969–2000: A Troubled Relationship|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=9781134341566|pages=14–16}}

By 1973, the U.S. had already left Indochina after seeing its objectives in Vietnam becoming increasingly harder, leaving the weakened Khmer Republic to collapse on April 17, 1975, when Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge.

After the fall of the Khmer Republic to the Khmer Rouge, the Khmer Rouge's leader Pol Pot was consolidated as the dictator of Cambodia, now renamed to Kampuchea. Because Sihanouk fought alongside the Khmer Rouge during the civil war, he was allowed to become Head of State, a ceremonial position,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/26/archives/cambodians-designate-sihanouk-as-chief-for-life.html|title=Cambodians Designate Sihanouk as Chief for Life|work=The New York Times|agency=UPI|date=26 April 1975|access-date=16 July 2015}} however when he returned to the country and saw the Cambodian genocide being perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, he resigned.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} The Khmer Rouge did not accept this at first, but after some negotiation, they accepted,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/05/archives/phnom-penh-says-sinanouk-resigns-reports-exchief-of-state-will-stay.html|title=PHNOM PENH SAYS SIHANOUK RESIGNS|work=The New York Times|agency=UPI|date=5 April 1976|access-date=30 July 2023}} after that, Sihanouk was placed under house arrest until the Third Indochina War, when the Angkar permitted him to flee to China for safety.

[[Norodom Sihanouk with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office in 1988. At the time, the U.S. still recognized the CGDK as the legitimate government of Kampuchea.|188x188px|alt=Prince Norodom Sihanouk, for many the recognised leader of Cambodia, pictured with US President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, 11 October 1988.|thumb]]

There are many accusations of the United States supposedly supporting Democratic Kampuchea during the Cambodian–Vietnamese War,{{cite web |author-link=Elizabeth Becker (journalist)|last=Becker |first=Elizabeth |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/17/world/death-of-pol-pot-the-diplomacy-pol-pot-s-end-won-t-stop-us-pursuit-of-his-circle.html |title=Death of Pol Pot: The Diplomacy; Pol Pot's End Won't Stop U.S. Pursuit of His Circle |work=The New York Times |date=1998-04-17 |access-date=March 7, 2022 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326025258/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/17/world/death-of-pol-pot-the-diplomacy-pol-pot-s-end-won-t-stop-us-pursuit-of-his-circle.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |first1=Charles |last1=Parkinson |first2=Alice |last2=Cuddy |first3=Daniel |last3=Pye |date=May 29, 2015 |title=The Pol Pot dilemma |url=http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pol-pot-dilemma |newspaper=The Phnom Penh Post |access-date=March 7, 2022 |archive-date=21 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221063137/https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pol-pot-dilemma |url-status=live }}name = "Kiernan 30">{{citation |mode=cs1 |last= Kiernan |first= Ben |author-link= Ben Kiernan |date=April 2005 |chapter= The Cambodian Genocide and Imperial Culture |chapter-url= https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/KiernanCambodia30thAnniversaryEssay.doc |title= 90 Years of Denial |publisher= Aztag Daily (Beirut) & Armenian Weekly (Boston) |pages= 20–21 |access-date= 15 September 2012 }}{{cite web|url = https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa074.pdf |title = U.S. Aid to Anti-Communist Rebels: The "Reagan Doctrine" and Its Pitfalls|author=Ted Galen Carpenter |publisher=Cato Institute |access-date =March 31, 2018}} because Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, and the United States chose to support Vietnam's enemy, in this case Democratic Kampuchea. However, these claims are without support.{{Cite news | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DA163FF931A15757C0A96E958260 | work=The New York Times | title=Pol Pot's Evil Had Many Faces; China Acted Alone | date=22 April 1998 | access-date=18 February 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212163842/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DA163FF931A15757C0A96E958260 | archive-date=12 February 2009 | url-status=live | df=dmy-all }}Nate Thayer, "Cambodia: Misperceptions and Peace," Washington Quarterly, Spring 1991.Stephen J. Morris, "Vietnam's Vietnam," Atlantic Monthly, January 1985, "ABC Flacks For Hanoi," Wall Street Journal, 26 April 1990"Skeletons in the Closet," The New Republic, 4 June 1990 Despite these responses, it is documented that the United States provided diplomatic support to the Khmer Rouge by continuously voting for Democratic Kampuchea and later the CGDK to retain its seat at the UN, both immediately after its ousting as well as after it joined the coalition. This was because the Vietnamese-established People's Republic of Kampuchea was a client state of Vietnam and more importantly, a Soviet-aligned state.

{{Main|Project FUBELT|1973 Chilean coup d'état|Operation Condor}}

File:Chile in its region.svg

The U.S. government ran a psy ops action in Chile from 1963 until the coup d'état in 1973, and the CIA was involved in every Chilean election during that time. In the 1964 Chilean presidential election, the U.S. government supplied $2.6 million in funding to Christian Democratic Party presidential candidate Eduardo Frei Montalva, to prevent Salvador Allende and the Socialist Party of Chile winning. The U.S. also used the CIA to provide $12 million in funding to business interests for use in harming Allende's reputation.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cg39hcj6AxQC|title=Strategic Intelligence|last1=Johnson|first1=Loch|date=2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313065286|access-date=12 January 2017}}{{rp|38–9}}Kristian C. Gustafson wrote:

It was clear the Soviet Union was operating in Chile to ensure Marxist success, and from the contemporary American point of view, the United States was required to thwart this enemy influence: Soviet money and influence were clearly going into Chile to undermine its democracy, so U.S. funding would have to go into Chile to frustrate that pernicious influence.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vcd6WBTkJc8C|title=Hostile Intent: U.S. Covert Operations in Chile, 1964–1974|last=Gustafson|first=Kristian|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|year=2007|isbn=9781612343594}}

Prior to Allende's inauguration, chief of staff of the Chilean Army, René Schneider, a general dedicated to preserving the constitutional order and considered "a major stumbling block for military officers seeking to carry out a coup", was targeted in a failed CIA backed kidnapping attempt by General Camilo Valenzuela on October 19, 1970. Schneider was killed three days later in another botched kidnapping attempt led by General Roberto Viaux.{{cite news|url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82588|title=CIA Admits Involvement in Chile|last=Briscoe|first=David|date=September 20, 2000|publisher=ABC News}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JjtHROah_YC&pg=PA20|title=The Condor Years: How Pinochet And His Allies Brought Terrorism To Three Continents|last=Dinges|first=John|date=2005|publisher=The New Press|isbn=978-1-56584-977-8|page=20|author-link=John Dinges}} After the inauguration, there followed an extended period of social and political unrest between the right-dominated Congress of Chile and Allende, as well as economic warfare waged by Washington. U.S. President Richard Nixon had promised to "make the economy scream" to "prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him".{{cite web|url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm|title=Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973|first=Peter|last=Kornbluh|date=September 11, 1998|publisher=National Security Archive|access-date=August 21, 2021}}

On September 11, 1973, President Allende was overthrown by the Chilean Armed Forces and National Police, bringing to power the regime of Augusto Pinochet. The CIA, through Project FUBELT (also known as Track II), worked secretly to prepare the conditions for the coup. While the U.S. initially denied any involvement, many relevant documents have been declassified in the decades since.

{{Main|1971 Bolivian coup d'état|Hugo Banzer|Juan José Torres|Operation Condor}}

File:Bolivia in its region.svg

The U.S. government supported the 1971 coup led by General Hugo Banzer that toppled President Juan José Torres of Bolivia, who had himself come to power in a coup the previous year.{{Cite web |title=Alliance for Power: U.S. Aid to Bolivia Under Banzer |url=https://nacla.org/article/alliance-power-us-aid-bolivia-under-banzer |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=NACLA |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2008-10-23 |title=U.S. Intervention in Bolivia |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-intervention-in-bolivi_b_127528 |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=HuffPost |language=en}} Torres was kidnapped and assassinated in 1976 as part of Operation Condor.{{Cite web |title=OPERATION CONDOR ON TRIAL: LEGAL PROCEEDINGS ON LATIN AMERICAN RENDITION AND ASSASSINATION PROGRAM OPEN IN BUENOS AIRES |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB416/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu}}{{cite book |last=Blakeley |first=Ruth |date=2009 |title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/ |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 22] & [https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 23] |isbn=978-0-415-68617-4}}{{cite book |last1=McSherry |first1=J. Patrice |author-link1=J. Patrice McSherry |editor1=Esparza, Marcia |editor2=Huttenbach, Henry R. |editor3=Feierstein, Daniel |title=State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies) |chapter=Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=acGNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 107], 113-114 |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-415-66457-8 |chapter-url=https://www.routledge.com/State-Violence-and-Genocide-in-Latin-America-The-Cold-War-Years/Esparza-Huttenbach-Feierstein/p/book/9780415496377}}

{{See also|Ethiopian Civil War}}

File:Pdr ethiopia.png]]

On September 12, 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie I of the Ethiopian Empire, a dynastic monarchy, was overthrown in a coup by the Derg, an organization set up by the Emperor to investigate the Ethiopian Armed Forces.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dDRWAAAAIBAJ&pg=6032,2832764|title=Eugene Register-Guard - Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com}} The Derg, led by dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, became Marxist–Leninist and aligned with the Soviet Union.{{Cite news|title=BBC NEWS {{!}} Africa {{!}} Mengistu found guilty of genocide|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6171429.stm|website=news.bbc.co.uk|date=December 12, 2006|access-date=2017-01-08}} Numerous rebel groups rose up against the Derg, including conservative, separatist groups, and other Marxist–Leninist groups.{{Cite web|title=In Eritrea|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/27/magazine/in-eritrea.html|last=Keneally|first=Thomas|date=27 September 1987|website=New York Times}}{{Cite web|title=Wir haben euch Waffen und Brot geschickt|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14315215.html|date=3 March 1980|website=Der Spiegel}}{{Cite web|title=Attempts to distort history|url=http://www.shaebia.org/artman/publish/article_5299.shtml|last=Tewolde|first=Bereket|date=22 January 2008|website=Shaebia|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081117005655/http://www.shaebia.org/artman/publish/article_5299.shtml|archive-date=2008-11-17}} These groups would receive support from the United States.{{Cite magazine|title=Ethiopia a Forgotten War Rages On|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960451,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416060448/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960451,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 16, 2009|date=23 December 1985|magazine=Time}}{{clarify|what sort of support|date=September 2021}}

In the late 1980s, the rebels and the Eritrean separatists began to make gains against the government. The Derg dissolved itself in 1987, establishing the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) under the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) in an attempt to maintain its rule. In 1990 the USSR stopped supporting the Ethiopian government as it started to collapse, while the United States continued to support the rebels.Vaughan, Sarah (2003). [http://www.ihasa.org/documents/special-reports/ethnicity-in-ethiopia.pdf "Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia"] (PDF). {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813043308/http://www.ihasa.org/documents/special-reports/ethnicity-in-ethiopia.pdf|date=13 August 2011}} University of Edinburgh: Ph.D. Thesis. p. 168. In 1991 Mengistu Halie Mariam resigned and fled as rebels of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of left-wing ethnic rebel groups, took over.{{cite book|last=Valentino|first=Benjamin A.|title=Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/finalsolutionsma00vale|url-access=limited|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=2004|isbn=0-8014-3965-5|location=Ithaca|page=[https://archive.org/details/finalsolutionsma00vale/page/196 196]}} Despite the fact that the US opposed him, the US embassy helped Mariam escape to Zimbabwe.{{Cite web|title=US admits helping Mengistu escape|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/575405.stm|date=22 December 1999|website=BBC News}} The PDRE was dissolved and replaced with the Tigray People's Liberation Front-led Transitional Government of Ethiopia, and a transition to parliamentary democracy began.{{cite book |last=Valentino |first=Benjamin A. |title=Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century |year=2004 |location=Ithaca |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=196 |isbn=0-8014-3965-5 }}

{{See also|Angolan Civil War}}

Beginning in the 1960s, a rebellion broke out against Portuguese colonial rule in the Angolan War of Independence, mainly involving rebel groups the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). In 1974, the Portuguese regime of the New State was depose in the Carnation Revolution. The new government promised to give independence to its colonies including Angola. On January 15, 1975, Portugal signed the Alvor Agreement giving independence to Angola and establishing a transitional government including the MPLA, FNLA and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The transitional government consisted of the Portuguese High Commissioner, ruling with a Prime Ministerial Council (PMC) made up of three representatives, one from each Angolan party to the agreement, with a rotating premiership among the representatives.

