Difference between revisions of "Cold War covert overthrow of governments by the US"

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−	[[File:CIA.svg|right|200px|The Seal of the Central Intelligence Agency]]	+	The United States government has been involved in and assisted in overthrowing many governments by the use of covert military force, primarily through the [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
−	* [[CIA: SAD and SOG operations from WWII through Viet Nam]]	+	Euphemistically called "Regime Change", this has been attempted through direct involvement of US operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, [[coup d'état]]s, and other, often illegal, activities usually conducted as operations by the CIA. The US has also accomplished regime change a combination of secret operations and [[Wikipedia:List of United States military history events|by direct military action]], such as the [[US invasion of Panama]] in 1989, before which time the CIA sponsored a radio station to broadcast anti-Noriega [[propaganda]] ([[Wikipedia:Operation Acid Gambit]]), and the [[US-led invasion of Iraq]] in 2003.
−	* [[CIA: SAD and SOG operations from 1973-2002]]	+
−	* [[CIA: SAD and SOG operations in Afghanistan since 2001]]	+
−	* [[CIA: SAD and SOG operations in Iraq since 2003]]	+
−	* [[CIA: SAD and SOG operations in Pakistan]]	+
−	* [[CIA: SAD and SOG operations worldwide since 2001]]	+
−	The '''[[United States government]]''' has been involved in and assisted in the '''overthrow of foreign governments''' (more recently termed '''[[regime change]]''') without the overt use of U.S. military force. Often, such operations are tasked to the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA).	+
−	Regime change has been attempted through direct involvement of U.S. operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, [[coup d'état]]s, and other activities usually conducted as operations by the CIA. The U.S. has also accomplished regime change [[List of United States military history events|by direct military action]], such as following the [[U.S. invasion of Panama]] in 1989 and the [[U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq]] in 2003.	+	Some argue that non-transparent United States government agencies working in secret sometimes mislead or do not fully implement the decisions of elected civilian leaders and that this has been an important component of many such operations.<ref name=Weart1998>{{Cite book| author=Weart, Spencer R. | title=Never at War | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1998 | isbn=0-300-07017-9 |pages=221–224, 314.}}</ref> See [[Plausible deniability]]. Some contend that the US has supported more coups against democracies that it perceived as [[communist]], or becoming communist.<ref name="Weart1998"/> The balance of powers cannot have envisioned the power of the Executive to carry out operations in secret, some operations being kept secret from the Legislative branch as well.
−	Some argue that non-transparent U.S. government agencies working in secret sometimes mislead or do not fully implement the decisions of elected civilian leaders and that this has been an important component of many such operations.<ref name="Weart1998">{{Cite book| author=Weart, Spencer R. | title=Never at War | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-300-07017-0 |pages=221–224, 314.}}</ref> See [[Plausible deniability]]. Some contend that the U.S. has supported more coups against democracies that it perceived as [[communist]], or becoming communist.<ref name="Weart1998"/>	+	In international law, of course, these operations have no standing at all. It was convenient enough for nations to operate secret ''intelligence'' operations when all that was to lose was being found out, but 'regime change' can affect the very autonomous existence of nations themselves.
−	The U.S. has also covertly supported opposition groups in various countries without necessarily attempting to overthrow the government.  For example, the CIA funded anti-communist political parties in countries such as [[Italy]] and [[Chile]]; it also armed [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] rebels fighting the [[Ba'athist]] government of [[Iraq]] in the [[Second Kurdish-Iraqi War]] prior to the [[Algiers Agreement (1975)|Algiers Agreement]].
−	==Prior to Cold War==	+	== Introduction ==
−	{{Expand section|date=May 2012}}	+	<!-- This article covers regime change actions ''by'' the United States government, not regime change actions in or against the U.S. (see, e.g., the [[Business Plot]] of 1933 to overthrow the U.S. government, or the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln and members of his cabinet). -->
		+	According to a variety of sources,<ref name="iht2004">{{cite web|last=Manz |first=Beatriz |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/07/09/edmanz_ed3_.php |title=Latin American legacy : Regime change in Guatemala, 50 years ago |work=[[International Herald Tribune]] |date=2004-07-09 |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref name="thirdworldtraveler1">{{cite web|url=http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Guatemala_Iraq_Pitbull.html |title=From Guatemala to Iraq How the pitbull manages his poodles by |author=Edward S. Herman |publisher=Thirdworldtraveler.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref name="npr1">{{cite web|last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |authorlink=Stephen Kinzer|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5325069 |title=Author Kinzer Charts 'Century of Regime Change'|work=NPR |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> the [[United States of America]] government has forcibly overthrown, and attempted to overthrow, foreign [[government]]s perceived as hostile, and replaced them with new ones, actions that has become known as [[regime change]].<ref name="iht2004"/><ref name="thirdworldtraveler1"/><ref name="npr1"/>  Almost all governments targeted by the U.S. have been [[democratically-elected]] governments replaced by [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian government]]s, [[regime]]s or [[junta]]s, with at least one case in Iran where the new Prime Minister installed by the CIA was pro-Nazi,<ref>{{cite book |title= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Wv4B6C-wTG8C&pg=PA142&dq=Zahedi+nazi&hl=en&ei=LmURTcv_D4qCsQPB4pCxAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Zahedi%20nazi&f=false |title= All the Shah's men: an American coup and the roots of Middle East terror  |author= Stephen Kinzer |publisher= John Wiley & Sons |date=2008}}</ref> and the man who replaced him was the son of the Iranian leader that collaborated with the Nazis.
−	===Russia===	+	Regime change has been attempted through direct involvement of U.S. operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, [[coup d'état]]s, and other, often illegal, activities usually conducted as operations by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA). The U.S. has also accomplished regime change by direct U.S. military action, see [[List of United States military history events]], instead of by covert means.
−	[[File:American troops in Vladivostok 1918 HD-SN-99-02013.JPEG|thumb|left|U.S. troops in Vladivostok, August 1918]]	+
−	The [[Bolshevik revolution]] of 1917 was met with overt hostility from President [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson]]'s administration. After withdrawing funding for Russia and opposing a British and French plan to include the Bolsheviks as allies against Germany in 1918, the United States extended its maritime [[blockade]] of [[Germany]] to include Soviet Russia and began [[covert operation|covertly supporting]] [[White Army|Russian opposition factions]].<ref>Humanities and Social Sciences On-Line, [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=489 Review of book by David S. Foglesong, America's Secret War Against Bolshevism: U.S. Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1917-1920]</ref><ref>David S. Foglesong, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RUHn9nCC9EoC America's Secret War Against Bolshevism: U.S. Intervention in the Russian Civil War 1917-1920]'', Chapter 5, "American Intelligence Gathering, Propaganda and Covert Action in Revolutionary Russia"</ref>	+
−	In 1918, the [[Allied powers of World War I|Allied powers]], including the United States, [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|began a military intervention]] in the [[Russian Civil War]]. At the request of the British and French, the U.S. sent troops to the Russian port cities of [[Vladivostok]] and [[Archangelsk]]. President Wilson appointed General [[William S. Graves]] to lead the thousands of American troops at Vladivostok.<ref>The National Archives, Prologue Magazine, Winter 2002, Vol. 34, No. 4, [http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/winter/us-army-in-russia-1.html "Guarding the Railroad, Taming the Cossacks The U.S. Army in Russia, 1918-1920"]</ref><ref>Robert L. Willett, [http://books.google.com/books?id=qoZKpdXDXZwC Russian Sideshow: America's Undeclared War, 1918-1920], p. 9</ref>	+	It has been argued that non-transparent United States government agencies who work in secret and sometimes mislead or do not fully implement the decisions of elected civilian leaders has been an important component of many such operations.<ref name=Weart1998>{{cite book | author=Weart, Spencer R. | title=Never at War | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1998 | isbn=0-300-07017-9 }}p. 221-224, 314.}}</ref>
−	==During the Cold War==	+	For example the historian [[Spencer R. Weart]] has argued that the US has more supported coups against democracies that it perceived as  nondemocracies, such as Communist states, or turning into such.<ref name=Weart1998> Weart1998</ref>
−	=== Communist states 1944-1989 ===	+
−	{{Expand section|date=June 2012}}	+
−	The United States supported resistance movements and [[dissident]]s in the communist regimes of [[Eastern Europe]] and the Soviet Union during the [[Cold War]]. One example is the [[counterespionage]] operations following the discovery of the [[Farewell dossier]] which some argue contributed to the fall of the Soviet regime.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002 |title=CIA slipped bugs to Soviets |work=[[Washington Post]] |publisher=[[NBC]] |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/96unclass/farewell.htm |title=The Farewell Dossier|publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> The [[National Endowment for Democracy]] supported pro-capitalist movements in the [[communist state]]s and has been accused of secretly supporting regime change, which it denies.<ref>[http://www.ned.org/publications/reports/backlash06.pdf The backlash against democratic assistance]</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Koestler |first=Brendan  |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2094293 |title=What's the National Endowment for Democracy? |work=[[Slate Magazine]] |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/Research/PoliticalPhilosophy/EM360.cfm |title= An Important Weapon in the War of Ideas |publisher=The National Endowment For Democracy |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> Many of the Eastern European states later turned to [[capitalism]] and joined the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO). In addition, the perceived threat of worldwide (sometimes Soviet-sponsored) revolutionary [[guerrilla]] movements—often involved in [[wars of national liberation]]—defined much of [[U.S. foreign policy]] in the [[Third World]] with regard to covert action and led to what could be considered as [[proxy war]]s between the United States and Soviet Union.	+