However, the various independence groups started fighting one another. The MPLA was a leftist group that was advancing upon the other two main rebel groups, the FNLA and UNITA, the latter led by Jonas Savimbi, a former FNLA fighter and Maoist who eventually became a capitalist ideologically and made UNITA into a capitalist militant group.{{cite news|last=Simpson|first=Chris|date=25 February 2002|title=Obituary: Jonas Savimbi, Unita's local boy|work=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/264094.stm|access-date=27 January 2020}}{{cite journal |title=The War against Soviet Colonialism|last=Savimbi|first=Jonas|author-link=Jonas Savimbi|date=January 1986|journal=Policy Review|pages=18–24}}

The United States covertly supported UNITA and the FNLA through Operation IA Feature. President Gerald Ford approved of the program on July 18, 1975 while receiving dissent from officials in the CIA and State Department. Nathaniel Davis, Assistant Secretary of State, quit because of his disagreement with this.Brown, Seyom. The Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Clinton, 1994. Page 303.Jussi HanhimÄki and Jussi M. Hanhim̀eaki. The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy, 2004. Page 408. This program began as the war for independence was ending and continued as the civil war began in November 1975. The funding initially started at $6 million but then added $8 million on July 27 and added $25 million in August.Andrew, Christopher M. For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush, 1995. Page 412. The program was exposed and condemned by Congress in 1976. The Clark Amendment was added to the US Arms Export Control Act of 1976 ending the operation and restricting involvement in Angola.Richard H. Immerman and Athan G. Theoharis. The Central Intelligence Agency: Security Under Scrutiny, 2006. Page 325. Despite this CIA Director George H.W. Bush conceded that some aid to the FNLA and UNITA continued.{{cite book|last=Koh|first=Harold Hongju|url=https://archive.org/details/nationalsecurity00kohh|title=The National Security Constitution: Sharing Power After the Iran-Contra Affair|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1990|url-access=registration}}p. 52{{cite book|last=Fausold|first=Martin L.|title=The Constitution and the American Presidency|author2=Alan Shank|publisher=SUNY Press|year=1991}} Pages 186–187.

File:LocationAngola.png

In 1986, Ronald Reagan articulated the Reagan Doctrine, which called for the funding of anti-Communist forces across the world to "roll back" Soviet influence. The Reagan Administration lobbied Congress to repeal the Clark Amendment, which eventually occurred on July 11, 1985.{{cite news|author=Fuerbringer, Jonathan|date=11 July 2008|title=House acts to allow Angola rebel aid|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50816F93C5C0C728DDDAE0894DD484D81&n=Top%2fNews%2fWorld%2fCountries%20and%20Territories%2fAngola|access-date=10 February 2008}} In 1986, the war in Angola became a major Cold War proxy conflict. Savimbi's conservative allies in the US lobbied for increased support to UNITA.{{cite news|author=Brooke, James|date=1 February 1987|title=C.I.A. Said to Send Weapons Via Zaire to Angola Rebels|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/01/world/cia-said-to-send-weapons-via-zaire-to-angola-rebels.html?sq=C.I.A.+Said+to+Send+Weapons+Via+Zaire+to+Angola+Rebels&scp=1&st=nyt|access-date=12 February 2008}}{{cite news|author1=Molotsky, Irvin|author2=Weaver Jr, Warren|date=6 February 1986|title=A Mending of Fences|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/06/us/briefing-a-mending-of-fences.html|access-date=10 February 2008}} In 1986 Savimbi visited the White House and afterwards Reagan approved the shipment of Stinger Surface-to-Air Missiles as a part of $25 million in aid.{{cite book|last=Tvedten|first=Inge|url=https://archive.org/details/angolastrugglefo00tved|title=Angola: Struggle for Peace and Reconstruction|year=1997|pages=[https://archive.org/details/angolastrugglefo00tved/page/38 38–39]|url-access=registration}}{{cite news|last=Simpson|first=Chris|date=25 February 2002|title=Obituary: Jonas Savimbi, Unita's local boy|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/264094.stm|url-status=live|access-date=10 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124053912/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/264094.stm|archive-date=24 January 2008}}{{cite book|last=Easton|first=Nina J.|url=https://archive.org/details/gangoffiveleader00east|title=Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade|year=2000|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gangoffiveleader00east/page/165 165–167]|publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=9780684838991|url-access=registration}}{{cite book|last=Franklin|first=Jane|title=Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History|url=https://archive.org/details/cubaunitedstates0000fran|url-access=registration|year=1997|page=[https://archive.org/details/cubaunitedstates0000fran/page/212 212]|publisher=Ocean Press |isbn=9781875284924}}

After George H.W. Bush became president, aid to Savimbi continued. Savimbi began relying on the company Black, Manafort, and Stone in order to lobby for assistance. They lobbied the H.W. Bush administration for increased assistance and weapons to UNITA.{{Cite web|title=How an American Lobbyist Stoked War Halfway Across the World|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/assets/media/interactives/2018/02/20/masthead-the-corruption-issue-1/stories/how-an-american-lobbyist-stoked-war-halfway-around-the-world/|last=Peterson|first=Matt|website=The Corruption Institute|publisher=The Masthead from the Atlantic}} Savimbi also met with Bush himself in 1990.{{cite book|last=Walker|first=John Frederick|title=A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred-Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola|url=https://archive.org/details/certaincurveofho0000walk|url-access=registration|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/certaincurveofho0000walk/page/190 190]|publisher=Grove Press |isbn=9780802140685}} In 1991, the MPLA and UNITA signed the Bicesse Accords ending US and Soviet involvement in the war, initiating multi-party elections and establishing the Republic of Angola, while South Africa withdrew from Namibia.Wright, George. The Destruction of a Nation: United States' Policy Towards Angola Since 1945, 1997. Page 159.

{{see also|Indonesian invasion of East Timor}}

On December 7, 1975, nine days after declaring independence from Portugal, East Timor was invaded by Indonesia. Whilst it was under the pretext of anti-colonialism, the actual aim of the invasion was to overthrow the Fretilin regime that emerged the previous year.{{cite web|url=http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/updateFiles/english/CONFLICT-RELATED%20DEATHS.pdf|title=Conflict-Related Deaths in Timor-Leste 1974–1999: The Findings of the CAVR Report Chega!|work=Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR)|access-date=August 10, 2021}}{{cite web|url=http://www.etan.org/etanpdf/2006/CAVR/07.2_Unlawful_Killings_and_Enforced_Disappearances.pdf|title=Unlawful Killings and Enforced Disappearances|work=Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR)|page=6|access-date=August 10, 2021}} The day before the invasion, U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger met with General Suharto, who told them of his intention to invade East Timor. Ford replied, "[W]e will understand and not press you on the issue. We understand the problem you have and the intentions you have."{{cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jan/05/fordsshame|title=Ford's shame|last=Baldwin|first=Clive|date=January 5, 2007|work=The Guardian|access-date=September 6, 2021}} Ford endorsed the invasion as he saw East Timor as of little significance, overshadowed by Indonesia–United States relations.{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/east-timor-a-dark-stain-on-fords-legacy-20070106-gdp6od.html|title=East Timor a dark stain on Ford's legacy|last=McDonald|first=Hamish|date=January 6, 2007|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=August 20, 2021|language=en}} The fall of Saigon earlier in 1975 had left Indonesia as the most important U.S. ally in Southeast Asia, so Ford reasoned that it was in the national interest to side with Indonesia.{{cite book|title=Gerald R. Ford: The American Presidents Series: The 38th President|first=Douglas|last=Brinkley|date=2007|page=132|publisher=Macmillan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ANVyLKKIp9wC&pg=PA132|isbn=978-1429933414}}

American weapons were crucial to Indonesia during the invasion,{{cite book |last=Simons |first=Geoff |year=2000 |title=Indonesia: The Long Oppression |page=189 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=0-312-22982-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/indonesialongopp00simo |ref=none}} with the majority of military equipment used by Indonesian military units involved being U.S. supplied.{{cite web|url=http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB174/1010.pdf|title=Indonesian Use of MAP Equipment in Timor, Memorandum from Clinton E. Granger to Brent Scowcroft|date=12 December 1975|work=National Security Council}} United States military aid to Indonesia continued during its occupation of East Timor, which ended in 1999 with East Timor's independence referendum.{{Cite book|last=Whitehouse|first=Anab|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U5l2DwAAQBAJ&dq=mondale+israel+timor&pg=PA342|title=Quest for Sovereignty|year=2018|page=342|publisher=Bilquees Press|isbn=9781728795522|language=en}} In 2005, the final Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor wrote that "[U.S.] political and military support were fundamental to the invasion and occupation of East Timor".{{cite web|url=http://www.etan.org/news/2006/cavr.htm|title=Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor|year=2006|website=www.etan.org}}

{{Main|CIA activities in Afghanistan|Operation Cyclone}}

File:Afghanistan in its region.svg

In 1978, the Saur Revolution brought the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to power, a one-party state backed by the Soviet Union. In what was known as Operation Cyclone, the U.S. government provided weapons and funding for a collection of warlords and several factions of jihadi guerrillas known as the Afghan mujahideen fighting to overthrow the Afghan government. The program began modestly with $695,000 in nominally "non-lethal" aid to the mujahideen on July 3, 1979, and escalated following the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.{{harvnb|Coll|2004|pp=46, 50–51, 58, 593}}: "Contemporary memos—particularly those written in the first days after the Soviet invasion—make clear that while Brzezinski was determined to confront the Soviets in Afghanistan through covert action, he was also very worried the Soviets would prevail. ... Given this evidence and the enormous political and security costs that the invasion imposed on the Carter administration, any claim that Brzezinski lured the Soviets into Afghanistan warrants deep skepticism." cf. {{cite web|author-link=Zbigniew Brzezinski|last=Brzezinski|first=Zbigniew|url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB396/docs/1979-12-26%20Brzezinski%20to%20Carter%20on%20Afghanistan.pdf|title=Reflections on Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan|date=1979-12-26|access-date=2021-06-26|quote=Accordingly, the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan poses for us an extremely grave challenge, both internationally and domestically. ... we should not be too sanguine about Afghanistan becoming a Soviet Vietnam ... }}{{cite journal|last=Tobin|first=Conor|title=The Myth of the "Afghan Trap": Zbigniew Brzezinski and Afghanistan, 1978–1979|journal=Diplomatic History|publisher=Oxford University Press|volume=44|issue=2|date=April 2020|pages=237–264|doi=10.1093/dh/dhz065|doi-access=free}} Through the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of neighboring Pakistan the U.S. channeled training, weapons, and money for Afghan fighters.{{Cite news |last=Tyson |first=Ann Scott |date=2007-12-28 |title=Sorry, Charlie. This Is Michael Vickers's War. |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122702116.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}Riedel, Bruce 2014, "What We Won: America's Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979–1989," Brookings Institution Press. pp. ix–xi, 21–22, 98–105Newsweek, October 1, 2001, Evan Thomas, "The Road to September 11," {{cite web |url=http://www.newsweek.com/war-terror-road-september-11-151771 |title=The Road to September 11 |website=Newsweek |access-date=September 2, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122133713/http://www.newsweek.com/war-terror-road-september-11-151771 |archive-date=November 22, 2013 |date=October 2001 }}{{Cite web |title=Afghanistan: Lessons from the Last War |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/us.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu}} The first CIA-supplied weapons were antique British Lee–Enfield rifles shipped out in December 1979, but by September 1986 the program included U.S.-origin state of the art weaponry, such as FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, some 2,300 of which were ultimately shipped into Afghanistan.{{sfn|Coll|2004|pp=58, 149–150, 337}}