−	=== Syria 1949 ===	+	Notwithstanding a history of U.S. covert actions to topple democratic governments and installing [[authoritarian regime]]s in their places (see, e.g. Iran 1953, below), some U.S. officials have publicly expressed support for democracy as best supporting US national interests: "democracy is the one national interest that helps to secure all the others. Democratically governed nations are more likely to secure the peace, deter aggression, expand open markets, promote economic development, protect American citizens, combat international terrorism and crime, uphold human and worker rights, avoid humanitarian crises and refugee flows, improve the global environment, and protect human health."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.state.gov/g/drl/democ/
−	{{main|March 1949 Syrian coup d'état}}	+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
−	[[Syria]] became an independent republic in 1946, but the [[March 1949 Syrian coup d'état]], led by Army Chief of Staff [[Husni al-Za'im]], ended the initial period of civilian rule. Za'im met at least six times with CIA operatives in the months prior to the coup to discuss his plan to seize power. Za'im requested American funding or personnel, but it is not known whether this assistance was provided. Once in power, Za'im made several key decisions that benefitted the United States. He approved the [[Trans-Arabian Pipeline]] (TAPLINE), an American project designed to transport Saudi Arabian oil to Mediterranean ports. Construction of TAPLINE had been delayed due to Syrian intransigence. Za'im also improved relations with two American allies in the region: Israel and Turkey. He signed an [[1949 Armistice Agreements|armistice]] with Israel, formally ending the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]] and he renounced Syrian claims to [[Hatay Province]], a major source of dispute between Syria and Turkey. Za'im also cracked down on local communists. However, Za'im's regime was short-lived. He was overthrown in August, just four and a half months after seizing power.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Douglas Little	+	|title=Democracy
−	|year= 1990	+	|author=Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
−	|title= Cold War and Covert Action: The United States and Syria,  1945-1958	+	|work=U.S. Department of State
−	|journal= Middle East Journal	+	}}</ref> Former President [[Bill Clinton]] of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]: "Ultimately, the best strategy to ensure our security and to build a durable peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere. Democracies don't attack each other."<ref> {{cite news| author=Clinton, Bill |authorlink=Bill Clinton | work=[[Washington Post]]|title=1994 State Of The Union Address|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/states/docs/sou94.htm|accessdate=2006-01-22 }}</ref> In one view mentioned by the US State Department, democracy is also good for business. In this view, countries that embrace political reforms are more likely to pursue economic reforms that improve the productivity of businesses. Accordingly, since the mid-1980s, there has been an increase in levels of foreign direct investment going to emerging market democracies relative to countries that have not undertaken political reforms.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/USINFO/Products/Webchats/bohn_27_mar_2007.html |title=Democracy Dialogues: Why Democracy Matters to Business |publisher=U.S. Dept of State |date=2007-03-27 |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref>
−	|volume= 44	+
−	|issue= 1	+
−	|pages= |publisher= |doi= |pmid= |pmc= |jstor=4328056	+
−	}}</ref><ref>[http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue51/articles/51_12-13.pdf 1949-1958, Syria: Early Experiments in Cover Action, Douglas Little, Professor, Department of History, Clark University]</ref><ref>{{cite book	+
−	| last = Gendzier	+
−	| first = Irene L.	+
−	| title = Notes from the Minefield: United States Intervention in  Lebanon and the Middle East, 1945-1958	+
−	| publisher = Columbia University Press	+
−	| year = 1997	+
−	| page=98	+
−	| doi =	+
−	| quote = Recent investigation..indicates that CIA  agents Miles Copeland and Stephen Meade..were directly involved in  the coup in which Syrian colonel  Husni Za'im seized	+
−	power. According to then former CIA agent Wilbur Eveland, the coup was carried out in order to obtain Syrian	+
−	ratification of TAPLINE.	+
−	| isbn =	+
−	|url=	+
−	http://books.google.com/books?id=XlxgFtCZF9cC	+
−	|accessdate= February 13, 2012	+
−	}}</ref><ref>{{cite book	+
−	| last = Gerolymatos	+
−	| first = André	+
−	| title = Castles Made of Sand: A Century of Anglo-American Espionage  and Intervention in the Middle East.	+
−	| publisher = Thomas Dunne books (MacMillan)	+
−	| year = 2010	+
−	| doi =	+
−	| isbn =	+
−	| quote = Miles Copeland, formerly a CIA agent, has outlined how he	+
−	and Stephen Meade backed Zaim, and American archival sources confirm	+
−	that it was during this period that Meade established links with extremist right-wing elements of the Syrian	+
−	army, who ultimately carried out the coup.	+
−	|url=	+
−	http://books.google.com/books?id=HcJMUx3HCU4C	+
−	|accessdate= February 13, 2012	+
−	}}</ref>	+
−	===Iran 1953===	+	The [[Shanghai Cooperation Organisation]], launched by China and Russia and later joined by other Asian governments, has been seen as an attempt to stop regime changes that would establish a world of market democracies arbitrated by U.S. power.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=325&language_id=1 |title=Intelligence Brief: Shanghai Cooperation Organization |publisher=PINR | date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref>
−	{{Main|1953 Iranian coup d'état}}	+
−	{{See also|Tudeh Party|Iran hostage crisis}}	+
−	In 1953, the CIA worked with the [[United Kingdom]] to overthrow the democratically elected government of [[Iran]] led by [[Prime Minister of Iran|Prime Minister]] [[Mohammad Mossadegh]] who had attempted to [[nationalize]] Iran's petroleum industry, threatening the profits of the [[Anglo-Iranian Oil Company]]. Declassified CIA documents show that Britain was fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize its oil industry and pressed the U.S. to mount a joint operation to depose the prime minister and install a [[puppet regime]].<ref name="NYTsr2000">{{Cite news	+	==Prior to World War II==
−	| work = [[New York Times]]	+	===Russia===
−	| title = Special Report: Secret History of the CIA in Iran	+	The [[Bolshevik revolution]] of 1917 was met with overt hostility from President [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s administration. After withdrawing funding for Russia and opposing a British and French plan to include the Bolsheviks as allies against Germany in 1918, the United States extended its maritime blockade of Germany to include Soviet Russia and began [[covert operation|covertly supporting]] [[White Army|Russian opposition factions]].<ref>Humanities and Social Sciences On-Line, [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=489 Review of book by David S. Foglesong, America's Secret War Against Bolshevism: U.S. Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1917-1920]</ref><ref>David S. Foglesong, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RUHn9nCC9EoC America's Secret War Against Bolshevism: U.S. Intervention in the Russian Civil War 1917-1920]'', Chapter 5, "American Intelligence Gathering, Propaganda and Covert Action in Revolutionary Russia"</ref>
−	| url = http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html	+
−	| year = 2000}}</ref> In 1951 the [[Majlis|Iranian parliament]] voted to nationalize the petroleum fields of the country.<ref name="NYTsr2000"/><ref>{{cite web| title=Country Studies: Iran| work=[[Library of Congress]] | url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/irtoc.html | accessdate=March 7, 2007}}</ref>	+
−	The coup was led by CIA operative [[Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.]] (grandson of President [[Theodore Roosevelt]]). With help from [[British intelligence]], the CIA planned, funded and implemented [[Operation Ajax]].<ref>[[National Security Archive]], cited in "[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB126/index.htm National Security Archive] Muhammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran", edited by Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne, Syracuse University Press 2004.</ref> In the months before the coup, the UK and U.S. imposed a boycott of the country, exerted other political pressures, and conducted a massive covert propaganda campaign to create the environment necessary for the coup. The CIA hired Iranian [[agents provocateurs]] who posed as communists, harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of one cleric's home to turn the Islamic religious community against the government. For the U.S. audience, the CIA hoped to plant articles in U.S. newspapers saying that [[Shah]] [[Mohammed Reza Pahlevi]]'s return to govern Iran resulted from a homegrown revolt against what was being represented to the U.S. public as a communist-leaning government. The CIA successfully used its contacts at the [[Associated Press]] to put on the newswire in the U.S. a statement from [[Tehran]] about royal decrees that the CIA itself had written.<ref name=NYTsr2000/>	+	In 1918, the Allied powers including the  United States [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|began a military intervention]] in the [[Russian Civil War]]. The US sent troops to the Russian port cities of [[Vladivostok]] and [[Archangel]]. President Wilson appointed General [[William S. Graves]] to lead the thousands of American troops at Vladivostok.<ref>The National Archives, Prologue Magazine, Winter 2002, Vol. 34, No. 4, [http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/winter/us-army-in-russia-1.html “Guarding the Railroad, Taming the Cossacks The U.S. Army in Russia, 1918 - 1920”]</ref><ref>Robert L. Willett, [http://books.google.com/books?id=qoZKpdXDXZwC Russian Sideshow: America's Undeclared War, 1918-1920], p. 9</ref>
−	[[File:28mordad1332.jpg|thumb|[[1953 Iranian coup d'état]]]]	+	== During the Cold War ==
−	The coup initially failed and the Shah fled the country. After four days of rioting, Shi'ite-sparked street protests backed by pro-Shah army units defeated Mossadeq's forces and the Shah returned to power.<ref name="Bayandor2010">{{cite book|last=Bayandor|first=Darioush|authorlink=Darioush Bayandor|title=Iran and the CIA: The Fall of Mosaddeq Revisited|date=April 2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-57927-9}}</ref>	+	=== Communist states 1945-1989 ===
		+	The United States supported the overthrow of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the [[Cold War]]. One example is the counter-espionage operations following the discovery of the [[Farewell dossier]] which some argue contributed to fall of Communism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002 |title=CIA slipped bugs to Soviets |work=[[Washington Post]] |publisher=[[MSNBC]] |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/96unclass/farewell.htm |title=The Farewell Dossier|publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> The [[National Endowment for Democracy]] supported pro-capitalist movements in the Communist states and has been accused of secretly supporting regime change, which it itself denies.<ref>[http://www.ned.org/publications/reports/backlash06.pdf The backlash against democratic assistance]</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Koerner |first=Brendan  |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2094293 |title=What's the National Endowment for Democracy? |work=[[Slate Magazine]] |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/Research/PoliticalPhilosophy/EM360.cfm |title= An Important Weapon in the War of Ideas |publisher=The National Endowment For Democracy |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> Many of the Eastern European states later turned to capitalism and joined the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO). In addition to this the perceived threat of worldwide Soviet sponsored revolutionary [[guerrilla]] movements - dubbed by Premiere [[Nikita Khrushchev]] as "[[wars of national liberation]]" defined much of US policy in the third world with regard to covert action and led to what could be considered as proxy wars between the United States and Soviet Union.
−	Supporters of the coup have argued that Mossadegh had become the ''de facto'' dictator of Iran, citing his dissolution of the Parliament and the Supreme Court, and his abolishment of free elections with a secret ballot, after he declared victory in a referendum where he claimed 99.9% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-chapter2.html | title=Trying to Persuade a Reluctant Shah | work=The New York Times}}</ref> [[Darioush Bayandor]] has argued that the CIA botched their coup attempt and that a popular uprising, instigated by top Shi'ite clerics such as Grand Ayatollah [[Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi]] and [[Abol-Ghasem Kashani]] (who were certain that Mosaddegh was taking the nation toward religious indifference, and worried that he had banished the Shah), instigated street riots to return the Shah to power four days after the failed coup.<ref name=Bayandor2010/>  After the coup, the Shah introduced electoral reforms extending suffrage to all members of society, including women.  This was part of a broader series of reforms dubbed the [[White Revolution]].<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klx3LyDEuRs&feature=relmfu I Knew the Shah-Part 2]  ''Al Jazeera English.''  January 17, 2009.</ref>  However, the Shah also carried out at least 300 political executions, according to [[Amnesty International]].<ref>Washington Post, March 23, 1980.</ref>	+	===Iran 1953===
		+	{{Main|1953 Iranian coup d'état}}
		+	{{See also|CIA Activities by Region: Near East, North Africa, South and Southwest Asia#Iran}}
−	The CIA subsequently used the apparent success of their Iranian coup project to bolster their image in American government circles. They expanded their reach into other countries, taking a greater portion of American intelligence assets based on their record in Iran.<ref name=Bayandor2010/>	+	In 1953, the CIA worked with the [[United Kingdom]] to overthrow the democratically-elected government of [[Iran]] led by [[Prime Minister of Iran|Prime Minister]] [[Mohammad Mossadegh]] who had attempted to [[nationalize]] Iran's [[oil]], threatening the interests of the [[Anglo-Iranian Oil Company]]. [[Declassified]] CIA documents show that Britain was fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize its oil industry and pressed the U.S. to mount a joint operation to remove the prime minister.<ref name=NYTsr2000>{{cite news
		+	| work = [[New York Times]]
		+	| title = Special Report: Secret History of the CIA in Iran
		+	| url = http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html
		+	| year = 2000}}</ref> In 1951 the [[Majlis|Iranian parliament]] voted to nationalize the oil fields of the country.  Anti-Communism had also risen to a fever pitch in Washington, and officials were worried that Iran might fall under the sway of the Soviet Union, a historical presence there. "The aim was to bring to power a government which would reach an equitable oil settlement, enabling Iran to become economically sound and financially solvent, and which would vigorously prosecute the dangerously strong Communist Party."<ref name=NYTsr2000>NYTsr2000</ref> Prime minister Mossadegh had dissolved the parliament, claiming massive support for the measure in a [[plebiscite]] and accepted the support of the Communist [[Tudeh party]] for his government, leading to U.S. fears of a Communist overthrow.<ref> {{cite web | title=Country Studies: Iran| work=[[Library of Congress]] | url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/irtoc.html | accessdate=March 7 | accessyear=2007}} </ref>
−	===Guatemala 1954===	+	The coup was led by CIA operative [[Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.]] (grandson of President [[Theodore Roosevelt]]). With help from [[British intelligence]], the CIA planned, funded and implemented Operation Ajax.<ref>[[National Security Archive]], cited in "[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB126/index.htm National Security Archive] Muhammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran," edited by Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne, Syracuse University Press 2004.</ref> The U.K. and U.S. boycott and other political pressures by both governments, together with a massive covert [[propaganda]] campaign in the months leading up to the coup created the environment necessary for success. The CIA hoped to plant articles in American newspapers saying that [[Shah]] [[Mohammed Reza Pahlevi]]'s return to govern Iran resulted from a homegrown revolt against a Communist-leaning government. This attempt to manipulate the [[U.S. media]] largely failed, although the CIA successfully used its contacts at the ''[[Associated Press]]'' to put on the news wire a statement from [[Tehran]] about royal decrees that the C.I.A. itself had written. The CIA hired Iranian assets who posed as Communists, harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of one cleric's home to turn the Islamic religious community against the government.<ref name=NYTsr2000/>
−	{{Main|1954 Guatemalan coup d'état}}	+
−	The CIA supported the overthrow of the democratically elected government of [[Guatemala]] led by [[Jacobo Arbenz]].<ref>Nick Cullather, with an afterword by [[Piero Gleijeses]] [http://books.google.com/books?id=sp3IGB4csCQC "Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954"]. [[Stanford University Press]], 2006.</ref><ref>[[Piero Gleijeses]]. [http://books.google.com/books?id=mS7ZVKa6i3AC  "Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954"]. [[Princeton University Press]], 1992.</ref><ref>Stephen M. Streeter. [http://books.google.com/books?id=h17R_A0n-1MC "Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961"]. [[Ohio University Press]], 2000.</ref><ref>Gordon L. Bowen. [http://lap.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/10/1/88 "U.S. Foreign Policy toward Radical Change: Covert Operations in Guatemala, 1950-1954"]. [[Latin American Perspectives]], 1983, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 88-102.</ref>  Arbenz was elected without a secret ballot. His [[land reform]] was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which he then purged.  He also received arms from the Soviet bloc.<ref>Piero Gleijeses, Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954 (Princeton University Press, 1991), pp84, 147, 145, 155, 181-2.</ref> The CIA claimed it intervened because it feared that a communist government would become "a Soviet beachhead in the Western Hemisphere;"<ref>Nicholas Cullather, Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of its Operation in Guatemala, 1952-1954 (Stanford University Press, 1999) pp24-7, based on the CIA archives.</ref> however, it was also protecting, among others, four hundred thousand acres of land the United Fruit Company had acquired. Guatemala's official 1999 truth commission accused Arbenz of being involved in the deaths of several hundred political opponents.<ref>Antecedentes Inmediatos (1944-1961): El derrocamiento de Arbenz y la intervención militar de 1954,” in Comisión para el Esclaracimiento Histórico (CEH), Guatemala: Memoria Del Silencio (Guatemala, 1999), Capítulo primero.</ref>  Although the CIA's operations were a failure, the Arbenz regime suddenly collapsed without any significant violence when the Guatemalan military turned against it.<ref>Nicholas Cullather, Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of its Operation in Guatemala, 1952-1954 (Stanford University Press, 1999).</ref> In the eleven days after the resignation of President Arbenz, five successive [[military junta]] governments occupied the Guatemalan presidential palace; each junta was successively more amenable to the political demands of the U.S., after which, Colonel [[Carlos Castillo Armas]] assumed the Presidency of Guatemala.	+	The coup initially seemed to fail and the Shah (monarch) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country. After four days of rioting pro-shah army units and street crowds defeated Mossadeq's forces and the Shah returned. According to the 1906 constitution he was a [[constitutional monarch]] who should rule together with the democratically-elected parliament, but after the coup he ruled autocratically, with little concern for democracy.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0004/19/i_ins.00.html
		+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
		+	|title=U.S. Comes Clean About The Coup In Iran
		+	|date=2000-04-19
		+	|work=CNN Insight
		+	}}</ref><ref> {{cite web | title=Country Studies: Iran:Chapter 1 - Historical Setting| work=Library of Congress | url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/irtoc.html | accessdate=March 7 | accessyear=2007}} </ref>
−	===Tibet 1955-70s===	+	The Shah has been condemned for human rights violations and political repression <ref name=FPIF1997-8>[http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol2/v2n42iran.html Iran], ''Foreign Policy in Focus'', vol. 2, no. 42, August 1997.</ref> which arguably increased support for the radical movements which culminated in the [[1979 Iranian Revolution]].<ref name=Morris2007> {{cite news
−	{{Main|Western support for Tibetan independence}}	+	| work=Asia Times
−	The CIA armed an anti-Communist insurgency for decades in order to oppose the [[invasion of Tibet (1950)|invasion]] of [[Tibet]] by Chinese forces and the subsequent [[Tibet since 1950|control of Tibet]] by China. The program had a record of almost unmitigated failure.<ref>Conboy, Kenneth and Morrison, James, ''The CIA's Secret War in Tibet'' (2002).</ref>	+	| author = Morris, Roger
		+	| title = The Gates Inheritance: The tortured world of US intelligence
		+	| date = June 23, 2007
		+	| url = http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF23Ak07.html }}</ref> However, partially due to US pressure, he also attempted to modernize Iran and introduced many social reforms (See the [[White Revolution]]).
−	===Indonesia 1958===	+	Secretary of State [[Madeleine Albright]], in a speech on March 17, 2000 before the [[American-Iranian Council]] on the relaxation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, finally acknowledged:<ref> [http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/speeches/albright-17-03-00.htm Albright's speech on Iran-U.S. relations], [[Reuters]], ''Alexander's Gas and Oil Connection'', 17 March 2000.</ref>
−	{{See also|Guided Democracy in Indonesia|Transition to the New Order|Non-Aligned Movement|30 September Movement}}	+	<blockquote>
−	The autocratic [[Indonesia|Indonesian]] government of [[Sukarno]] was faced with a major threat to its legitimacy beginning in 1956, when several regional commanders began to demand autonomy from [[Jakarta]].  After mediation failed, Sukarno took action to remove the dissident commanders.  In February 1958, dissident military commanders in Central Sumatera (Colonel Ahmad Hussein) and North Sulawesi (Colonel Ventje Sumual) declared the [[Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia]]-[[Permesta]] Movement aimed at overthrowing the Sukarno regime. They were joined by many civilian politicians from the [[Masyumi]] Party, such as [[Sjafruddin Prawiranegara]], who were opposed to the growing influence of the communist [[Partai Komunis Indonesia]] party. Due to their anti-communist rhetoric, the rebels received arms, funding, and other covert aid from the CIA until [[Allen Lawrence Pope]], an American pilot, was shot down after a bombing raid on government-held [[Ambon, Maluku|Ambon]] in April 1958.  The central government responded by launching airborne and seaborne military invasions of rebel strongholds [[Padang, Indonesia|Padang]] and [[Manado]].  By the end of 1958, the rebels were militarily defeated, and the last remaining rebel guerilla bands surrendered by August 1961.<ref>{{cite book	+	In 1953, the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons, but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.
−	| last = Roadnight	+
−	| first = Andrew	+
−	| title = United States Policy towards Indonesia in the Truman and Eisenhower Years	+
−	| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan	+
−	| year = 2002	+
−	| location = New York	+
−	| pages =	+
−	| url =	+
−	| isbn = 0-333-79315-3}}</ref>  To make amends for CIA involvement in the rebellion, President [[John Fitzgerald Kennedy|Kennedy]] invited Sukarno to Washington, and provided Indonesia with billions of dollars in civilian and military aid.<ref name="aga.nvg.org">{{cite web|url=http://aga.nvg.org/oppgaver/chapter1.html |title=Chapter 1: January 1961–Winter 1962: Out from Inheritance |publisher=Aga.nvg.org |date= |accessdate=14 February 2011}}</ref>	+
−	===Cuba 1959===	+	Moreover, during the next quarter century, the United States and [[the West]] gave sustained backing to the Shah's regime. Although it did much to develop the country economically, the Shah's government also brutally repressed political dissent.
−	[[File:LittleHavanOct06BayOfPigsMonument.jpg|150px|thumb|Bay of Pigs Memorial in [[Little Havana]]- [[Miami]], [[Florida]].]]	+
−	{{Main|Bay of Pigs Invasion|The Cuban Project|Operation Northwoods|Cuba–United States relations}}	+
−	Under initiatives by the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations, CIA-trained Cuban anti-communist exiles and refugees to land in [[Cuba]] and attempt to overthrow the government of dictator [[Fidel Castro]]. Plans originally formed under Eisenhower were scaled back under Kennedy.  The largest and most complicated coup effort, approved at White House level, was the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs operation]].	+
−	The CIA made a number of attempts to [[List of unsuccessful assassinations|assassinate Castro]], often with White House approval, as in [[Operation Mongoose]].	+	As President [[Bill Clinton]] has said, the United States must bear its fair share of responsibility for the problems that have arisen in U.S.-Iranian relations. Even in more recent years, aspects of U.S. policy toward Iraq during its conflict with Iran appear now to have been regrettably shortsighted, especially in light of our subsequent experiences with [[Saddam Hussein]].