Afghan Arabs also "benefited indirectly from the CIA's funding, through the ISI and resistance organizations."{{Cite book |last=Ewans |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Ewans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c9V-AgAAQBAJ&q=afghan+arabs,+cia,+ewans&pg=PA128 |title=Conflict in Afghanistan: Studies in Asymmetric Warfare |date=December 1, 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134294817 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite book |last1=Ewans |first1=Martin |author-link=Martin Ewans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BREUv91DebIC&q=Ewans,+%22Afghanistan+--+A+New+History.%22&pg=PP1 |title=Afghanistan – A New History |date=September 5, 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136803390 |via=Google Books}} Some of the CIA's greatest Afghan beneficiaries were Islamist commanders such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who were key allies of Osama bin Laden over many years.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvtQI1aANTIC|title=Talibanistan|via=books.google.com|isbn=9780199893096|last1=Bergen|first1=Peter|last2=Tiedemann|first2=Katherine|date=February 14, 2013|publisher=Oup USA }}{{cite web |url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB389/ |title=The Haqqani History: Bin Ladin's Advocate Inside the Taliban |website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=kepel,+bin+laden,+cia |title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam |first=Gilles |last=Kepel |date=August 9, 2018 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |via=Google Books|isbn=9781845112578 }} Some of the CIA-funded militants would become part of al-Qaeda later on, and included bin Laden, according to former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and other sources.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/08/july7.development |title=The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means |last=Cook |first=Robin |work=The Guardian |access-date=July 8, 2005 |location=London |date=July 8, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050710025703/http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0%2C12780%2C1523838%2C00.html |archive-date=July 10, 2005 |url-status=live }}{{cite news|publisher=BBC News|date=July 20, 2004|title=Al-Qaeda's Origins and Links|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1670089.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130324142230/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1670089.stm|archive-date=March 24, 2013|quote=During the anti-Soviet jihad Bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Some analysts believe Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA.}}{{cite news|quote=By 1984, [bin Laden] was running a front organization known as Maktab al-Khidamar – the MAK – which funneled money, arms and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war. What the CIA bio conveniently fails to specify (in its unclassified form, at least) is that the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan's state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA's primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow's occupation [...] So bin Laden, along with a small group of Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian refugee camps all over the Middle East, became the 'reliable' partners of the CIA in its war against Moscow.|publisher=NBC News|date=August 24, 1998|title=Bin Laden Comes Home to Roost: His CIA Ties Are Only the Beginning of a Woeful Story|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3340101#.WsHDwYXfjvY|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160718060636/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3340101/t/bin-laden-comes-home-roost|archive-date=July 18, 2016 }}{{cite news|quote=And some of the same warriors who fought the Soviets with the C.I.A.'s help are now fighting under Mr. bin Laden's banner.|work=The New York Times|date=August 24, 1998|title=Afghan Camps, Hidden in Hills, Stymied Soviet Attacks for Years|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/24/world/afghan-camps-hidden-in-hills-stymied-soviet-attacks-for-years.html|first=Tim|last=Weiner|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180402224817/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/24/world/afghan-camps-hidden-in-hills-stymied-soviet-attacks-for-years.html|archive-date=April 2, 2018}} Despite these and similar allegations, there is no direct evidence of CIA contact with bin Laden or his inner circle during the Soviet–Afghan War.{{sfn|Coll|2004|p=87}}{{cite book |last=Bergen |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Bergen |date=2021 |title=The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mWI7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-9821-7052-3 |pages=42–43}}{{cite book |last=Hegghammer |first=Thomas |date=2020 |title=The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7FfPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=183 |isbn=978-0-521-76595-4 |doi=10.1017/9781139049375|s2cid=214002117 }}{{cite book |last=Burke |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Burke |date=2007 |title=Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam |title-link=Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror |edition=3rd |location=London |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-103136-1 |page=59}}

U.S. support for the mujahideen ended in January 1992 pursuant to an agreement reached with the Soviets in September 1991 on ending external interference in Afghanistan by either side. By 1992, the combined U.S., Saudi, and Chinese aid to the mujahideen was estimated at $6–12 billion, whereas Soviet military aid to Afghanistan was valued at $36–48 billion. The result was a heavily armed, militarized Afghan society: Some sources indicate that Afghanistan was the world's top destination for personal weapons during the 1980s.{{sfn|Coll|2004|pp=232–233, 238}}

{{Main|Solidarity (Polish trade union)}}

File:Poland_1956-1990.svg

Since the 1952 Constitution, Poland was a one-party Communist state, the Polish People's Republic. In the 1980s, opposition to it crystallised in the Solidarity trade union, founded in 1980. The Reagan administration supported the Solidarity, and—based on CIA intelligence—waged a public relations campaign to deter what the Carter administration felt was "an imminent move by large Soviet military forces into Poland."{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/books-monographs/us-intelligence-and-the-polish-crisis-1980-1981-2/|title=US Intelligence and the Polish Crisis 1980–1981|publisher =CIA |author=Douglas J. MacEachin}} On November 4, 1982, President Reagan, after a brief discussion with the National Security Planning Group, signed an executive order to provide money and non-lethal aid to Polish opposition groups: the operation was code-named QRHELPFUL.{{cite news|last=Jones|first=Seth G.|date=October 1, 2018|title=Going on the Offensive: A U.S. Strategy to Combat Russian Information Warfare|url=https://www.csis.org/analysis/going-offensive-us-strategy-combat-russian-information-warfare|access-date=December 25, 2023|website=Center for Strategic and International Studies|language=en}} Michael Reisman and James E. Baker named operations in Poland as one of the covert actions of the CIA during Cold War.{{cite book |last=Arsanjani |first=Mahnoush |title=Looking to the Future: Essays on International Law in Honor of W. Michael Reisman |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |publication-place=Leiden Boston |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-04-17361-3 |oclc=806439566 |page=107}}{{clarify|source does not mention regime change. Was this covert action to that end?|date=September 2021}} Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, a senior officer on the Polish General Staff was secretly sending reports to the CIA.{{Cite journal |last=Davies |first=Richard T. |date=2004-07-01 |title=The CIA and the Polish Crisis of 1980–1981 |url=https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-abstract/6/3/120/12675/The-CIA-and-the-Polish-Crisis-of-1980-1981?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=120–123 |doi=10.1162/1520397041447346 |issn=1520-3972}} The CIA transferred around $2 million yearly in cash to Solidarity, for a total of $10 million over five years. There were no direct links between the CIA and Solidarność, and all money was channeled through third parties.{{Cite book |last=Domber |first=Gregory F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hlk7BAAAQBAJ&q=%22although+Casey+initiated%22 |title=Empowering Revolution: America, Poland, and the End of the Cold War |date=2014 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-1851-7 |language=en}} CIA officers were barred from meeting Solidarity leaders, and the CIA's contacts with Solidarność activists were weaker than those of the AFL–CIO, which raised $300,000 from its members, which were used to provide material and cash directly to Solidarity, with no control of Solidarity's use of it. The U.S. Congress authorized the National Endowment for Democracy to promote democracy, and the NED allocated $10 million to Solidarity.{{citation|last=Domber|first=Gregory F.|title=What Putin Misunderstands about American Power|url=http://uncpressblog.com/2014/08/28/gregory-f-domber-what-putin-misunderstands-about-american-power/|date=28 August 2014|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|series=University of California Press Blog}}

When the Polish government launched martial law in December 1981, however, Solidarity was not alerted. Potential explanations for this vary; some believe that the CIA was caught off guard, while others suggest that American policy-makers viewed an internal crackdown as preferable to an "inevitable Soviet intervention."{{Cite web |title=US Intelligence and the Polish Crisis, 1980-1981 - CSI |url=https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/books-monographs/us-intelligence-and-the-polish-crisis-1980-1981-2/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=www.cia.gov}} CIA support for Solidarity included money, equipment and training, which was coordinated by Special Operations.Cover Story: The Holy Alliance By Carl Bernstein Sunday, June 24, 2001 Henry Hyde, U.S. House intelligence committee member, stated that the US provided "supplies and technical assistance in terms of clandestine newspapers, broadcasting, propaganda, money, organizational help and advice".Branding Democracy: U.S. Regime Change in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe, Gerald Sussman, page 128 Initial funds for covert actions by the CIA were $2 million, but soon after authorization were increased and by 1985 the CIA successfully infiltrated Poland.Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency, William J. Daugherty. page 201–203{{clarify|what does "successfully infiltrated" mean?|date=September 2021}}

{{See also|CIA activities in Chad}}

File:LocationChad.png

In 1975 as part of the First Chadian Civil War, the military overthrew François Tombalbaye and installed Félix Malloum as head of state. Hissène Habré was appointed Prime minister, and attempted to overthrow the government in February 1979, failing, and being forced out. In 1979 Malloum resigned and Goukouni Oueddei became head of state. Oueddei agreed to share power with Habre, appointing him Minister of Defense, but fighting resumed soon after. Habre was exiled to Sudan in 1980.{{Cite book|url=https://cdn.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/ch/chadcountrystudy00coll/chadcountrystudy00coll.pdf|title=Chad: a country study|publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|year=1990|editor-last=Collelo|editor-first=Thomas|edition=Second|pages=24–31|orig-year=December 1988}}

At the time the U.S. government wanted a bulwark against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and saw Chad, Libya's southern neighbor, as a good option. Chad and Libya had recently signed an agreement to attempt to end their border conflict and "to work to achieve full unity between the two countries", which the United States was against. The United States also saw Oueddei as too close to Gaddafi. Habre was already pro-western and pro-American, as well as against Oueddei. The Reagan administration gave him covert support through the CIA when he returned in 1981 to continue fighting, and he overthrew Goukouni Oueddi on June 7, 1982, making himself the new president of Chad.{{Cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/2/us_backed_chadian_dictator_hissene_habre|title=U.S.-Backed Chadian Dictator Hissène Habré Faces War Crimes Trial in Historic Win for His Victims|website=Democracy Now!|language=en|access-date=2019-11-29}}

The CIA continued to support Habre after he took power, including training and equipping the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), Chad's notorious secret police. They also supported Chad in their 1986–1987 war against Libya.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/tag/hissene-habre|title=Hissène Habré|website=Human Rights Watch|language=en|access-date=2019-11-29}}

{{See also|CIA activities in Nicaragua|Nicaraguan Revolution}}

File:Nicaragua in its region.svg

In 1979, the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) overthrew the US-backed Somoza family. The Carter administration tried to be friendly with the new government, but the Reagan administration that came after in January 1981 had more aggressive and anti-communist foreign policy. They immediately cut off aid to the Nicaraguan government, and in August 1981, Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 7, which authorized the production and shipment of arms to the region but not their deployment. In November 1981 Reagan signed National Security Directive 17, which allowed covert support to anti-Sandinista forces.{{cite web|publisher=U.S. Department of Justice|title=Appendix A: Background on United States Funding of the Contras|url=https://www.justice.gov/oig/special/9712/appa.htm}}{{cite web|title=National Security Decision Directive number 7|date=August 6, 1981|url=https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdd/nsdd-7.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424044012/https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdd/nsdd-7.pdf|archive-date=2016-04-24}}

The U.S. government armed, trained and funded the Contras, a group of rebel fighters based in Honduras, in an attempt to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.{{cite web|title=National Security Decision Directive number 17|date=January 4, 1982|url=https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdd/nsdd-17.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424094345/https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdd/nsdd-17.pdf|archive-date=April 24, 2016}}{{cite web|title=Presidential Finding authorizing paramilitary activities|date=December 1, 1981|url=http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/documents/d-all-45.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030205727/http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/documents/d-all-45.pdf|archive-date=October 30, 2012}}{{cite news|work=The New York Times|first=Hedrick|last=Smith|date=February 22, 1985|title=President Asserts Goal Is to Remove Sandinista Regime|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/22/us/president-asserts-goal-is-to-remove-sandinista-regime.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814030115/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/22/us/president-asserts-goal-is-to-remove-sandinista-regime.html|archive-date=August 14, 2016}}{{cite web|publisher=Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium|title=Contras|url=http://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/contras|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019145304/http://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/contras|archive-date=October 19, 2016}} As part of the training, the CIA distributed a detailed manual entitled "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War", which instructed the Contras, among other things, on how to blow up public buildings, to assassinate judges, to create martyrs, and to blackmail ordinary citizens.{{cite web|work=Facts on File World News Digest|date=October 19, 1984|title=U.S. Orders Probe of CIA Terror Manual|via=Live Journal|url=http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/60879.html#2c|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060531103945/http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/60879.html#2c|archive-date=May 31, 2006}} In addition to backing the Contras, the U.S. government also blew up bridges and mined harbors, causing the damaging of at least seven merchant ships and blowing up numerous Nicaraguan fishing boats. They also attacked Corinto harbour on October 10, 1983, causing 112 wounded according to the Nicaraguan government.{{cite news|work=The New York Times|date=April 18, 1984|title=OCT. 10 ASSAULT ON NICARAGUANS IS LAID TO C.I.A.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/18/world/oct-10-assault-on-nicaraguans-is-laid-to-cia.html}}{{cite book |last=Woodward |first=Bob |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61458429 |title=Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981–1987 |year=2005 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=0-7432-7403-2 |location=New York |oclc=61458429}}Gilbert, Dennis, "Sandinistas: The Party and The Revolution," Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988, p. 167{{cite news|work=Los Angeles Times|first1=Doyle|last1=McManus|first2=Robert C.|last2=Toth|date=March 5, 1986|title=Setback for Contras: CIA Mining of Harbors 'a Fiasco'|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-03-05-mn-12633-story.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131218102454/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-03-05/news/mn-12633_1_harbor-mining|archive-date=December 18, 2013}}{{cite web|publisher=International Court of Justice|title=Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America)|date=June 27, 1986|url=http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/?sum=367&p1=3&p2=3&case=70&p3=5|access-date=March 14, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150301210929/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/?sum=367&p1=3&p2=3&case=70&p3=5|archive-date=March 1, 2015}} After the Boland Amendment, passed in 1982, made it illegal for the U.S. government to provide funding for Contra activities, Reagan's administration secretly sold arms to the Iranian government to fund a secret U.S. government apparatus that continued illegally to fund the Contras, in what became known as the Iran–Contra affair.{{cite news|work=The New York Times|date=July 10, 1987|title=Iran-Contra Hearings; Boland Amendments: What They Provided|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/10/world/iran-contra-hearings-boland-amendments-what-they-provided.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531164036/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/10/world/iran-contra-hearings-boland-amendments-what-they-provided.html|archive-date=May 31, 2013}} The U.S. continued to arm and train the Contras even after the Sandinista government of Nicaragua won the elections of 1984.{{cite news|date=June 27, 1986|publisher=BBC News|work=On This Day – 27 June|title=1986: US guilty of backing Contras|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/27/newsid_2520000/2520169.stm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922162721/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/27/newsid_2520000/2520169.stm|archive-date=September 22, 2013}}{{cite news|work=The New York Times|date=November 16, 1984|title=Nicaraguan Vote: 'Free, Fair, Hotly Contested,'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/16/opinion/l-nicaraguan-vote-free-fair-hotly-contested-089345.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701011437/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/16/opinion/l-nicaraguan-vote-free-fair-hotly-contested-089345.html|archive-date=July 1, 2017}}

In April 1984, Nicaragua initiated proceedings against the U.S. at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that the U.S. violated international law for their support of the Contras and mining of harbors. Nicaragua argued that the U.S. had enganged in acts of aggression via surrogate forces to harm Nicaragua's economy and bring about regime change. The Nicaraguan government stated that economic cost of the war in 1984 alone was 255 million dollars and cited acts commited by the Contras such as closing of education and health care facilities, including a hospital, and the killing of health and education workers. The court ruled against the U.S. in June 1986 and awarded reparations to Nicaragua. However the Reagan administration had already announced in January 1985 that they would no longer be participating in the ICJ proceedings or consider itself bound by their ruling.{{Cite journal |last=Pfost |first=Donald R. |date=1987 |title=Reagan's Nicaraguan Policy: A Case Study of Political Deviance and Crime |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/29766328 |journal=Crime and Social Justice |issue=27/28 |pages=66–87 |jstor=29766328 |issn=0094-7571}}{{Cite journal |last=Kornbluh |first=Peter |date=1987 |title=Test Case for the Reagan Doctrine: The Covert Contra War |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3991646 |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=1118–1128 |doi=10.1080/01436598708420018 |jstor=3991646 |issn=0143-6597}}

During the 1990 Nicaraguan general election campaign, the George H. W. Bush administration authorized 49.75 million dollars of non-lethal aid to the Contras. The war continued, with the Contras assassinating candidates and distributing leaflets promoting the opposition party UNO (National Opposition Union),{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/article/43da45651156d0de56c194d0adc72263|title=Bush Will Lift Trade Embargo if Nicaraguan Opposition Candidate Wins|last=Beamish|first=Rita|date=8 November 1989|publisher=Associated Press}} who would win the election.{{cite book|title=The 1990 Elections in Nicaragua and Their Aftermath|last=Castro|first=Vanessa|date=September 1992|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.|page=31}} The war ended soon afterwards.{{Cite web |title=U.S. Endorses Contra Plan as Prod to Democracy in Nicaragua |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73891981.html?dids=73891981:73891981&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+09,+1989&author=John+M.+Goshko;+Ann+Devroy&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=U.S.+Endorses+Contra+Plan+as+Prod+to+Democracy+in+Nicaragua&pqatl=google |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20130206094847/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73891981.html?dids=73891981:73891981&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+09%2C+1989&author=John+M.+Goshko%3B+Ann+Devroy&pub=The+Washington+Post+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=U.S.+Endorses+Contra+Plan+as+Prod+to+Democracy+in+Nicaragua&pqatl=google |archive-date=2013-02-06 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=pqasb.pqarchiver.com}} In 1992, the post-Sandinista government of Nicaragua withdrew the complaint from the ICJ and repealed the law that had required the country to seek compensation from the U.S.{{cite web|title=Human Rights Watch World Report 1993 – Nicaragua |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,HRW,,NIC,467fca491e,0.html |access-date=September 18, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009082531/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher%2CHRW%2C%2CNIC%2C467fca491e%2C0.html |archive-date=October 9, 2012 }}

{{Main|United States invasion of Grenada}}

File:Grenada in its region.svg

On October 25, 1983, the U.S. military and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the nation of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, and successfully overthrew the Marxist government of Hudson Austin. The conflict was triggered by the killing of the previous leader of Grenada Maurice Bishop and the establishment of Hudson as the country's leader a week before on 19 October.{{cite news|work=The New York Times|date=March 30, 1984|title=Medals Outnumber G.I.s in Grenada Assault|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/30/world/medals-outnumber-gi-s-in-grenada-assault.html |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213084434/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/30/world/medals-outnumber-gi-s-in-grenada-assault.html|archive-date=February 13, 2017}}{{cite report|last=Stewart|first=Richard W.|date=2008|title=Operation Urgent Fury: The Invasion of Grenada, October 1983|publisher=U.S. Army|url=http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/grenada/urgent_fury.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924100641/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/grenada/urgent_fury.pdf|archive-date=September 24, 2015}} The United Nations General Assembly called the U.S. invasion "a flagrant violation of international law"{{cite web|work=United Nations General Assembly Resolutions|title=38/7. The situation in Grenada|date=November 2, 1983|url=http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/38/7}} but a similar resolution widely supported in the United Nations Security Council was vetoed by the U.S.{{cite web|work=Global Policy Forum|last=Zunes|first=Stephen|date=October 2003|title=The U.S. Invasion of Grenada: A Twenty Year Retrospective|url=https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/155/25966.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170523150329/https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/155/25966.html|archive-date=May 23, 2017}}{{cite web|publisher=United Nations|title=Security Council – Veto List|date=October 28, 1983|url=http://research.un.org/en/docs/sc/quick/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019212459/http://research.un.org/en/docs/sc/quick/|archive-date=October 19, 2016}}

{{Main|United States invasion of Panama}}

File:Panama in its region.svg

In 1979, the U.S. and Panama signed a treaty to end the Panama Canal Zone and promise that the U.S. would hand over the canal after 1999. Manuel Noriega ruled the country of Panama as a dictator. He was an ally of the United States working with them against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the FMLN in El Salvador. Despite this, relations began to deteriorate as he was implicated in the Iran–Contra scandal, including drug trafficking.{{cite book|title=The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations|publisher=National Security Archive Electronic Briefing|page=2}}{{full citation needed|date=December 2014}} As relations continued to deteriorate Noriega started to ally with the Eastern Bloc. This also worried US officials and government officials like Elliott Abrams started arguing with Reagan that the US should invade Panama. Reagan decided to hold off due to George H. W. Bush's ties to Noriega when he was the head of the CIA running his election, but after Bush was elected he started pressuring Noriega. Despite irregularities in the 1989 Panamanian general election, Noriega refused to allow the opposition candidate into power. Bush called on him to honor the will of the Panamanian people. Coup attempts were made against Noriega and skirmishes broke out between U.S. and Panamanian troops. Noriega was also indicted for drug charges in the United States.{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Howard|title=Crucible of Power: A History of US Foreign Relations Since 1897|url=https://archive.org/details/crucibleofpower00jone|url-access=registration|year=2001|page=[https://archive.org/details/crucibleofpower00jone/page/494 494]|publisher=SR Books|isbn=9780842029186}}{{full citation needed|date=December 2014}}

In December 1989, in a military operation code-named Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invaded Panama. Noriega went into hiding but was later captured by US forces. President-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office. The United States ended Operation Just Cause in January 1990 and began Operation Promote Liberty, which was the occupation of the country to set up the new government until 1994.{{cite journal|last=Yates|first=Lawrence|date=May–June 2005|title=Panama, 1988–1990: The Discontent between Combat and Stability Operations|url=http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/download/English/MayJun05/yates.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Military Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070625010320/http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/download/English/MayJun05/yates.pdf|archive-date=25 June 2007|access-date=2 September 2010|df=dmy-all}}{{full citation needed|date=December 2014}}

File:Soviet Union in its region.svg

{{Main|Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Singing Revolution}}

In 1983, the congressionally funded National Endowment for Democracy was established to promote democratic change in communist states.{{Cite journal |last=Geoghegan |first=Kate |year=2018 |title=A Policy in Tension: The National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Response to the Collapse of the Soviet Union |journal=Diplomatic History |volume=42 |issue=5 |publisher=Oxford academic |pages=772–801 |doi=10.1093/dh/dhx088}} Between 1984 and 1986, the foundation funded émigré journals that were smuggled into the Soviet Union. At a meeting of the organization in December 1986, Zbigniew Brzezinski proposed supporting nationalism and democratic aspirations among national and religious minorities such as Ukrainians, Muslims, and the Baltics in order to politically and economically decentralize the Soviet system. In 1989, sovietologist Richard Pipes suggested that the Bush administration "devise a long-term strategy for the decolonization of the inner Soviet empire", and Brzezinski argued that the Soviet Union should be transformed "into a genuinely voluntary confederation or commonwealth". The foundation channeled aid to groups in the Baltic States, Armenia, Russia, and Ukraine that sought greater independence from Gorbachev's central government.

Prior to the 1990 Russian parliamentary elections, NED funded an initiative by Paul Weyrich and the Free Congress Foundation to assist Boris Yeltsin and a group of democratic candidates and to create a "communications network". The foundation provided assistance to strengthen the independent press and to train democratic candidates in political techniques. The organization Democratic Russia received $2 million from the conservative Krieble Institute, with which Yeltsin's advisor Gennady Burbulis organized 120 workshops and seminars in Moscow, democracy trainings in Russian regions, and conferences in Tallinn.Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union, Vladislav M. Zubok, page 212-213, 220 The money also bought computers and copy machines that were used during the referendum on March 17, 1991, as well as Yeltsin's election campaign. Yeltsin's campaign manager in 1991, Alexander Urmanov, received training from the Krieble Institute. The KGB knew about the foreign aid, but did nothing about it because the recipients of the money had parliamentary immunity and there was no law prohibiting Soviet parliamentarians from receiving foreign aid. Commenting on Yeltsin's victory in Russia's first democratic presidential election, Burbublis told Krieble: "Well, Bob, you did it."

{{Importance section|small=left}}

In 1990-1991, the NED-supported network of Ukrainian-American organizations channeled aid to the Ukrainian independence movement. Among other things, NED provided $65,000 to the Ukrainian National Association and $150,000 to the "Ukraine 2000" organization. The foundation's grants allowed Ukrainian independence supporters, the Rukh movement, to establish a publishing center in Lviv. According to Carl Gershman, head of National Endowment for Democracy, the Bush administration was not opposed to helping the Ukrainian independence movement.