		+	</blockquote>
−	===Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960-65===	+	===Guatemala 1954===
−	{{Main|Congo Crisis|Congo_Crisis#Mobutu_seizes_power|l2=Mobutu Seizes Power}}	+	{{Main|1954 Guatemalan coup d'état}}
−	In 1960, Belgium granted independence to its most prized territory, the [[Belgian Congo]]. A leader of the successful anti-colonial struggle, [[Patrice Lumumba|Patrice Émery Lumumba]] was elected to be the first prime minister of the country that following its independence from colonial rule had become known as the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]].<ref name="EISA">Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa, "DRC: 1960 National Assembly Results", April 2007, http://www.eisa.org.za/WEP/drc1960results.htm</ref>	+	{{See also|CIA activities in the Americas#Guatemala 1954}}
−	On 11 July 1960, with the support of Belgian business interests and over 6000 Belgian troops, the province of [[Katanga (province)|Katanga]] in the southeast declared independence as the [[State of Katanga]] under the leadership of [[Moise Tshombe]], leader of the local [[CONAKAT]] party. At the core of the Katangese forces were several hundred European [[Mercenary|mercenaries]], many of which were recruited in Belgium. Almost from the beginning, the new state faced a rebellion in the north in [[Luba people|Luba]] areas. This was led by a political party called ''Association of the Luba People of Katanga'' (BALUBAKAT). In January 1961, Katanga faced a secession crisis of its own when BALUBAKAT leaders declared independence from Katanga. The [[South Kasai]] region sought independence in similar circumstances to neighboring Katanga during the crisis. Ethnic conflicts and political tensions between leaders of the central government and local leaders plagued the diamond-rich region.  On 8 August 1960, the autonomous Mining State of South Kasai was proclaimed with its capital at [[Bakwanga]]. [[Albert Kalonji]], a Luba chief, was named president of South Kasai and [[Joseph Ngalula]] was appointed head of government.<ref>{{cite book | title =The Congo from Leopold to Kabila | publisher = Zed Books | year = 2002 | author = Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges | page =105}}</ref>	+	The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] participated in the [[Coup|overthrow]] of the [[democratically-elected]] government of [[Guatemala]].<ref>Nick Cullather, with an afterword by [[Piero Gleijeses]] [http://books.google.com/books?id=sp3IGB4csCQC “Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954”]. [[Stanford University Press]], 2006.</ref><ref>[[Piero Gleijeses]]. [http://books.google.com/books?id=mS7ZVKa6i3AC  “Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954”]. [[Princeton University Press]], 1992. </ref><ref>Stephen M. Streeter. [http://books.google.com/books?id=h17R_A0n-1MC “Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961”]. [[Ohio University Press]], 2000. </ref><ref>Gordon L. Bowen. [http://lap.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/10/1/88 “U.S. Foreign Policy toward Radical Change: Covert Operations in Guatemala, 1950-1954”]. [[Latin American Perspectives]], 1983, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 88-102.</ref>
−	Lumumba was determined to quickly subdue the renegade provinces of Kasai and Katanga. Dissatisfied with the [[United Nations]] response, on August 17, 1960 Lumumba followed through on his threat to request military assistance from the Soviet Union. The USSR quickly responded with an airlift of ANC troops into Kasai and a supply of military trucks. A bloody campaign ensued causing the deaths of hundreds of Baluba tribesmen and the flight of a quarter of a million refugees. Lumumba's decision to accept Soviet help angered the administration of President Eisenhower in the United States.  Referring to the Communist takeover in Cuba in 1959, the CIA station chief in Leopoldville cabled the director, saying "Congo [is] experiencing [a] classic communist effort [to] takeover government... there may be little time to take action to avoid another Cuba". Eisenhower authorized the CIA to initiate a plan to assassinate Lumumba using poison to be placed in his food or toothpaste, although this plan was aborted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jan2001/lum-j10.shtml|title=CIA assassination attempt on Lumumba|date= |accessdate=December 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/pdf/ChurchIR_3A_Congo.pdf Senate Church Committee on Lumumba]</ref>	+	===Cuba 1959- ===
		+	{{Main|Bay of Pigs Invasion|The Cuban Project|Operation Mongoose|Operation Northwoods|Cuba-United States relations}}
		+	The largest and most complicated coup effort, approved at White House level, was the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] operation. Under initiatives by the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations, CIA trained Cuban [[anti-communist]] exiles and refugees to land in [[Cuba]] and attempt to overthrow the government of [[Fidel Castro]]. Plans originally formed under Eisenhower were scaled back under Kennedy.
−	In early 1964, a new crisis broke out as Congolese rebels calling themselves [[Simba Rebellion|"Simbas"]] (Swahili for "Lions") rebelled against the government. They were led by [[Pierre Mulele]], Gaston Soumialot and [[Christophe Gbenye]] who were former members of Gizenga's ''[[Parti Solidaire Africain]]'' (PSA). Mulele was an avowed [[Maoist]], and for this reason his insurgency was supported by communist China.  The rebellion affected Kivu and Eastern (Orientale) provinces. By August they had captured Stanleyville and set up a rebel government there.  As the rebel movement spread, discipline became more difficult to maintain, and acts of violence and terror increased. Thousands of Congolese were executed, including government officials, political leaders of opposition parties, provincial and local police, school teachers, and others believed to have been Westernized. Many of the executions were carried out with extreme cruelty, in front of a monument to Lumumba in Stanleyville.<ref name = "cyoung">{{cite journal | title = Post-Independence Politics in the Congo | author = M. Crawford Young | jstor = 2934325 }}</ref>	+	The CIA made a number of attempts to [[List of unsuccessful assassinations|assassinate Castro]], often with White House approval, as in [[Operation Mongoose]].
−	[[Image:Dragon Rouge hostage.jpg|thumb|left|A hostage is hysterical as she is transported to a departing airplane.]]	+
−	In early 1965 Marxist revolutionary [[Che Guevara]] travelled to Congo to offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the insurgents.  Guevara led the Cuban operation in support of the Marxist Simba movement. Guevara, his second-in-command [[Victor Dreke]], and 12 other Cuban expeditionaries arrived in the Congo on 24 April 1965 and a contingent of approximately 100 Afro-Cubans joined them soon afterward.<ref>Gálvez 1999, p. 62.</ref><ref>Gott 2004 p. 219.</ref> They collaborated for a time with guerrilla leader [[Laurent-Désiré Kabila]], who had previously helped supporters of Lumumba lead an unsuccessful revolt months earlier.  White South African mercenaries, led by [[Mike Hoare]] in concert with Cuban exiles and the CIA, worked with the Congo National Army to thwart Guevara in the mountains near the village of [[Fizi]] on [[Lake Tanganyika]]. They were able to monitor his communications and so pre-empted his attacks and interdicted his supply lines. Despite the fact that Guevara sought to conceal his presence in the Congo, the U.S. government was aware of his location and activities.  The CIA assisted the operation, carried out by U.S. and Belgian forces, to rescue hundreds of European hostages held by the Simba cannibals.<ref>Fontova, Humberto.  Exposing the Real Che Guevarra.  Sentinel, 2007.</ref>	+
−		+
−	On 25 November 1965, just five days after Guevara's departure, [[Joseph Mobutu]] seized power with the help of the political and military support of Western countries, including the U.S.<ref name="obituary">{{cite news| url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-mobutu-sese-seko-1238238.html | work=The Independent | title=Obituary: Mobutu Sese Soko | date=30 June 2010 | location=London}}</ref>	+
−		+
−	===Iraq 1960-63===	+
−	{{See also|CIA transnational human rights actions#Qasim}}	+
−		+
−	In February 1960, the United States planned a coup against the government of [[Iraq]] headed by dictator [[Abd al-Karim Qasim]], who five years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy. The U.S. was concerned about the growing influence of [[Iraqi Communist Party]] government officials under his administration, as well as his threats to invade [[Kuwait]], which almost caused a war between Iraq and Britain.	+
−		+
−	According to the [[Church Committee]], the CIA planned a "special operation" to "incapacitate" an Iraqi Colonel believed to be "promoting Soviet bloc political interests in Iraq."  The aim was to send Qasim a poisoned handkerchief, "which, while not likely to result in total disablement, would be certain to prevent the target from pursuing his usual activities for a minimum of three months."  During the course of the Committee's investigation, the CIA stated that the handkerchief was "in fact never received (if, indeed, sent)." It added that the colonel: "Suffered a terminal illness before a firing squad in Baghdad (an event we had nothing to do with) after our handkerchief proposal was considered."	+
−		+
−	Qasim was killed on 8 February 1963 by a firing squad of the [[Ba'ath]] party in collaboration with Iraqi nationalists and members of the [[Arab Socialist Union (Iraq)|Arab Socialist Union]], in what came to be known as the [[Ramadan Revolution]].  Of the 16 members of Qasim's cabinet, 12 of them were Ba'ath Party members; however, the party turned against Qasim due to his refusal to join [[Gamel Abdel Nasser]]'s United Arab Republic.<ref name="iraqfirst">{{cite book | author = [[Con Coughlin|Coughlin, Con]] |  pages = 24–25 | title = Saddam: His Rise and Fall | location = | publisher = [[Harper Perennial]] | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-06-050543-5}}</ref>  Washington immediately befriended the successor regime.  "Almost certainly a gain for our side," [[Robert Komer]], a National Security Council aide, wrote to President Kennedy on the day of the takeover.<ref>{{citation	+
−	| chapter = C. Institutionalizing Assassination: the "Executive Action" capability	+
−	| title = Alleged Assassination Plots involving Foreign Leaders	+
−	| author = Senate Select Committee on Intelligence	+
−	| date = 20 November 1975	+
−	| url = http://history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/contents.htm	+
−	| page = 181	+
−	}}</ref>  The Ba'ath Party was subsequently purged from the government in the [[November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état]].	+
−	Writing in his memoirs of the 1963 coup, long time OSS and CIA intelligence analyst Harry Rositzke presented it as an example of one on which they had good intelligence in contrast to others that caught the agency by surprise. The overthrow "was forecast in exact detail by CIA agents."  "Agents in the Ba’th Party headquarters in Baghdad had for years kept Washington au courant on the party’s personnel and organization, its secret communications and sources of funds, and its penetrations of military and civilian hierarchies in several countries....CIA sources were in a perfect position to follow each step of Ba’th preparations for the Iraqi coup, which focused on making contacts with military and civilian leaders in Baghdad. 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....To call an upcoming coup requires the CIA to have sources within the group of plotters. Yet, from a diplomatic point of view, having secret contacts with plotters implies at least unofficial complicity in the plot."<ref>Harry Rositzke, The CIA’s Secret Operations: Espionage, Counterespionage, and Covert Action (Boulder, CO: 1977), 109–110.</ref>	+	===Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960===
		+	[[Patrice Lumumba|Patrice Émery Lumumba]], an African [[anti-colonial]] leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], after he helped to win its independence from [[Belgium]] in June 1960, was deposed in a US CIA-sponsored coup during the [[Congo Crisis]].<ref name="devlin">Larry Devlin, ''Chief of Station Congo'', 2007, Public Affairs, ISBN 1-58648-405-2</ref> He was subsequently imprisoned and assassinated under controversial circumstances.
−	Qasim was aware of U.S. complicity in the plot and continually denounced the U.S. in public. The [[Department of State]] was worried that Qasim would harass American diplomats in Iraq because of this.  The CIA was aware of many plots in Iraq in 1962, not just the one that succeeded.<ref>Kennedy Library, "Telegram from Department of State to Embassy Baghdad of February 5, 1963," National Security Files, Countries, Box 117, Iraq 1/63-2/63.</ref>	+	===Iraq 1963===
−	The best direct evidence that the U.S. was complicit is the memo from Komer to President Kennedy on February 8, 1963. The last paragraph reads:	+	{{See also|CIA activities in Iraq}}
−	[[File:Rafael Trujillo.gif|thumb|left|Tujillo was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 50,000 people]]	+
−	"We will make informal friendly noises as soon as we can find out whom to talk with, and ought to recognize as soon as we’re sure these guys are firmly in the saddle. CIA had excellent reports on the plotting, but I doubt either they or UK should claim much credit for it."<ref>JFK Library, Memorandum for The President from Robert W. Komer, February 8, 1963 (JFK, NSF, Countries, Iraq, Box 117, "Iraq 1/63-2/63", document 18), p. 1.</ref>	+
−	===Dominican Republic 1961===	+	In 1963, the United States is claimed to have backed a coup against the government of Iraq headed by General [[Abdel Karim Kassem]], who five years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy. The CIA helped the new [[Baath Party]] government in ridding the country of suspected leftists and Communists.<ref name="reuters2003">[http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0420-05.htm Ex-U.S. Official Says CIA Aided Baathists], ''[[Reuters]]'', April 20, 2003, citing former National Security Council official and State Department foreign service official Roger Morris.</ref><ref name="Morris2003">{{cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9505EFDB103EF937A25750C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
−	{{See also|CIA transnational human rights actions#Trujillo}}	+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
−	The CIA supported the overthrow of [[Rafael Trujillo]], dictator of the [[Dominican Republic]], on 30 May 1961.<ref>Frank,  Mitch. "The CIA's Secret Army."  ''Time Magazine.''  February 3, 2003. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004176,00.html</ref> In a report to the Deputy [[Attorney General of the United States]], CIA officials described the agency as having "no active part" in the assassination and only a "faint connection" with the groups that planned the killing,<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/family_jewels_wilderotter.pdf Justice Department Memo, 1975;] [[National Security Archive]]</ref> but the internal CIA investigation, by its Inspector General, "disclosed quite extensive Agency involvement with the plotters."<ref name="NSAEBB222-1973-05-08">{{citation	+	|title=A Tyrant 40 Years in the Making
−	| url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/index.htm	+	|work=[[New York Times]]
−	| volume = George Washington University National Security Archives Electronic Briefing Book No. 222, "The CIA's Family Jewels"	+	|first=Roger
−	| title = Memorandum for the Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee. Subject: Potentially Embarrassing Agency Activities	+	|last=Morris
−	| editor = Blanton, William (editor)	+	|date=2003-03-14
−	| date = 8 May 1973	+	}}<!-- back-up: http://readthese.blogspot.com/2003_12_15_readthese_archive.html --></ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF26Ak08.html
		+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
		+	|title=Great games and famous victories
		+	|work=Asia Times Online
		+	|first=Roger
		+	|last=Morris
		+	|date=2007-06-26
		+	}}</ref><ref name=feldman>{{cite news|url=http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/596/60/
		+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
		+	|first=Bob
		+	|last=Feldman
		+	|title=A People's History of Iraq: 1963 to 2005
		+	|date=2005-09-22
		+	|work=Toward Freedom
	}}</ref>		}}</ref>
−	===South Vietnam 1963===	+	To pave the way for the new regime, the CIA is claimed to have provided to the Baathists lists of suspected Communists and other leftists. The new regime is claimed to have used these lists to orchestrate a bloodbath, systematically murdering untold numbers of Iraq's educated elite—killings in which Saddam Hussein himself is said to have participated. The victims included hundreds of doctors, teachers, technicians, lawyers and other professionals as well as military and political figures.<ref name="Morris2003"/><ref>"The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq", Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978; Peter and Marion Sluglett, "Iraq Since 1958" London, I.B. Taurus, 1990</ref><ref>Regarding the CIA's "Health Alteration Committee's work in Iraq, see U.S. Senate's Church Committee Interim Report on Assassination, page 181, Note 1 </ref> According to an article in the  New York Times, the U.S. sent arms to the new regime, weapons later used against the same [[Kurd]]ish insurgents the U.S. supported against Kassem and then abandoned. American and U.K. oil and other interests, including [[Mobil]], [[British Petroleum]] and [[Bechtel]], were once again conducting business in Iraq.<ref name=Morris2003/>
−	{{main|Cable 243|1963 South Vietnamese coup|Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm}}	+
−	[[File:Diem dead.jpg|The body of Diệm in the back of the APC, having been killed on the way to military headquarters|thumb|180px]]	+
−	The CIA backed a coup against dictator [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] of [[South Vietnam]]. [[Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.]], the American [[ambassador]] to South Vietnam, refused to meet with Diệm. Upon hearing that a [[coup d'état]] was being designed by [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam|ARVN]] generals led by General [[Duong Van Minh|DÆ°Æ¡ng Văn Minh]], Lodge gave secret assurances to the generals that the U.S. would not interfere. [[Lucien Conein]], a CIA operative, provided a group of South Vietnamese generals with $40,000 to carry out the coup with the promise that US forces would make no attempt to protect Diệm.  [[Duong Van Minh|DÆ°Æ¡ng Văn Minh]] and his co-conspirators overthrew the government on 1 November 1963 in a swift coup. On 1 November, with only the palace guard remaining to defend Diệm and his younger brother, [[Ngô Đình Nhu|Nhu]], the generals called the palace offering Diệm exile if he surrendered.  However, that evening, Diệm and his entourage escaped via an underground passage to [[Cholon]], where they were captured the following morning, 2 November. The brothers were assassinated together in the back of an [[armoured personnel carrier]] with a [[bayonet]] and [[revolver]] by Captain [[Nguyen Van Nhung|Nguyá»…n Văn Nhung]] while en route to the Vietnamese Joint General Staff headquarters.<ref>[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon2/pent6.htm ''The Pentagon Papers'', Vol. 2 Ch. 4] "The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May–November, 1963", pgs. 201–276,</ref> Diệm was buried in an [[unmarked grave]] in a [[cemetery]] next to the house of the U.S. ambassador.<ref>G. Herring, ''America's Longest War'', 1996, p. 116.</ref>	+
−	Upon learning of Diệm's ouster and death, [[Ho Chi Minh|Hồ Chí Minh]] reportedly said, "I can scarcely believe the Americans would be so stupid."<ref name=moyarp286>[http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA286&id=phJrZ87RwuAC&q Moyar, pg. 286]</ref>	+
	===Brazil 1964===		===Brazil 1964===
	{{Main|1964 Brazilian coup d'état}}		{{Main|1964 Brazilian coup d'état}}
−	The democratically-elected government of [[Brazil]], headed by President [[João Goulart]], was successfully overthrown in a coup in March 1964. On March 30, the American military attaché in Brazil, Colonel [[Vernon A. Walters]], telegraphed the [[United States Department of State|State Department]]. In that telegraph, he confirmed that Brazilian army generals, independently of the US, had committed themselves to acting against Goulart within a week of the meeting, but no date was set.<ref>[http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/johnsonlb/xxxi/36291.htm 192. Telegram From the Army Attaché in Brazil (Walters) to the Department of the Army] United States State Department. March 30, 1964. Retrieved on August 20, 2007.</ref>	+	{{See also|CIA activities in Brazil}}; [[Operation Brother Sam]]
−	{{Listen|filename=LBJ-Brazil.ogg|title=LBJ receives briefing on Brazil.|description=[[Lyndon B. Johnson]] receiving briefing on events in Brazil on March 31, 1964 on his Texas ranch with Undersecretary of State [[George Wildman Ball|George Ball]] and Assistant Secretary for Latin America, [[Thomas C. Mann]]. Ball briefs Johnson on that status of military moves in Brazil to overthrow the government of [[João Goulart]].|format=[[Ogg]]}}	+	A democratically-elected government headed by President [[João Goulart]] was successfully overthrown by a CIA-supported coup in March 1964. Declassified U.S. government documents show that members of the administration of President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] engaged in active preparations to aid Brazil's military coup plotter, and the U.S. was preparing support for a bloody coup, however in the event no blood appeared to have been shed. A military dictatorship which lasted for 21 years was successfully installed.<ref>[http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/8344709.htm Miami Herald] April 3, 2004. Archived at: [http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=coldwar-imperialism/papers-show-us-support-of-1964-brazil-coup.txt Newsmine]</ref>
−	Declassified transcripts of communications between U.S. ambassador to Brazil [[Lincoln Gordon]] and the U.S. government show that, predicting an all-out civil war, President Johnson authorized logistical materials to be in place to support the coup-side of the rebellion as part of U.S. [[Operation Brother Sam]].<ref>[http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/johnsonlb/xxxi/36291.htm 198. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Brazil]. Washington, March 31, 1964, 2:29&nbsp;p.m. Retrieved on August 20, 2007.</ref>	+	===Republic of Ghana 1966 ===
		+	On February 24, 1966, Prime Minister [[Kwame Nkrumah]] of the [[Ghana]] was overthrown by a claimed CIA-backed coup.<ref>Interview with [[John Stockwell]] in ''[[Pandora's Box (television documentary series)|Pandora's Box]]: Black Power'' ([[Adam Curtis]], [[BBC Two]], 22 June 1992)</ref><ref> [http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/vol_xxiv/s.html Foreign Relations of the US, 1964-1968, Volume XXIV: Africa. Department of State Washington, DC]</ref><ref>[http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/vol_xxiv/s.html  Department of State Washington, DC]</ref><ref>[http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/cia_nkrumah.php Department of State Washington, DC]</ref><ref>[http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=75990 Department of State Washington, DC]</ref>
		+	<ref>On Nkrumah assassination by CIA: Gaines, Kevin (2006) American Africans in Ghana, Black expatriates and the Civil Rights Era, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.</ref>
−	In the telegraphs, Gordon also acknowledges U.S. involvement in "covert support for pro-democracy street rallies...and encouragement [of] democratic and anti-communist sentiment in Congress, armed forces, friendly labor and student groups, church, and business" and that he "may be requesting modest supplementary funds for other covert action programs in the near future."<ref>[http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/johnsonlb/xxxi/36291.htm 187. Telegram From the Ambassador to Brazil (Gordon) to the Department of State] Rio de Janeiro, March 28, 1964. Retrieved on August 20, 2007</ref>	+	===Iraq 1968===
		+	The leader of the new Baathist government, Salam Arif, died in 1966 and his brother, [[Abdul Rahman Arif]], not a Ba'athist, assumed the presidency.<ref name=Morris2007>Morris2007</ref><ref name=Morris2003/> Said K. Abuirsh alleges that in 1967, the government of Iraq was very close to giving concessions for the development of huge new oil fields in the country to France and the USSR.  PBS reported that [[Robert Anderson]], former secretary of the treasury under President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], secretly met with the Ba'ath Party and came to a negotiated agreement according to which both the oil field concessions and sulphur mined in the northern part of the country would go to United States companies if the Ba'ath again took over power.<ref name=AburishRev>{{cite news