{{See also|1991 uprisings in Iraq|Sanctions against Iraq}}

File:Iraq (orthographic projection).svg

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed sanctions against Iraq in August 1990 under Resolution 661{{Cite web |title=Publications |url=https://fas.tghp.co.uk/publications/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120907134147/http://www.fas.org/news/un/iraq/sres/sres0661.htm |archive-date=2012-09-07 |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Federation of American Scientists |language=en-US}} to compel Iraq to withdraw from occupied Kuwait without the use of military force, but Iraq refused to withdraw its forces, leading to the 1991 Gulf War.{{cite book|last=Selden|first=Zachary|title=Economic Sanctions as Instruments of American Foreign Policy|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1999|isbn=978-0-275-96387-3|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mn7Wxx1SigcC&pg=PA88 88]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=mn7Wxx1SigcC&pg=PA89 89]}} During and immediately following the War, the United States broadcast signals encouraging an uprising against Saddam Hussein, an autocrat who had ruled Iraq since coming to power in an internal struggle in the ruling Ba'ath Party in 1979.{{cite web|title=CRS Report: Iraq's Opposition Movements|url=https://fas.org/irp/crs/crs-iraq-op.htm|publisher=Fas.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103122106/http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/crs-iraq-op.htm|archive-date=November 3, 2012|access-date=2013-08-14}}{{Cite web|title=CNN Presents The Unfinished War: The Legacy of Desert Storm|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0101/05/cp.00.html|date=5 January 2001|website=CNN}} On February 24, 1991, a few days after the ceasefire was signed the CIA funded and operated radio station Voice of Free Iraq called for the Iraqi people to rise up against Hussein.Fisk, Robert. The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. London: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006 p. 646 {{ISBN|1-84115-007-X}}{{Cite book|last=Fisk|title=Great War for Civilisation|pages=646}} The day after the Gulf War ended on March 1, 1991, Bush again called for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.{{Cite news|title=Uprising in Iraq may be slow because of U.S. inaction in 1991|url=https://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Uprising-in-Iraq-may-be-slow-because-of-U-S-1111482.php|last=Embry|first=Jason|date=4 April 2003|newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer}} The U.S. was hoping for a coup but instead, a series of uprisings erupted across Iraq right after the war.{{cite book|last=Makiya|first=Kanan|title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Updated Edition|url=https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki|url-access=registration|publisher=University of California Press|year=1998|isbn=9780520921245|page=XX}} Two of the largest rebellions were led by the Iraqi Kurds in the North and the Shia militias in the south. Although George H.W. Bush said that the U.S. did not intend to assist any rebels,{{Cite web|title=US Forces Won't Intervene in Iraq's Civil War. "President Bush firmly reiterated that he does not want US military forces to be involved in Iraq's internal turmoil".|url=https://fas.org/news/iraq/1991/910404-179249.htm|last=McDonald|first=Dian|date=4 April 1991|website=Federation of American Scientists|publication-date=30 May 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117014809/https://fas.org/news/iraq/1991/910404-179249.htm|archive-date=17 November 2015}} the rebels assumed that they would get direct U.S. support; however, the United States worried that if Saddam fell and Iraq collapsed, Iran would gain power.{{Cite news |last=Arango |first=Tim |date=2011-11-09 |title=A Long-Awaited Apology for Shiites, but the Wounds Run Deep |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/world/middleeast/iraqi-shiite-anger-at-united-states-remains-strong.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Colin Powell wrote of his time as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "our practical intention was to leave Baghdad enough power to survive as a threat to an Iran that remained bitterly hostile toward the United States".{{cite news|date=April 4, 2003|title=Uprising in Iraq may be slow because of U.S. inaction in 1991|newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Uprising-in-Iraq-may-be-slow-because-of-U-S-1111482.php|url-status=live|access-date=August 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201190456/http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Uprising-in-Iraq-may-be-slow-because-of-U-S-1111482.php|archive-date=February 1, 2014}} The Shia uprisings were crushed by the Iraqi military while the Peshmerga were more successful, gaining the Iraqi Kurds autonomy.

After the war, the U.S. government successfully advocated that sanctions remain in effect with revisions, including linkage to removal of weapons of mass destruction, which the UNSC did in April 1991 by adopting Resolution 687, albeit with the earlier prohibition on foodstuffs lifted.United Nations, UN Security Council Resolution 687, April 8, 1991, http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/documents/687.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020115805/http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/documents/687.pdf|date=October 20, 2014}}|{{cite web|title=Were Sanctions Right?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/magazine/were-sanctions-right.html|last=Rieff|first=David|date=July 27, 2003|work=The New York Times Magazine|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014051343/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/magazine/were-sanctions-right.html|archive-date=October 14, 2017}} U.S. officials stated in May 1991—when it was widely expected that the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein faced collapse{{cite book|last=Makiya|first=Kanan|url=https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki|title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Updated Edition|publisher=University of California Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-520-92124-5|page=xv|author-link=Kanan Makiya|url-access=registration}}cf. {{cite web|title=A Gulf War Exclusive: President Bush Talking with David Frost|website = YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Lv-mj7br0|access-date=February 26, 2017|quote=George H. W. Bush: Everybody felt that Saddam Hussein could not stay in office—certainly not stay in office as long as he's stayed in office. I miscalculated—I thought he'd be gone. But I wasn't alone! People in the Arab world felt, with unanimity, that he would be out of there. I think all observers felt that (event occurs at 45:14).}}—that the sanctions would not be lifted unless Saddam was ousted.{{cite web|title=AFTER THE WAR; Bush Links End of Trading Ban To Hussein Exit|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/21/world/after-the-war-bush-links-end-of-trading-ban-to-hussein-exit.html|last=Tyler|first=Patrick E.|date=May 21, 1991|work=The New York Times|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807152914/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/21/world/after-the-war-bush-links-end-of-trading-ban-to-hussein-exit.html|archive-date=August 7, 2017|quote=My view is we don't want to lift these sanctions as long as Saddam Hussein is in power," said President George H. W. Bush}}{{Cite web |title=U.S. taking tough stand against Saddam Hussein - UPI Archives |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/05/20/US-taking-tough-stand-against-Saddam-Hussein/1946674712000/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019213745/http://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/05/20/US-taking-tough-stand-against-Saddam-Hussein/1946674712000/ |archive-date=2016-10-19 |access-date=2024-08-17 |website=UPI |language=en}}Additional U.S. government officials' statements setting Saddam Hussein's ouster as the precondition for the cessation of sanctions against Iraq, including statements by Robert Gates, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, are provided in Gordon, Joy, 2010 "Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions," Harvard University Press, http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=978-0674035713 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180427184120/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=978-0674035713|date=April 27, 2018}} In the subsequent president's administration, U.S. officials did not explicitly insist on regime change but took the position that the sanctions could be lifted if Iraq complied with all of the UN resolutions it was violating (including those related to the country's human rights record) and not just with UN weapons inspections.{{cite web|title=Autopsy of a Disaster: The U.S. Sanctions Policy on Iraq|url=http://www.accuracy.org/44-autopsy-of-a-disaster-the-u-s-sanctions-policy-on-iraq/|date=November 13, 1998|website=Institute for Public Accuracy|access-date=February 26, 2017}} For example, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated in March 1997 that "Our view, which is unshakable, is that Iraq must prove its peaceful intentions. It can only do that by complying with all of the Security Council resolutions to which it is subjected"; National Security Adviser Sandy Berger stated in November 1997 that "It's been the U.S. position since the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein comply—has to comply with all of the relevant Security Council resolutions"; and UN ambassador Bill Richardson stated in December 1997 that "Our policy is clear. We believe that Saddam Hussein should comply with all the Security Council resolutions, and that includes 1137, those that deal with the UNSCOM inspectors, those that deal with human rights issues, those that deal with prisoners of war with Kuwait, those that deal with the treatment of his own people. We think that there are standards of international behavior."

{{Main|1991 Haitian coup d'état}}

Eight months after his election, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed by the Haitian Armed Forces.{{cite news |last=French |first=Howard W. |date=December 18, 1990 |title=Haitians Overwhelmingly Elect Populist Priest to the Presidency |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/18/world/haitians-overwhelmingly-elect-populist-priest-to-the-presidency.html |access-date=December 4, 2019 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}} Many professors document that the CIA "paid key members of the coup regime forces, identified as drug traffickers, for information from the mid-1980s at least until the coup."{{Cite journal |last=Whitney |first=Kathleen Marie |year=1996 |title=Sin, Fraph, and the CIA: U.S. Covert Action in Haiti |journal=Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=303–32 [p. 320]}} Coup leaders Raoul Cédras and Michel François had received military training in the United States.{{Harvnb|Whitney|1996|p=321}} While CIA officials expressed displeasure with Aristide and CIA informants placed CIA officers with the military at the time of the coup, the CIA denied involvement.{{Harvnb|Whitney|1996|p=320}} Importantly, the U.S.-led Operation Uphold Democracy reinstated President Aristide after receiving approval for intervention by the United Nations Security Council and collaborating with other Caribbean nations.

The CIA launched DBACHILLES, a coup d'état operation against the Iraqi government, recruiting Ayad Allawi, who headed the Iraqi National Accord, a network of Iraqis who opposed the Saddam Hussein government, as part of the operation. The network included Iraqi military and intelligence officers but was penetrated by people loyal to the Iraqi government.{{citation |url=http://www.afio.com/sections/wins/2003/2003-19.html#terrirst |author=Association of Former Intelligence Officers |title=US Coup Plotting in Iraq |id=Weekly Intelligence Notes 19-03 |date=May 19, 2003}}{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 16, 2003 |title=The CIA And the Coup That Wasn't |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/05/16/the-cia-and-the-coup-that-wasnt/0abfb8fa-61e9-4159-a885-89b8c476b188/}}{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 23, 1996 |title=With CIA's Help, Group in Jordan Targets Saddam; U.S. Funds Support Campaign To Topple Iraqi Leader From Afar |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/307963286 |access-date=July 7, 2017 |archive-date=February 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203071356/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/doc/307963286.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+23%2C+1996&author=Lancaster%2C+John%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7COttaway%2C+David+B&desc=With+CIA%27s+Help%2C+Group+in+Jordan+Targets+Saddam%3B+U.S.+Funds+Support+Campaign+To+Topple+Iraqi+Leader+From+Afar |id={{ProQuest|307963286}} |url-status=live }} Also using Ayad Allawi and his network, the CIA directed a government sabotage and bombing campaign in Baghdad between 1992 and 1995.{{cite news |quote=The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties ... One former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was based in the region, Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period 'blew up a school bus; school children were killed.' Mr. Baer ... said he did not recall which resistance group might have set off that bomb. Other former intelligence officials said Dr. Allawi's organization was the only resistance group involved in bombings and sabotage at that time. But one former senior intelligence official recalled that 'bombs were going off to no great effect.' 'I don't recall very much killing of anyone,' the official said.|work=The New York Times|first=Joel|last=Brinkley|date=June 9, 2004|title=Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/world/reach-war-new-premier-ex-cia-aides-say-iraq-leader-helped-agency-90-s-attacks.html}} The CIA bombing campaign may have been merely a test of the operational capacity of the CIA's network of assets on the ground and not intended to be the launch of the coup strike itself. However, Allawi attempted a coup against Saddam Hussein in 1996. The coup was unsuccessful, but Ayad Allawi was later installed as prime minister of Iraq by the Iraq Interim Governing Council, which had been created by the U.S.-led coalition following the March 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.{{cite web |author=Farah Nayeri |date=June 1, 2004 |work=Bloomberg |title=Allawi, Who Battled Hussein, to Lead Iraq After U.S. Handover |url=http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid%3D10000085%26sid%3DagdsULUSsCdo%26refer%3Deurope|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050919222145/http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=agdsULUSsCdo&refer=europe|archive-date=2005-09-19|access-date=2004-08-01}}

{{See also|Operation Uphold Democracy}}

After a right-wing military junta took over Haiti in 1991 in a coup, the U.S. initially had good relations with the new government. George H. W. Bush's administration supported the right wing junta. However, after the 1992 U.S. general election Bill Clinton came to power. Clinton was supportive of returning Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, and his administration was active for the return of democracy to Haiti. This culminated in United Nations Security Council Resolution 940, which authorized the United States to lead an invasion of Haiti and restore Aristide to power. A diplomatic effort was led by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell.{{Cite web|title=MISSION TO HAITI: THE DIPLOMAT; Despite Role as Negotiator, Carter Feels Unappreciated|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/21/world/mission-haiti-diplomat-despite-role-negotiator-carter-feels-unappreciated.html|last=Dowd|first=Maureen|date=21 September 1994|website=ny times.com|publisher=New York Times}} The U.S. gave the Haitian government an ultimatum: either the dictator of Haiti, Raoul Cédras, retire peacefully and let Aristide come back to power, or be invaded and forced out. Cedras capitulated; however, he did not immediately disband the armed forces. Protesters fought the military and police.Walter E. Kretchik, Robert F. Baumann, John T. Fishel. "A Concise History of the U.S. Army in Operation Uphold Democracy." U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Press. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 1998. p. 96.Kretchik et al., p. 98. The U.S. sent in the military to stop the violence, and soon it was quelled. Aristide returned to lead the country in October 1994.{{cite book|last1=Von Hippel|first1=Karin|title=Democracy by Force|url=https://archive.org/details/democracybyforce00hipp|url-access=limited|date=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=United Kingdom|pages=[https://archive.org/details/democracybyforce00hipp/page/n109 96]}} Clinton and Aristide presided over ceremonies and Operation Uphold Democracy officially ended on March 31, 1995.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

{{See also|First Congo War}}

Due to the end of the Cold War, U.S. support for Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire reduced.Gribbin, Robert E. In the Aftermath of Genocide: the U.S. Role in Rwanda. New York: IUniverse, 2005. p. 190Vlassenroot, Koen. "Citizenship, Identity Formation & Conflict in South Kivu: The Case of the Banyamulenge." Review of African Political Economy. 2002. 499–515. p. 508Lemarchand, René. The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2009. p. 32 In 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) invaded Rwanda, beginning the Rwandan Civil War, which culminated in the Rwandan genocide and caused over 1.5 million refugees to flee into Zaire, where fighting broke out between refugee and non-refugee Tutsis, Hutu refugees, and other ethnic groups. In response, Rwanda formed Tutsi militias in Zaire,Reyntjens, Filip. The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996–2006. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. pp. 45–48 causing tensions between the militias and the Zaire government leading to theReyntjens, Filip. The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996–2006. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. p. 49 Banyamulenge Rebellion on August 31, 1996, which led to the creation of Tutsi and non-Tutsi militias opposed to Mobutu into the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (AFDL), led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila.Pomfret, John. "Rwandans Led Revolt in Congo; Defense Minister Says Arms, Troops Supplied for Anti-Mobutu Drive." Washington Post. 9 July 1997: A1.

The United States covertly supported Rwanda before and during the Congo war. The U.S. believed it was time for a "new generation of African leaders", such as Kagame and Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, which was part of the reason the U.S. had previously stopped supporting Mobutu.Kennes, Erik. "The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Structures of Greed, Networks of Need." Rethinking the Economics of War. Ed. Cynthia J. Arnson and I. William Zartman. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center, 2005. p. 147 The U.S. sent soldiers to train the FPR and brought FPR commanders to the U.S as well before the war in 1995 for training. During the war, rebels in Bukavu were joined by a group of African–American mercenaries, who claimed they had been recruited in an unofficial U.S. mission. The CIA and U.S. army set up communications in Uganda, and during the war, several aircraft landed in Kigali and Entebbe, claiming to be bringing "aid for the genocide victims"; however, it has been alleged they were bringing military and communication supplies for the FPR. At the same time, U.S. operated anti-Mobutu support from the International Rescue Committee (IRC).{{Cite book|last=Prunier|first=Gerard|date=2009|title=Africa's World War : Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kp93kUfdhC0C|location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=118, 126–127|isbn=978-0-19-970583-2}}

{{Main|2000 Yugoslavian general election#Involvement of the United States|Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević#U.S. involvement in the revolution}}

File:Europe location SCG.png

In the run-up to the 2000 Yugoslavian general election, the U.S. State Department actively supported opposition groups such as Otpor through the supply of promotional material and consulting services via Quangos.{{cite web |author=Nicholas Thompson |title=This Ain't Your Momma's CIA |website=Washington Monthly |year=2001 |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0103.thompson.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070109084028/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0103.thompson.html |archive-date=January 9, 2007}} United States involvement served to speed up and organize dissent through exposure, resources, moral and material encouragement, technological aid and professional advice.{{cite web|author=Ray Jennings|year=2011|title=346. Serbia's October Revolution: Evaluating International Efforts Promoting Democratic Breakthrough|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/346-serbias-october-revolution-evaluating-international-efforts-promoting-democratic|access-date=January 28, 2016|publisher=Global Europe Program}} This campaign was one of the factors contributing to the incumbent president's defeat in the 2000 Yugoslavian general election and subsequent Bulldozer Revolution which overthrew Milošević on October 5, 2000, after he refused to recognise the results of the election. In addition, President Bill Clinton authorized CIA involvement in the election to prevent Milošević's victory.Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference, David Shimer, page 112-113 The agency funneled "certainly millions of dollars" into the campaign against the Serbian leader domestically and also organized meetings of opposition members abroad.

{{Main|United States invasion of Afghanistan|Operation Enduring Freedom}}

File:Afghanistan in its region.svg

Since 1996, Afghanistan had been under the control of the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a largely unrecognized unitary Deobandi–Islamic theocratic emirate administered by shura councils.{{cite book|last1=Gunaratna|first1=Rohan|last2=Woodall|first2=Douglas|title=Afghanistan After the Western Drawdown|year=2015|page=117}} On October 7, 2001, four weeks after the September 11 attacks by al-Qaeda, the United States invaded Afghanistan and began bombing al-Qaeda and Taliban targets. Under the Taliban regime, al-Qaeda had used Afghanistan to train and indoctrinate fighters at its own training camps, import weapons, coordinate with other jihadists, and plot terrorist actions. 10,000 to 20,000 men passed through al-Qaeda run camps before 9/11, most of whom went to fight for the Taliban, while a smaller number were inducted into al-Qaeda.{{cite web |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/ |title=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States |access-date=17 February 2010 |date=20 September 2004 |author=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States|pages=66–67|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211154714/http://www.9-11commission.gov/|archive-date=11 February 2010 }} Although none of the hijackers were of Afghan nationality, the attacks had been planned in Kandahar.{{sfn|Coll|2004|pp=473–478, 490}} George W. Bush said that the goal was to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.{{sfn|Coll|2004|pp=583–584}}

On October 11, four days after the bombing started, Bush claimed that it might stop if bin Laden were handed over to the U.S. by the Taliban, which had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda. "If you cough him up and his people today, then we'll reconsider what we are doing to your country," Bush told the Taliban. "You still have a second chance. Just bring him in, and bring his leaders and lieutenants and other thugs and criminals with him."{{cite news|last1=Tyler|first1=Patrick E.|last2=Bumiller|first2=Elisabeth|date=October 12, 2001|title=President Hints He Will Halt War if bin Laden Is Handed Over|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/12/international/president-hints-he-will-halt-war-if-bin-laden-is-handed-over.html|access-date=August 22, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} On October 14, Bush turned down an offer from the Taliban to discuss sending bin Laden to a third country.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/10/15/bush-rejects-taliban-offer-on-bin-laden/bc0ec919-082b-40e6-91ca-55e5ca34a70a/|title=Bush Rejects Taliban Offer On Bin Laden|last=Harris|first=John F.|date=October 15, 2001|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=August 22, 2021}} Taliban leader Mullah Omar had previously refused to extradite bin Laden.{{cite book |last=Malkasian |first=Carter |author-link=Carter Malkasian |date=2021 |title=The American War in Afghanistan: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8owEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA56 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-755077-9 |pages=56–57}} The United Kingdom was a key ally of the United States, offering support for military action from the start of preparations for the invasion, and the two countries worked with anti-Taliban Afghan forces in the Northern Alliance.{{cite news|url=https://inews.co.uk/news/world/us-afghanistan-why-invade-timeline-what-happened-2001-taliban-kabul-explained-1154262|title=Why the US invaded Afghanistan - and a timeline of what happened from 2001 until now|last=McCann|first=Jaymi|date=August 17, 2021|website=i|access-date=August 17, 2021}} The US aimed to destroy al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban regime from power,{{sfn|Wright et al.|2010|p=41}} but also sought to prevent the Northern Alliance from taking control of Afghanistan, believing the Alliance's rule would alienate the country's Pashtun majority.{{sfn|Woodward|2002|p=122|ps=. "The U.S. action would not succeed if the Northern Alliance took over or even seemed to take over the country. The Pashtun majority would not accept that."}} CIA director George Tenet argued that the US should target al-Qaeda but "hold off on the Taliban," since the Taliban were popular in Pakistan and attacking them could jeopardize relations with Pakistan.{{sfn|Woodward|2002|p=123|ps=. "'We want to hold off on the Taliban,' Tenet continued, 'So as not to destabilize Pakistan and our relationship with Pakistan.' There was still sufficient support for the Taliban in Pakistan that a military campaign conspicuously against the Taliban could undermine Musharraf."}}

By the end of October, a further goal had emerged: to remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.{{sfn|Wright et al.|2010|p=41}}

From December 6–17, 2001, a team of Northern Alliance fighters, under direction from a U.S. special forces team, pursued bin Laden in the cave complex of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, but the U.S. did not commit its own troops to the operation and bin Laden escaped to neighbouring Pakistan.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-14190032|title=Bin Laden's Tora Bora escape, just months after 9/11|last=Corera|first=Gordon|date=21 July 2011|publisher=BBC News|access-date=29 September 2021}} That same month, the Taliban Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan fell and was replaced by the Afghan Interim Administration and then the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan in 2002, and finally the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2004. Bin Laden was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs in a raid on his clandestine residence in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011, nearly ten years after the initial invasion. Despite bin Laden's death, the U.S. remained in Afghanistan, propping up the governments of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.{{cite web|last=Gossman|first=Patricia|date=July 6, 2021|title=How US-Funded Abuses Led to Failure in Afghanistan|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/06/how-us-funded-abuses-led-failure-afghanistan|access-date=September 11, 2021|publisher=Human Rights Watch|language=en}}

President Donald Trump struck an arrangement with the Taliban in February 2020 that would see U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan.{{cite news|last=Knutson|first=Jacob|title=Trump officials back away from 2020 Taliban peace deal after withdrawal chaos|url=https://www.axios.com/trump-taliban-agreement-doha-biden-8dabe136-6dce-4e43-9289-98551bd47ed6.html|date=August 20, 2021|website=Axios|access-date=October 1, 2021|language=en}} In April 2021, his successor, Joe Biden announced that a full withdrawal would occur in August of that year.{{cite news|url=https://inews.co.uk/news/world/afghanistan-why-us-leave-withdraw-joe-biden-pull-out-taliban-kabul-explained-1152637|title=Joe Biden's withdrawal explained, and how long it took Taliban to gain power|last=Tabahriti|first=Sam|date=August 19, 2021|website=i}} This was followed by the return of the Taliban to power.

{{excerpt|2002 Venezuelan coup attempt|US role and alleged involvement}}

{{Main|Iraq War}}

In 1998 as a non-covert measure, the U.S. enacted the "Iraq Liberation Act", which states, in part, that "It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq," and appropriated funds for U.S. aid "to the Iraqi democratic opposition organizations."Pub.L. 105–338, https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-105publ338/html/PLAW-105publ338.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329062723/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-105publ338/html/PLAW-105publ338.htm|date=March 29, 2017}}, 112 Stat. 3178, https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-112/pdf/STATUTE-112-Pg3178.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160922231653/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-112/pdf/STATUTE-112-Pg3178.pdf|date=September 22, 2016}}, enacted October 31, 1998 After Bush was elected he started being more aggressive toward Iraq.{{cite news|title=Republican Platform 2000|publisher=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/republican/features/platform.00/|access-date=25 May 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060421063832/http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/republican/features/platform.00/|archive-date=21 April 2006}} After the 9/11 attacks the Bush administration claimed that Iraq's ruler at the time, Saddam Hussein, had connections to Al-Qaeda and was supporting terrorism. The administration also stated that Hussein was covertly continuing production of weapons of mass destruction despite the fact that evidence for both was not conclusive.{{cite book|first=Bob|last=Woodward|author-link=Bob Woodward|url=https://archive.org/details/planofattackdefi00bobw|title=Plan of Attack|date=21 April 2004|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-6287-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/planofattackdefi00bobw/page/9 9]–23|url-access=registration}}{{cite web|title=Iraqi Defector 'Curveball' Admits WMD Lies, Is Proud of Tricking U.S.|url=http://abcnews.com/Blotter/iraqi-defector-al-janabi-codenamed-curveball-admits-wmd/story?id=12922213|last=Ferran|first=Lee|date=15 February 2011|work=ABC News}}{{Cite news|last=Connolly|first=Kate|date=10 February 2003|title=I am not convinced, Fischer tells Rumsfeld|journal=Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1421634/I-am-not-convinced-Fischer-tells-Rumsfeld.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1421634/I-am-not-convinced-Fischer-tells-Rumsfeld.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web |date=2003-03-07 |title=Transcript of Blix's U.N. presentation |url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/07/sprj.irq.un.transcript.blix/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109052347/http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/07/sprj.irq.un.transcript.blix/index.html |archive-date=2016-11-09 |access-date=2024-08-17 |website=CNN}}{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=R. Jeffrey |date=2007-04-06 |title=Hussein's Prewar Ties To Al-Qaeda Discounted |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040502263.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}} Iraq was also one of the three countries Bush called out in his Axis of Evil Speech.{{Cite web|title=President Delivers State of the Union Address|url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html|website=georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502151928/http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html|archive-date=2 May 2009}} In 2002 Congress passed the "Iraq Resolution" which authorized the president to "use any means necessary" against Iraq. The Iraq War then began in March 2003 when a United States-led military coalition invaded the country and overthrew the Iraqi government.{{cite news|first=Patrick E.|last=Tyler|date=21 March 2003|title=A nation at war: The attack; U.S. and British troops push into Iraq as missiles strike Baghdad compound|page=B8|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/21/world/nation-war-attack-us-british-troops-push-into-iraq-missiles-strike-baghdad.html?pagewanted=all}} The U.S. captured and helped prosecute Hussein, who was later hanged. The U.S. and the new Iraqi government also fought an insurgency following the invasion. In December 2011 the U.S. withdrew its soldiers from the conflict,{{cite web|title=US lowers flag to end Iraq war|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/us-lowers-flag-to-end-iraq-war-6277340.html|agency=Associated Press|date=15 December 2011|work=The Independent}} but returned in 2014 to help stop the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).{{Cite web|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-the-rise-spread-and-fall-the-islamic-state|title=Timeline: the Rise, Spread, and Fall of the Islamic State|date=October 28, 2019 |publisher=Wilson Center}} The military's combat mission came to an end on December 9, 2021.{{Cite web|url=https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/12/09/us-formally-ends-combat-mission-in-iraq/|title=US formally ends combat mission in Iraq|first=Samya|last=Kullab|agency=Associated Press|date=December 9, 2021|website=Military Times|access-date=April 4, 2022}}