		+	| work = [[PBS Frontline]]
		+	| first = Said K
		+	| last = Aburish
		+	| url = http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saddam/interviews/aburish.html
		+	| title = Saddam Hussein, The Politics of Revenge }}</ref> In 1968, with a claimed backing of the CIA, Rahman Arif was overthrown by Ahmed [[Hassan al-Bakr]] of the Baath Party, bringing [[Saddam Hussein]] to the threshold of power.<ref name=Morris2007/><ref name="reuters2003"/><ref name=Morris2003/><ref name=feldman/>
−	In 2001, Gordon published a book, ''Brazil's Second Chance: En Route Toward the First World'', on Brazilian history since the military coup. In it, he denied a role in the coup. However, James N. Green, an American historian of Brazil, argued: "[Gordon] changed Brazil's history, for he....made it clear that, if the coup was advanced, the United States was going to recognize it immediately, which was fundamental [to the plotters]."<ref>[http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Mundo/0,,MUL1422975-5602,00.html Lincoln Gordon mudou a história do Brasil, diz historiador americano]</ref>	+	Roger Morris in the ''Asia Times'' writes that the CIA deputy for the Middle East [[Archibald Roosevelt]] (grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and cousin of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.) stated, referring to Iraqi Ba'ath Party officers on his payroll in the 1963 and 1968 coups, "They're our boys, bought and paid for, but you always gotta remember that these people can't be trusted."<ref name=Morris2007/> General Ahmed Bakr was installed as president. Saddam Hussein was appointed the number two man.<ref name=Morris2007/><ref name=AburishRev/>
−	===Greece 1967===	+	===Chile 1973===
−	{{Main|Greek military junta of 1967–1974}}	+
−	On 21 April 1967, the democratically-elected government of [[Greece]], which was perceived by some as being in danger of becoming communist, was overthrown by a group of right-wing military colonels.  Although there have been persistent rumors about an active support of the perpetrators of the coup d'état by the U.S. government, there is no evidence to support such claims.<ref>Moseley, Ray (November 17, 1999). [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/411.html Thousands decry U.S. in streets of Athens]. ''[[The Chicago Tribune]]''.</ref><ref>Kassimeris, Christos (2006). "Causes of the 1967 Greek Coup". ''Democracy and Security.'' '''2'''(1), 61 – 72.</ref> It is, however, likely that the U.S. military was informed of the coup a few days in advance by Greek liaison officers.<ref>Miller, James Edward (1998). "The Rape of Greek Democracy: The American Factor, 1947-1967 (review)". ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies.'' '''16'''(1), 162 – 166.</ref>	+
−		+
−	===Chile 1970-73===	+
	{{Main|1973 Chilean coup d'état|United States intervention in Chile}}		{{Main|1973 Chilean coup d'état|United States intervention in Chile}}
		+	The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] is alleged to have participated in the [[Coup|overthrow]] of the [[democratically-elected]] government of [[Chile]].<ref> Edited by Pilar Aguilera and Ricardo Fredes. [http://books.google.com/books?id=PJVzAAAACAAJ ”Chile: the Other September 11: An Anthology of Reflections on the 1973 Coup”]. [http://www.oceanbooks.com Ocean Press], 2006.</ref><ref>Edited by Silvia Nagy-Zekmi and Fernando Leiva [http://books.google.com/books?id=jNWDe3pqKVQC&client=firefox-a “Democracy in Chile: The Legacy of September 11, 1973”]. [[Sussex Academic Press]], 2003. </ref><ref>Lubna Z. Qureshi [http://books.google.com/books?id=O-EROgAACAAJ “Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.s. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile”]. [[Rowman & Littlefield|Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc]], 2008.</ref><ref>Thomas Karamessines. [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch05-01.htm National Security Archive] Operating guidance cable on coup plotting in Chile, Washington: [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]], 1970.</ref><ref>[[Henry Kissinger]]. [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch09-01.htm “National Security Decision Memorandum 93: Policy Towards Chile”]. Washington: [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]], 1970. </ref>
−	The U.S. Government's hostility to the election of [[Socialist]] President Salvador Allende in [[Chile]] was substantiated<ref>{{Cite journal	+	===Afghanistan 1973-74===
−	| title=Memorandum for Mr. Henry Kissinger	+	Roger Morris, writing in the [[Asia Times]], argues that as early as 1973-74, the CIA began offering covert backing to Islamic radical rebels in Afghanistan premised on the claim that the right-wing, authoritarian government headed by [[Mohammed Daoud Khan]], might prove a likely instrument of Soviet military aggression in South Asia. Morris argues that this premise was without basis in fact; Daoud had always held the Russians, his main patron when it came to aid, at arm's length, and had savagely purged local communists who supported him when he overthrew the Afghan monarchy in 1973. The Soviets had also shown no inclination to use the notoriously unruly Afghans and their army for any expansionist aim.<ref name=Morris2007/> Morris claims that during this period U.S. foreign policy leaders saw the Soviets as always being "on the march." This apprehension resulted in a rash of U.S. secret wars, assassinations, terrorist acts and manifold corruptions. U.S. secret backing of radical Islamic rebels ceased following an abortive rebel uprising in 1975.<ref name=Morris2007/>
−	| publisher=United States Department of State	+
−	| author=Ad Hoc Interagency Working Group on Chile	+
−	| date=1970-12-04	+
−	| url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch20-01.htm	+
−	| accessdate=2007-12-10	+
−	}}</ref> in documents declassified during the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]]; involving the CIA, which show that covert operatives were inserted in Chile, in order to prevent a Marxist government from arising and for the purpose of spreading anti-Allende propaganda.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch18-01.htm</ref><ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch01-01.htm</ref>	+
−		+
−	The CIA, as recounted in the [[Church Committee]] report, was involved in various plots designed to remove Allende and then let the Chileans vote in a new election where he would not be a candidate: It tried to buy off the Chilean Congress to prevent his appointment, worked to sway public opinion against him to prevent his election, and financed protests designed to bring the country to a stand-still and make him resign. The CIA, acting with the approval of the [[Oversight_of_United_States_covert_operations#40_Committee|40 Committee]]—the body charged with overseeing covert actions abroad—devised what in effect was a constitutional coup.  The most expeditious way to prevent Allende from assuming office was somehow to convince the Chilean congress to confirm [[Jorge Alessandri]] as the winner of the election. Once elected by the congress, Alessandri—a party to the plot through intermediaries—was prepared to resign his presidency within a matter of days so that new elections could be held.  This first, nonmilitary, approach to stopping Allende was called the [[United_States_intervention_in_Chile#Track_I|Track I]] approach.	+
−		+
−	The CIA's second approach, the [[United_States_intervention_in_Chile#Track_II|Track II]] approach, was designed to encourage a military overthrow, by creating an atmosphere of crisis and disaster (a "coup climate") in the country. [[False flag]] operatives approached senior Chilean military officers, in "some two dozen contacts", with the message that "the United States intended to cut military assistance to Chile unless they moved against Allende, and that the U.S. desired, and would actively support, a coup."<ref name="The Pinochet File">{{cite book|last=Kornbluh|first=Peter|title=The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability|year=2003|publisher=The New Press|location=New York|isbn=1-56584-936-1}}</ref>	+
−		+
−	The CIA provided extensive support for [[black propaganda]] against Allende, funneled largely through ''[[El Mercurio]]'', but also using other media outlets. Propaganda targeted both the people and the military. Financial support was also provided for anti-Allende political opponents and for organized strikes and unrest to destabilize his government.	+
−	{{quotation|"The key is the psych war within Chile," CIA officials stressed. "We cannot endeavor to ignite the world if Chile itself is a placid lake. The fuel for the fire must come from within Chile. Therefore, the Station should employ every stratagem, every ploy, however bizarre, to create this internal resistance." The tactics of CIA-instigated psychological warfare ranged from the superfluous to the sinister. On October 7, Phillips and Broe directed the station to "begin at once a rumor campaign, based whenever possible on tangible peg, which will help create this [coup] climate."...In another, and far more sinister, cable dated the same day the Station was ordered to consider instigating "terrorist" activities that might provoke Allende's followers.<ref name="The Pinochet File"/>}} [[File:Golpe de Estado 1973.jpg|thumb|left| Two Chilean air force jets fire 18 rockets into the presidential palace [[La Moneda Palace|La Moneda]], setting it on fire, in the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état]] on September 11th, 1973.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Other 9/11|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thq-WysYcZc|newspaper=BBC-4|year=2003|accessdate=April 7, 2012}}</ref>]]	+
−		+
−	The first attempt to engineer a military overthrow of Allende occurred in 1970. The CIA had been in contact with two groups of coup plotters, one group run by retired General [[Roberto Viaux]] and a second by active-duty General [[Camilo Valenzuela]]. The CIA had attempted to stop Viaux's group from moving forward until it had joined forces with Valenzuela's group. Both groups were attempting to remove Chilean general [[René Schneider]], due to his support for military non-intervention in politics, and thus the appointment of Allende. The Church hearings found that the CIA gave weapons to a group of men who it knew had attacked him twice before, ostensibly as a test of loyalty so that the CIA would remain privy to their information, but that the weapons provided and the group thereby armed (Valenzuela's group) were not the ones who actually killed him (Viaux's group). Altogether, the CIA had provided "$50,000 cash, three submachine guns, and a satchel of tear gas, all approved at headquarters..."<ref name="Legacy of Ashes">{{cite book|last=Weiner|first=Tim|title=Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA|year=2007|publisher=Anchor Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-307-38900-8|pages=361}}</ref>  The CIA, with some difficulty, recovered both the weapons and money, and the weapons were discarded in the Pacific Ocean.<ref>http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0120a.htm</ref>	+
−		+
−	On June 11, 1971, Kissinger and Nixon said the following in a private conversation:	+
−		+
−	: '''Kissinger''': —when they did try to assassinate somebody, it took three attempts—	+
−	: '''Nixon''': Yeah.	+
−	: '''Kissinger''': —and he lived for three weeks afterwards.<ref name="blog.washingtonpost.com">{{cite news| url=http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/07/nixon_tape_reveals_oval_office.html | work=The Washington Post | title=Nixon and Kissinger joked over Chile assassination}}</ref>	+
−		+
−	There are two possible interpretations of these remarks: a) Kissinger was telling the President that a military coup could not succeed in Chile because there were no officers both willing and ''able'' to carry one out; or b) the two men were mocking the CIA's squeamishness about killing Schneider.<ref name="blog.washingtonpost.com"/>	+
−		+