{{Main|2004 Haitian coup d'état|Operation Secure Tomorrow}}

In February 2004, the democratically elected President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced to resign amid a rapidly spiraling situation with the rebel group National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti, which had laid siege to the capital Port-au-Prince in the week leading up to Aristide's resignation.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/international/americas/haitis-president-forced-out-marines-sent-to-keep.html |title=Haiti's President Forced Out; Marines Sent to Keep Order |newspaper=The New York Times |date=29 February 2004 |last1=Polgreen |first1=Lydia}} It was alleged that the rebels were trained by U.S. Special Forces in the nearby Dominican Republic prior to the instabilities.{{cite web |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2004/4/7/witnesses_u_s_special_forces_trained |title=Witnesses: U.S. Special Forces Trained and Armed Haitian Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries in D.R. |author=Goodman, Amy |date=April 2004 |website=democracynow.org |access-date=19 Dec 2022}} It has also been alleged by multiple Haitian and French officials,{{Cite news |last1=Méheut |first1=Constant |last2=Porter |first2=Catherine |last3=Gebrekidan |first3=Selam |last4=Apuzzo |first4=Matt |date=2022-05-20 |title=Demanding Reparations, and Ending Up in Exile |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-aristide-reparations-france.html |access-date=2022-05-24 |issn=0362-4331}} as well as Aristide himself,{{cite web |author1=Steve Miller |author2=Joseph Curl |year=2004 |url=http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/haiti/march-04-coup/aristide-removal/aristide-accuses-us-of-forcing-his-ouster.txt |title=Aristide accuses U.S. of forcing his ouster |work=The Washington Times |access-date=26 December 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025010742/http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/haiti/march-04-coup/aristide-removal/aristide-accuses-us-of-forcing-his-ouster.txt |archive-date=25 October 2007 |url-status=dead}} that the coup was effectively orchestrated by France and the United States.

In the aftermath of the coup, a Multinational Interim Force led by the U.S. invaded Haiti to stabilize the country under the government of the newly-assumed provisional president Boniface Alexandre and prime minister Gérard Latortue.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

{{Main|Tulip Revolution}}

In Kyrgyzstan, in response to the corruption and authoritarianism of the Askar Akayev government which had ruled since 1990, mass protests ousted the government and free elections were held.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the US government provided aid to opposition protesters via the State Department, USAID, Radio Liberty and Freedom House by funding the only print-media outlet in the country not controlled by the government. When the state cut off electricity to the outlet, the U.S. embassy provided emergency generators. Other opposition groups and an opposition TV station received funding from the US government and US-based NGOs.{{Cite news |last=Shishkin |first=Philip |date=February 25, 2005 |title=In Putin's Backyard, Democracy Stirs -- With U.S. Help |language=en-US |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB110929289650463886 |access-date=March 16, 2022 |issn=0099-9660}}

File:Occupied Palestinian Territories.jpg

{{Main|Fatah–Hamas conflict}}

The Bush Administration was displeased with the government formed by Hamas, which won 56% of the seats in the Palestinian legislative election of 2006.The Times (UK), November 18, 2006, "Diplomats Fear US Wants to Arm Fatah for 'War on Hamas'" The U.S. government pressured the Fatah faction of the Palestinian National Authority leadership to topple the Hamas government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and provided funding,Christian Science Monitor, May 25, 2007, "Israel, US, and Egypt Back Fatah's Fight Against Hamas," http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0525/p07s02-wome.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101026230713/http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0525/p07s02-wome.html |date=October 26, 2010 }}The Times (UK), November 18, 2006, "Diplomats Fear US wants to Arm Fatah for 'War on Hamas'" including a secret training and armaments program that received tens of millions of dollars in congressional funding. This funding was initially blocked by Congress, who feared that arms provided to Palestinians might later be used against Israel, but the Bush administration circumvented Congress.{{Cite magazine |last=Rose |first=David |date=2008-03-03 |title=The Gaza Bombshell |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/04/gaza200804 |access-date=2025-03-22 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}The Middle East Online, January 31, 2007, http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=19358 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030082804/http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=19358|date=October 30, 2016}}San Francisco Chronicle, December 14, 2006, "U.S. Training Fatah in Anti-Terror Tactic – Underlying Motive Is to Counter Strength of Hamas, Analysts Say," http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/U-S-training-Fatah-in-anti-terror-tactics-2465370.php {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203105550/http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/U-S-training-Fatah-in-anti-terror-tactics-2465370.php|date=December 3, 2013}}

Fatah launched a war against the Haniyeh government. When the government of Saudi Arabia attempted to negotiate a truce between the sides so as to avoid a wide-scale Palestinian civil war, the U.S. government pressured Fatah to reject the Saudi plan and to continue the effort to topple the Hamas government. Ultimately, the Hamas government was prevented from ruling over all of the Palestinian territories, with Fatah retreating to the West Bank and Hamas retreating to and taking control of the Gaza Strip.{{Cite magazine|last=Rose|first=David|title=The Gaza Bombshell|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/04/gaza200804|access-date=2020-12-19|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=March 3, 2008|language=en-us|quote=But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza.}}

In 2005, after a period of co-operation in the War on Terror, the Bush administration froze relations with Syria. According to US cables released by WikiLeaks, the State Department then began to funnel money to opposition groups, including at least $6 million to the opposition satellite channel Barada TV and the exile group Movement for Justice and Development in Syria, although this was denied by the channel.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-groups-cables-released-by-wikileaks-show/2011/04/14/AF1p9hwD_story.html|title=U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show|last=Whitlock|first=Craig|date=April 17, 2011|newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xgImDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 |title=The Second Cold War: Geopolitics and the Strategic Dimensions of the USA |last=Bandeira |first=Luiz Alberto Moniz |date=May 30, 2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-54888-3 |pages=54–55 |language=en}}{{cite news|title=UK-based Syrian TV station denies secret funding from US government|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ukbased-syrian-tv-station-denies-secret-funding-from-us-government-2269730.html|publisher=TheINDEPENDENT | location=London|first=Sarah|last=Morrison|date=19 April 2011}} This alleged covert backing continued under the Obama administration until at least April 2009 when US diplomats expressed concern the funding would undermine US attempts to rebuild relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

{{Main|2011 military intervention in Libya|American involvement in the 2011 Libyan Civil War}}

File:Libya in its region.svg

In 2011, Libya had been led by Muammar Gaddafi since 1969. In February 2011, amid the "Arab Spring", a revolution broke out against him, spreading from the second city Benghazi (where an interim government was set up on February 27), to the capital Tripoli, sparking the First Libyan Civil War. On March 17, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 was adopted, authorizing a no-fly zone over Libya, and "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10200.doc.htm |title=Security Council Approves 'No-Fly Zone' over Libya, Authorizing 'All Necessary Measures' To Protect Civilians in Libya, by a Vote of Ten For, None Against, with Five Abstentions |publisher=United Nations |date=March 17, 2011 |access-date=March 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319093321/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10200.doc.htm |archive-date=March 19, 2011 |url-status=live}} Two days later, France, the United States and the United Kingdom launched the 2011 military intervention in Libya with Operation Odyssey Dawn, US and British naval forces firing over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles,{{cite web |url=http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/libya-live-blog-march-19 |title=Libya Live Blog |access-date=March 19, 2011 |date=March 19, 2011 |publisher=Al Jazeera |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320235930/http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/libya-live-blog-march-19 |archive-date=March 20, 2011 |url-status=dead }} the French and British Air Forces{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12796972 |access-date=March 20, 2011 |title=Libya: US, UK and France attack Gaddafi forces |work=BBC News |date=March 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320053754/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12796972 |archive-date=March 20, 2011 |url-status=live}} undertaking sorties across Libya and a naval blockade by Coalition forces.{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/19/libya.civil.war |title=French Fighter Jets Deployed over Libya |publisher=CNN |date=March 19, 2011 |access-date=March 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110322025841/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/19/libya.civil.war |archive-date=March 22, 2011 |url-status=live}} A coalition of 27 states from Europe and the Middle East soon joined the NATO-led intervention, as Operation Unified Protector. The Gaddafi government collapsed in August, leaving the National Transitional Council as the de facto government, with UN recognition. Gaddafi was captured and killed in October by National Transitional Council forces and NATO action ceased.{{cite web |title=JFC NAPLES | Home |url=http://www.jfcnaples.nato.int/resources/24/Documents/UNSCR_1973.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319203548/http://www.jfcnaples.nato.int/resources/24/Documents/UNSCR_1973.pdf |archive-date=19 March 2012 |access-date=2012-01-01}} United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973{{cite news |author=Chulov |first=Martin |date=20 October 2012 |title=Gaddafi's last moments: 'I saw the hand holding the gun and I saw it fire' |website=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/20/muammar-gaddafi-killing-witnesses |access-date=24 September 2016 |quote=one fighter crouched in the dirt behind the frightened captive and sodomised him with a bayonet}}

{{Main|Timber Sycamore|CIA activities in Syria|American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War}}

File:Syria in its region (de-facto).svgIn April 2011, after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in early 2011, three U.S. Senators, Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham and Independent Joe Lieberman, urged President Barack Obama in a joint statement to "state unequivocally" that "it is time to go" for President Bashar al-Assad.{{Cite web|date=April 29, 2011|title=Assad must go, U.S. Republicans say|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/426646115/|access-date=2019-12-28|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Agence France Presse|language=en|quote=We urge President Obama to state unequivocally, as he did in the case of (Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi and Egyptian president Hosni) Mubarak — that it is time for Assad to go.}} In August, 2011, the U.S. government called on Assad to "step aside" and imposed an oil embargo against the Syrian government.{{Cite news |title=Calling for Regime Change in Syria |url=http://www.cfr.org/syria/calling-regime-change-syria/p25677 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20201209022621/https://www.cfr.org/syria/calling-regime-change-syria/p25677 |archive-date=2020-12-09 |access-date=2025-03-22 |work=Council on Foreign Relations |language=en}}{{Cite news |last1=Washington |first1=Jay Solomon in |last2=Dubai |first2=Nour Malas in |last3=Brussels |first3=Laurence Norman in |date=2011-08-18 |title=World Leaders Call for Assad to Step Down |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903639404576516144145940136 |access-date=2025-03-22 |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |issn=0099-9660}}{{Cite news |last=Tisdall |first=Simon |date=2015-01-25 |title=US changes its tune on Syrian regime change as Isis threat takes top priority |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/25/us-syrian-regime-change-isis-priority |access-date=2025-03-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Starting in 2013, the U.S. provided training, weapons, and money to vetted moderate Syrian rebels,{{Cite news |last=Bowman |first=Tom |date=2014-04-23 |title=CIA Is Quietly Ramping Up Aid To Syrian Rebels, Sources Say |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/04/23/306233248/cia-is-quietly-ramping-up-aid-to-syrian-rebels-sources-say |access-date=2025-03-22 |work=NPR |language=en}}{{Cite news |last1=Borger |first1=Julian |last2=Hopkins |first2=Nick |date=2013-03-08 |title=West training Syrian rebels in Jordan |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/08/west-training-syrian-rebels-jordan |access-date=2025-03-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} and in 2014, the Supreme Military Council.{{Cite magazine|last=Abouzeid|first=Rania|date=September 26, 2013|title=Syrian Opposition Groups Stop Pretending|magazine=The New Yorker|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/syrian-opposition-groups-stop-pretending|url-status=live|access-date=May 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309033429/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/syrian-opposition-groups-stop-pretending|archive-date=March 9, 2018|issn=0028-792X}}{{Cite book|last=Atwan|first=Abdel Bari|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHolDQAAQBAJ&q=digital+caliphate,+smc&pg=PA106|title=Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate|date=September 8, 2015|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=9780520289284|via=Google Books}} In 2015, Obama reaffirmed that "Assad must go".{{Cite web|last=Nelson|first=Colleen McCain|date=November 19, 2015|title=Obama Says Syrian Leader Bashar al-Assad Must Go|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-says-syrian-leader-bashar-al-assad-must-go-1447925671|access-date=2019-12-28|website=The Wall Street Journal|language=en-US}}