−	The Senate Intelligence Committee, in its investigation of the matter, concluded that since the machine guns supplied to Valenzuela had not actually been employed in the killing, and since General Viaux had been officially discouraged by the CIA a few days before the murder, there was therefore "no evidence of a plan to kill Schneider or that United States officials specifically anticipated that Schneider would be shot during the abduction." This view has been disputed by writer [[Christopher Hitchens]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/feb/24/features.weekend | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Christopher | last=Hitchens | title=Why has he got away with it? (Continued) | date=2001-02-24}}</ref>	+
−		+
−	A Chilean Supreme Court investigation accused Allende of support of armed groups, torture, illegal arrests, muzzling the press, confiscating private property, and not allowing people to leave the country.<ref>"Declaration on the Breakdown of Chile's Democracy," Resolution of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile, August 22, 1973. See also ''The Wall Street Journal's'' "What Really Happened in Chile": http://www.lyd.com/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref>	+
	===Argentina 1976===		===Argentina 1976===
−	[[File:Isabelita.jpg|thumb|upright|[[María Estela Martínez de Perón]]]]	+	{{Main|1976 Argentine coup d'état}}
−	{{Main|1976 Argentine coup d'état|Dirty War}}	+	{{See also|Dirty War#US involvement}}
−	The democratically elected government of [[Argentina]] headed by [[Isabel Martínez de Perón]] was successfully overthrown by a military [[putsch]] in March 1976. The ''<span lang="es-Latn">Nunca Mas</span>'' ("Never Again") report released in 1984 by the [[National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons]] recorded 600 disappearances and 500 assassinations under the Peronist governments from 1973 to 1976.<ref>[http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3222,36-855055,0.html?xtor=RSS-3208 L'ancienne présidente argentine Isabel Peron arrêtée à Madrid, à la demande de Buenos Aires], ''[[Le Monde]]'', January 13, 2007 {{fr icon}}.</ref>	+	The democratically-elected government of Argentina headed by [[Isabel Martínez de Perón]] was successfully overthrown by a military [[putsch]] in March 1976. Eight days before the coup, Admiral [[Emilio Eduardo Massera]], Chief of the Argentine Navy and a major coup plotter, turned to Ambassador Robert Hill, U.S. ambassador to Argentina, for help in getting a recommendation for a U.S. public relations firm that would manage the Argentine coup leaders' propaganda operation for the coup and the crackdown against democracy and human rights activists that was to follow. Ambassador Hill stated that the United Stated government cannot interfere in such affairs and provided Admiral Massera with a list of reputable public relations firms maintained by the Embassy. More than two months before the coup, senior coup plotters consulted with American officials in Argentina about the coup, and Ambassador Hill reported to Washington that he was encouraged that the military coup plotters were "aware of the problem" that their killings might cause and "are already focusing on ways to avoid letting human rights issues become an irritant in US-Argentine relations" by being pro-active with the preparation of the public relations operation.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/index.htm National Security Archive] citing: February 16, 1976 - Military Take Cognizance of Human Rights Issue, Source: U.S. Department of State Argentina Declassification Project, 2002. Published in Suplemento Zona, Diario Clarín in 1998.</ref>
−	Eight days before the coup, Admiral [[Emilio Eduardo Massera]], Chief of the [[Argentine Navy]] and a major coup plotter, turned to Ambassador Robert Hill, U.S. ambassador to Argentina, for help in getting a recommendation for an American [[public relations]] firm that would manage the Argentine coup leaders' propaganda campaign for the coup and for the crackdown against democracy and human rights activists that was to follow. Ambassador Hill stated that the United States government cannot interfere in such affairs and provided Admiral Massera with a list of reputable public relations firms maintained by the Embassy. Also, more than two months before the coup, senior coup plotters consulted with American officials in Argentina about the coup, and Ambassador Hill reported to Washington that the military coup plotters were "aware of the problem" that their killings might cause and "are already focusing on ways to avoid letting human rights issues become an irritant in U.S.-Argentine relations" by being pro-active with the preparation of the public relations operation.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/index.htm National Security Archive] citing: February 16, 1976 - Military Take Cognizance of Human Rights Issue, Source: U.S. Department of State Argentina Declassification Project, 2002. Published in Suplemento Zona, Diario Clarín in 1998.</ref>	+	U.S. planners were aware that the coup could not likely succeed without murderous repression. Two days after the coup, Assistant Secretary for Latin America, [[William D. Rogers|William Rogers]] advised Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]] that "we ought not at this moment rush out and embrace this new regime" because he expects significant repression to follow the coup.<blockquote>
		+	"I think also we've got to expect a fair amount of repression, probably a good deal of blood, in Argentina before too long. I think they're going to have to come down very hard not only on the terrorists but on the dissidents of trade unions and their parties."
		+	</blockquote>
		+	But Kissinger made his preferences clear: "Whatever chance they have, they will need a little encouragement… because I do want to encourage them. I don't want to give the sense that they're harassed by the United States." <ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/index.htm The National Security Archive] March 23, 2006, citing: March 26, 1976 - [Staff Meeting Transcripts] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Chairman, Secret, [pages 1, 19-23 regarding Argentina]  Source: Collection compiled by National Security Archive analyst William Burr. Selected by Archive Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh</ref>
		+	For years the government-backed death squads supported by groups the such as the [[Argentine Anticommunist Alliance]] (AAA), and the Argentina intelligence unit [[Battalion 601]] initiated a murderous campaign to oppress those who they perceived as hostile leftist "subversives" as part of [[Operation Condor]].<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/index.htm The National Security Archive] March 23, 2006, citing: May-October 1976 - Relacion de Requeridos del OPR-33 [OPR-33 Most Wanted List] [First page of the Uruguayan military intelligence report containing this list] Source: Documentation Center and Archive for Human Rights of the Paraguay Supreme Court, aka. "Archive of Terror." Collected by Carlos Osorio. </ref>
−	===Afghanistan 1979-1989===	+	===Afghanistan 1978-1980s===
−	{{Main|Operation Cyclone|Reagan Doctrine|Soviet war in Afghanistan|Civil war in Afghanistan}}	+	{{Main|Operation Cyclone|Soviet war in Afghanistan|Civil war in Afghanistan}}
	{{See also|Charlie Wilson's War|Badaber Uprising}}		{{See also|Charlie Wilson's War|Badaber Uprising}}
−	{{Quote box
−	| quote  = "To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom."
−	| source = — [[Ronald Reagan|U.S. President Ronald Reagan]], March 21, 1983 <ref>[http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/32183e.htm Message on the Observance of Afghanistan Day] by U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]], March 21, 1983</ref>
−	| width = 25%
−	| align = left
−	}}
−	President [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] reacted with "open-mouthed shock" to the [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]], and began promptly arming the Afghan insurgents.<ref>Hitchens, Christopher, [http://www.slate.com/id/2166661 Peanut Envy], Slate, May 21, 2007.</ref>  Vice-President [[Walter Mondale]] famously declared: "I cannot understand &ndash; it just baffles me &ndash; why the Soviets these last few years have behaved as they have. Maybe we have made some mistakes with them. Why did they have to build up all these arms? Why did they have to go into Afghanistan? Why can't they relax just a little bit about [[Eastern Europe]]? Why do they try every door to see if it is locked?"<ref>Sperling, Godfrey Jr., [http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0310/031029.html Mondale in '84: he may run if Jimmy Carter doesn't], Christian Science Monitor, March 10, 1981.</ref> The Soviets, several times shortly before the invasion, had staged conversations with the Afghan leadership suggesting that they had no desire to intervene, even as the [[Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] was—with much hesitation—considering such an intervention.  After the invasion, Afghani President [[Hafizullah Amin]] was executed and replaced with [[Babrak Karmal]], a less recalcitrant premier.
−	A 2002 article by [[Michael Rubin]] stated that in the wake of the [[Iranian Revolution]], the United States sought rapprochement with the Afghan government—a prospect that the USSR found unacceptable due to the weakening Soviet leverage over the regime. Thus, the Soviets intervened to preserve their influence in the country.<ref>Rubin, Michael, "Who is Responsible for the Taliban?", Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 6, No. 1 (March 2002). http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue1/mrubin.pdf</ref>  In February 1979, U.S. Ambassador [[Adolph Dubs|Adolph "Spike" Dubs]] was murdered in Kabul after Afghan security forces burst in on his kidnappers.  The U.S. then reduced bilateral assistance and terminated a small military training program.  All remaining assistance agreements were ended after the [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]].  Following the Soviet invasion, the United States supported diplomatic efforts to achieve a Soviet withdrawal. In addition, generous U.S. contributions to the refugee program in Pakistan played a major part in efforts to assist [[Afghan refugees]].	+	Roger Morris, writing in the ''[[Asia Times]]'', states that in April 1978, the crackdown by [[Mohammed Daoud Khan]]'s [[Republic of Afghanistan (1973–1978)|regime]] on Afghanistan's small [[People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan|Communist Party]] provoked a successful [[Saur Revolution|military coup d'état]] by Communist Party loyalists in the army. The coup occurred in defiance of a skittish Moscow, which had stopped earlier coup plans.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}
−	One of the CIA's longest and most expensive covert operations was the supplying of billions of dollars in arms to the Afghan mujahideen militants.<ref>Time Magazine, 13 May 2003, "The Oily Americans", http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,450997-2,00.html</ref> The CIA provided assistance to the fundamentalist insurgents through the Pakistani [[ISI]] in a program called [[Operation Cyclone]]. Somewhere between $2–$20 billion in U.S. funds were funneled into the country to equip troops with weapons. No Americans trained or had direct contact with the mujahideen.<ref>Bergen, Peter.  Holy War, Inc.  New York: Free Press, 2001. Pg.66</ref> The skittish CIA had fewer than 10 operatives in the region because it "feared it would be blamed, like in Guatemala."<ref>The New Republic, "TRB FROM WASHINGTON, Back to Front" by Peter Beinart, October 8, 2001.</ref>	+	According to Morris, by autumn 1978, an Islamic insurgency, armed and planned by the U.S., Pakistan, Iran and China, and soon to be actively supported, at Washington's prodding, by the Saudis and Egyptians, was fighting in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. planners continued funding the radical Islamic insurgency to "suck" the Russians into Afghanistan.<ref name=Morris2007>Morris2007</ref> According to the "Progressive South Asia Exchange Net", claiming to cite an article in {{lang|fr|Le Nouvel Observateur}}, U.S. policy, unbeknownst even to the Mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy "to induce a Soviet military intervention." [[National Security Advisor (United States)|National Security Advisor]] [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] stated:
		+	<blockquote>
		+	According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise.