In March 2017, Ambassador Nikki Haley told a group of reporters that the US's priority in Syria was no longer on "getting Assad out."{{Cite news|last=Nichols|first=Michelle|date=2017-03-31|title=U.S. priority on Syria no longer focused on 'getting Assad out': Haley|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa-haley-idUSKBN1712QL|access-date=2020-12-13}} Earlier that day at a news conference in Ankara, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also said that the "longer term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people."{{cite news|url=https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/34856857/tillerson-says-assads-fate-up-to-syrian-people/#page1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330231421/https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/34856857/tillerson-says-assads-fate-up-to-syrian-people/#page1|archive-date=March 30, 2017|title=Tillerson says Assad's fate up to Syrian people|first1=Raziye|last1=Akkoc|first2=Fulya|last2=Ozerkan|date=March 30, 2017|publisher=Yahoo! 7 News}} While the US Defense Department's program to aid predominantly Kurdish rebels fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) continued, it was revealed in July 2017 that US President Donald Trump had ordered a "phasing out" of the CIA's support for anti-Assad rebels.{{cite news|last1=Jaffe|first1=Greg|last2=Entous|first2=Adam|date=July 19, 2017|title=Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in Syria, a move sought by Moscow|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-ends-covert-cia-program-to-arm-anti-assad-rebels-in-syria-a-move-sought-by-moscow/2017/07/19/b6821a62-6beb-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html|access-date=July 20, 2017|newspaper=The Washington Post}}

{{Main|2019 Bolivian political crisis}}

In November 2019, there was a coup in Bolivia to oust president Evo Morales.{{Cite web|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/469906-trump-celebrates-resignation-of-bolivias-president/|title=Trump celebrates resignation of Bolivia's president|first=Brett|last=Samuels|date=November 11, 2019|work=The Hill}} In the aftermath of the coup, and following the elections which brought back the socialist Movimiento al Socialismo to power, the U.S. faced allegations that it had supported the coup and removal of Evo Morales.{{cite news|date=25 December 2019|title=Morales claims US orchestrated 'coup' to tap Bolivia's lithium|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/25/morales-claims-us-orchestrated-coup-to-tap-bolivias-lithium|work=Al Jazeera|access-date=13 June 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://theintercept.com/2021/05/04/bolivia-coup-trump-mit-evo-morales/|title=DOJ Threatened MIT Researchers With Subpoena in Collaboration With Bolivian Coup Regime|first1=Ken|last1=Klippenstein|first2=Ryan|last2=Grim|date=May 4, 2021|website=The Intercept}}

{{See also|Foreign involvement in the Venezuelan presidential crisis}}

File:Venezuela in its region.svg

President Donald Trump attempted to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office during the Venezuelan presidential crisis.{{sfn|Jervis|Labrosse|Goddard|Rovner|2023|pp=279,281|loc=Section: Fences Make Bad Hombres - Quote: "the Trump administration tolerated authoritarians in other regions of the world but pushed for regime change in, for example, Venezuela", "Trump then signaled his intent to exert 'maximum pressure' to force regime change in Venezuela, a task he assumed would be 'low- hanging fruit' for the United States, expecting a 'major foreign policy victory.'}}{{sfn|Becker|2022|pp=308}}{{sfn|Demarais|2022|p=31|loc=Section: Hitting Where It Hurts - Quote: "The United States believed that regime change in Venezuela was possible, if not imminent. To speed up Guaido’s installa-tion, the United States looked no further than sanctions."}}{{sfn|Yaffe|2020|pp=259|loc="The objective was clear ... to overthrow the Maduro government in Venezuela, ending oil exports to Cuba, causing economic collapse on the island and enabling the overthrow of the Cuban government, leaving Nicaragua as an easy third target."}}{{sfn|Downes|2021|p=13|loc="Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House brought renewed calls for regime change in Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela."}}{{bullet}}{{Cite news |last1=Herrero |first1=Ana Vanessa |last2=Krauss |first2=Clifford |date=2019-01-30 |title=Opposition Leader, and Oil, Become Focus of Venezuela-U.S. Struggle |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/world/americas/venezuela-juan-guaido-oil-assets.html |access-date=2023-10-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

• {{cite web |last1=Arnson |first1=Cynthia J. |date=21 August 2019 |title=How the Trump Administration's Venezuela Policy Just Doesn't Add Up {{!}} Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/how-the-trump-administrations-venezuela-policy-just-doesnt-add |access-date=2 November 2023 |website=The Wilson Center |language=en |quote=What unites these seemingly disparate threads is a contradiction at the core of Trump administration’s Venezuela policy: the imposition of crippling economic sanctions aimed at the implosion of the Nicolás Maduro regime, while doing far too little to assist the region in absorbing the millions of refugees resulting from the country’s economic collapse. The Trump administration’s hostility to immigration and to foreign aid spending overall clashes openly with the effort to procure regime change via the economic strangulation of the Maduro government.}}
• {{cite news |last1=Board |first1=Editorial |date=3 April 2020 |title=Why is the U.S. pushing regime change in Venezuela during a pandemic? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/why-is-the-us-pushing-regime-change-in-venezuela-during-a-pandemic/2020/04/02/5fd99990-7446-11ea-a9bd-9f8b593300d0_story.html |access-date=2 November 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}
• {{cite news |last1=Borger |first1=Julian |date=25 January 2019 |title=Trump has hitched his wagon to regime change in Venezuela – so now what? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/25/trumps-white-house-feels-its-way-through-regime-change-in-venezuela |access-date=2 November 2023 |work=The Guardian}}
• {{cite news |last1=Cohen |first1=David S. |last2=Weinberg |first2=Zoe A. Y. |date=29 April 2019 |title=Sanctions Can't Spark Regime Change |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2019-04-29/sanctions-cant-spark-regime-change |access-date=2 November 2023 |work=Foreign Affairs |quote=In the last several decades, financial and economic sanctions have become a key tool of U.S. foreign policy. The Trump administration has made particularly heavy use of this tool, especially in its efforts to induce regime change in Venezuela and Iran.}}
• {{cite news |date=30 January 2019 |title=Donald Trump and the Yankee Plot to Overthrow the Venezuelan Government |url=https://theintercept.com/2019/01/30/donald-trump-and-the-yankee-plot-to-overthrow-the-venezuelan-government/ |access-date=2 November 2023 |work=The Intercept |language=en |quote=The White House is openly plotting to bring down the government of Nicolas Maduro in Caracas. ... Elliott Abrams ... has been named the point man in the effort to bring regime change to Venezuela.}}

{{Cite journal |last=Ahumada Beltrán |first=Consuelo |date=September 2021 |title=La paz de Colombia en un incierto entorno internacional |journal=Controversia |issue=217 |pages=66–68 |doi=10.54118/controver.vi217.1236|doi-access=free }} The Congressional Research Service wrote that "although the Trump Administration initially discussed the possibility of using military force in Venezuela, it ultimately sought to compel Maduro to leave office through diplomatic, economic, and legal pressure."{{cite web |date=10 March 2021 |title=Venezuela: Political Crisis and U.S. Policy |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1148940.pdf |access-date=30 October 2023 |website=Congressional Research Service |language=en}} In January 2019, days after Juan Guaidó was sworn in as president of the National Assembly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved of the plan by him and Leopoldo López to be named interim president and that the United States could lead other nations to support Guaidó in an attempt to remove Maduro.{{sfn|Neuman|2022|pp=211-213|loc=Quote: "López and a small circles of allies began reaching out to State Department officials with a novel proposal: Now that Guaidó was the leader of the National Assembly, he could invoke Article 233 of the constitution to become interim president. The United States and other countries would recognize Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate head of state. That would galvanize the opposition and supercharge the effort to remove Maduro. Secretary of State Pompeo warmed to the idea... Pompeo called Guaidó and assured him that he had the support of the U.S. government"}} After swearing to serve as acting president of Venezuela on 23 January,{{cite news |date=23 January 2019 |title=Protestas en Venezuela: miles de personas participan en manifestaciones masivas contra el gobierno de Maduro |url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-46979531 |access-date=30 January 2019 |work=BBC News Mundo |language=es}}{{cite news |date=24 January 2019 |title=Las 50 fotos de las masivas marchas contra la dictadura de Nicolás Maduro en Venezuela y Latinoamérica |url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/01/24/las-50-fotos-de-las-masivas-marchas-contra-la-dictadura-de-nicolas-maduro-en-venezuela-y-latinoamerica/ |access-date=30 January 2019 |work=Infobae |language=es}} the United States announced that it recognized Guaidó as interim president minutes after his speech.{{sfn|Neuman|2022|pp=211-217|loc=Chapter 23: "Swearing In"}} The Trump administration utilized sanctions against Venezuela to instigate political change.{{sfn|Becker|2022|pp=308}}{{sfn|Demarais|2022|p=31|loc=Section: Hitting Where It Hurts - Quote: "The United States believed that regime change in Venezuela was possible, if not imminent. To speed up Guaido’s installation, the United States looked no further than sanctions."}}{{cite journal |last1=Galbraith |first1=Jean |date=July 2019 |title=United States Recognizes the Opposition Government in Venezuela and Imposes Sanctions as Tensions Escalate |journal=American Journal of International Law |language=en |volume=113 |issue=3 |pages=601, 608 |doi=10.1017/ajil.2019.41 |quote=In a campaign designed to oust Maduro from power, the United States has encouraged foreign governments and intergovernmental organizations to recognize Guaidó and has imposed a series of targeted economic sanctions to weaken Maduro’s regime. ... the Trump administration has consistently exempted humanitarian assistance and insisted that the sanctions 'do not target the innocent people of Venezuela. Despite this assertion, Venezuela’s economic situation has worsened severely under the prolonged sanctions, and the humanitarian crisis remains devastating.}} The U.S. failed to remove Maduro while Guaidó never controlled any of Venezuela's institutions and was removed from his position by the National Assembly in December 2022.{{Cite news |last=Armas |first=Mayela |date=31 December 2022 |title=Venezuela opposition removes interim President Guaido |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuela-opposition-removes-interim-president-guaido-2022-12-31/ |access-date=31 December 2022 |work=Reuters |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Martínez |first=Deisy |date=30 December 2022 |title=AN de 2015 aprueba su extensión por otro año y elimina gobierno interino |trans-title=2015 NA approves its extension for one more year and eliminates interim government |url=https://efectococuyo.com/politica/an-de-2015-aprueba-su-extension-por-un-ano-mas-y-elimina-gobierno-interino/ |access-date=31 December 2022 |website=Efecto Cocuyo |language=es}}

{{Portal|United States}}

• Criticism of United States foreign policy
• Foreign electoral intervention
• Foreign interventions by the United States
• Latin America–United States relations
• Russian involvement in regime change
• Soviet involvement in regime change
• Timeline of United States military operations
• United States involvement in regime change in Latin America
• Assassinations and targeted killing by the CIA
• CIA activities by country

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

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• {{cite journal|last=Moulton|first=Aaron Coy|title="Amplies Ayuda Externa" Contra "La Gangrena Comunista": Las Fuerzas Regionales Anticomunistas y la Finalizacion de la Operacion PBFortune, Octobre de 1952|trans-title="Extend External Assistance" Against "The Communist Gangrene": The Regional Anti-Communist Forces and the Finalization of Operation PBFortune, October 1952|journal=Revista de Historia de América|date=July 2013|issue=149|pages=45–58|doi=10.35424/rha.149.2013.406 |language=es|jstor=44732841|s2cid=257442076 |doi-access=free}}
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• *Traugott, M. (1979). The Economic Origins of the Kwilu Rebellion. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 21(3), 459–479. Retrieved from [http://www.jstor.org/stable/178542 The Economic Origins of the Kwilu Rebellion]
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• {{cite book |last1=Wilford |first1=Hugh |title=The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America |url=https://archive.org/details/mightywurlitzerh00wilf |url-access=registration |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-674-04517-0 |ref=wurlitzer}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wilford |first1=Hugh |title=America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East |date=2013 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-01965-6 |ref=wilford |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americasgreatgam0000wilf }}
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• {{cite book|first1=Donald P.|last1=Wright|last2=Bird|first2=James|last3=Clay|first3=Steven|title=A Different Kind of War: The United States Army in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) October 2001-September 2005|location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas|publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press|url=https://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/gwot/DifferentKindofWar.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230133024/https://www.history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/GWOT/DifferentKindofWar.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 30, 2016|display-authors=etal|ref={{harvid|Wright et al.|2010}}|date=2010}}
• {{cite book |last1=Yaffe |first1=Helen |title=We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World |date=2020 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-23003-1 |pages=256–260 |edition=hardcover}}

{{Refend}}

• Chomsky, Noam. Towards a New Cold War (1982) and Manufacturing Consent (1988)
• Downes, Alexander B. (2021). [https://books.google.com/books?id=c-giEAAAQBAJ Catastrophic Success: Why Foreign-Imposed Regime Change Goes Wrong]. Cornell University Press.
• {{cite Q|Q108417901}}.

• {{Commons category-inline|United States involvement in regime change}}
• {{wikiquote-inline}}

{{Cold War}}

{{Iran–United States relations}}

Category:Politics of the United States

Category:United States foreign policy