		+	That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap.... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter "We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War."<ref name=JIMMY-CARTER-AND-I-STARTED-THE-MUJAHIDEEN>{{cite web
		+	|title=How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen (Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski)
		+	|url=http://www.proxsa.org/resources/9-11/Brzezinski-980115-interview.htm
		+	|date=1998-01-21
		+	|publisher=[[Le Nouvel Observateur]]
		+	|accessdate=2007-02-04 }}</ref>
		+	</blockquote>
		+	With instability and bloody civil strife raging in a country on their border, the [[Soviet war in Afghanistan|Soviets invaded in December 1979]], according to the Asia Times report, fulfilling the hopes of Washington as expressed by National Security Adviser Brzezinski.<ref name=Morris2007>Morris2007</ref><ref>[http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/c-afghanistan.pdf Afghanistan], Cold War International History Project Bulletin Issue 14/15, 2003, p. 139</ref>
−	According to Carter's National Security Advisor, [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]], an NSC [[working group]] on Afghanistan wrote several reports on the deteriorating situation in 1979, but President Carter ignored them until the Soviet intervention destroyed his illusions. Brzezinski has stated that the U.S. provided communications equipment and limited financial aid to the mujahideen prior to the "formal" invasion, but only in response to the Soviet deployment of forces to Afghanistan and the 1978 coup, and with the intention of preventing further Soviet encroachment in the region.<ref name="&ldquo;&rdquo">{{cite web|author=&ldquo;&rdquo; |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGjAsQJh7OM&feature=channel |title=Brzezinski and the Afghan War Pt2 |publisher=YouTube |accessdate=July 10, 2010}}</ref> Two declassified documents signed by Carter shortly before the invasion authorize the provision "unilaterally or through third countries as appropriate support to the Afghan insurgents either in the form of cash or non-military supplies" and the "worldwide" distribution of "non-attributable propaganda" to "expose" the leftist Afghan government as "despotic and subservient to the Soviet Union" and to "publicize the efforts of the Afghan insurgents to regain their country's sovereignty".<ref>http://www.activistmagazine.com/images/stories/government/carter_79-1581.jpg</ref><ref>http://www.activistmagazine.com/images/stories/government/carter_79-1579.jpg</ref> The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 significantly damaged the already tenuous relationship between Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]] and Brzezinski. Vance felt that Brzezinski's linkage of [[SALT]] to other Soviet activities and the proposed MX ballistic missile system, together with the growing domestic criticisms in the United States of the SALT II Accord, convinced [[Leonid Brezhnev]] to decide on military intervention in Afghanistan. Brzezinski, however, later recounted that he repeatedly advanced proposals on how to maintain Afghanistan's "independence" and deter a Soviet invasion but was frustrated by the Department of State's opposition.  According to [[Eric Alterman]] of ''[[The Nation]]'', Vance's close aide Marshall Shulman  "insists that the State Department worked hard to dissuade the Soviets from invading".<ref name="thenation.com">{{cite web|first=Eric |last=Alterman |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/blowback-prequel |title='Blowback,' the Prequel |publisher=The Nation |date=October 25, 2001 |accessdate=May 16, 2012}}</ref>  [[Bob Gates]], in his book ''Out Of The Shadows'', wrote that Pakistan had actually been "pressuring" the United States for arms to aid the rebels for years, but that the Carter administration refused in the hope of finding a diplomatic solution to avoid war. Brzezinski seems to have been in favor of the provision of arms to the rebels, while Vance's State Department, seeking a peaceful settlement, publicly accused Brzezinski of seeking to "revive" the [[Cold War]].	+	The CIA provided assistance to the fundamentalist insurgents through the [[Pakistan]]i secret services, [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] (ISI), in a program called [[Operation Cyclone]]. Somewhere between $3–$20 billion in U.S. funds were funneled into the country to train and equip troops with weapons, including [[FIM-92 Stinger|Stinger]] [[surface-to-air missile]]s.<ref name=HOW-THE-CIA-CREATED-OSAMA-BIN-LADEN>{{cite news
−	[[File:Evstafiev-afghan-apc-passes-russian.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Red Army|Soviet troops]] withdrawing from [[Afghanistan]] in 1988, following a nine-year occupation]]	+	|title=How the CIA created Osama bin Laden
−	The Soviet invasion and occupation resulted in the deaths of as many as 2 million Afghans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm#Afghanistan |first=Matthew |last=White |title=Death Tolls for the Major Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century |publisher=Users.erols.com |month=November |year=2010 |accessdate=December 31, 2010}}</ref>   In 2010, Brzezinski defended the arming of the rebels in response, saying that it "was quite important in hastening the end of the conflict", thereby saving the lives of thousands of Afghans, but "not in deciding the conflict, because....even though we helped the mujaheddin, they would have continued fighting without our help, because they were also getting a lot of money from the Persian Gulf and the Arab states, and they weren't going to quit. They didn't decide to fight because we urged them to. They're fighters, and they prefer to be independent. They just happen to have a curious complex: they don't like foreigners with guns in their country. And they were going to fight the Soviets. Giving them weapons was a very important forward step in defeating the Soviets, and that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned." When he was asked if he thought it was the right decision in retrospect (given the [[Taliban]]'s subsequent rise to power), he said: "Which decision? For the Soviets to go in? The decision was the Soviets', and they went in. The Afghans would have resisted anyway, and they were resisting. I just told you: in my view, the Afghans would have prevailed in the end anyway, 'cause they had access to money, they had access to weapons, and they had the will to fight."<ref name="&ldquo;&rdquo"/>  Likewise, [[Charles Wilson (Texas politician)|Charlie Wilson]] said: "The U.S. had nothing whatsoever to do with these people's decision to fight ... but we'll be damned by history if we let them fight with stones."<ref>Crile, 259–62.</ref>  The 2007 movie ''[[Charlie Wilson's War]]'' depicted [[Charlie Wilson (Texas politician)|Charlie Wilson]]'s and the CIA's involvement in the repulsion of the [[USSR]] troops from Afghanistan. Representative Wilson was awarded the Honored College Award by the CIA for his involvement.<ref>[http://www.lufkindailynews.com/hp/content/region/ETtoday/cww/stories/book_signing.html "During book signing, Wilson recalls efforts to arm Afghans", ''Lufkin Daily News'', November 11, 2003.]</ref>	+	|url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/2001/465/25199
		+	|date=[[2001-09-19]]
		+	|publisher=[[Green Left Weekly]]
		+	|accessdate=2007-01-09 }}</ref><ref name=1986-1992-CIA-AND-BRITISH-RECRUIT-AND-TRAIN-MILITANTS-WORLDWIDE-TO-HELP-FIGHT-AFGHAN-WAR>{{cite web
		+	|title=1986-1992: CIA and British Recruit and Train Militants Worldwide to Help Fight Afghan War
		+	|url=http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a86operationcyclone
		+	|publisher=Cooperative Research History Commons
		+	|accessdate=2007-01-09}}</ref>. Together with similar programs by Saudi Arabia, Britain's [[MI6]] and [[Special Air Service|SAS]], Egypt, Iran, and the [[People's Republic of China]],<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-17/brzezinski2.html Interview with Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski] - (13/6/97). Part 2.] Episode 17. Good Guys, Bad Guys. [[13 June]] [[1997]].</ref>  the ISI armed and trained over 100,000 insurgents. On July 20, 1987, the [[Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan|withdrawal of Soviet troops]] from the country was announced pursuant to the negotiations that led to the [[Geneva Accords (1988)|Geneva Accords of 1988]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/ungomap/background.html |title=United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Background |publisher=United Nations |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> with the last Soviets leaving on February 15, 1989.  Following the Soviet withdraw the ongoing [[Civil war in Afghanistan]] continued with the Soviets continuing to provide thousands of [[scud|ballistic missiles]], other arms, and food to the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]] with [[Civil war in Afghanistan (1989–1992)|active US opposition]] until the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]]. Fighting in the country [[Civil war in Afghanistan|continues]] to this day.
−	With U.S. and other funding, the ISI armed and trained over 100,000 insurgents. On July 20, 1987, the [[Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan|withdrawal of Soviet troops]] from the country was announced pursuant to the negotiations that led to the [[Geneva Accords (1988)|Geneva Accords of 1988]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/ungomap/background.html |title=United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Background |publisher=United Nations |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> with the last Soviets leaving on February 15, 1989.	+	One and a half million died during more than a quarter-century of war and unrest.<ref name=Morris2007>Morris2007</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm#Afghanistan |title=Death Tolls for the Major Wars |publisher=Users.erols.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref> Five million Afghan people, one third of the prewar population of the country, were made [[Afghan refugees|refugees]] in Pakistan and Iran, and an additional two million Afghans were forced by the war to migrate within the country. In the 1980s, one out of two refugees in the world was an Afghan.<ref>Kaplan, ''Soldiers of God'' (2001) p.11</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spectrezine.org/global/chomsky.htm
		+	|accessdate=2008-11-21
		+	|title=Counting the Bodies
		+	|authorlink=Noam Chomsky
		+	|first=Noam
		+	|last=Chomsky
		+	|work=Spectrezine
		+	}}</ref>
−	The early foundations of [[al-Qaida]] were allegedly built in part on relationships and weaponry that came from the billions of dollars in U.S. support for the Afghan mujahadin during the war to expel Soviet forces from that country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/27/we_arm_the_world.php	+	The United States role in arming, training, and supporting the radical Islamic terrorist group, the Mujihadeen of Afghanistan in the 1980s, has been called the model for state-sponsored terrorism, and led to a new generation of regime change actions around the world by this group and its off-shoots. This guerrilla movement, initially intended to oust the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, gave rise to terrorist groups in nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia, with a view to bring about regime change along Islamic lines.<ref name="demokratizatsiya2003">Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2003. Re-published at [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200304/ai_n9199132 Find Articles]</ref> The early foundations of [[al-Qaida]] were built in part on relationships and weaponry that came from the billions of dollars in U.S. support for the Afghan mujahadin during the war to expel Soviet forces from that country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/27/we_arm_the_world.php
	|accessdate=2008-11-21		|accessdate=2008-11-21
	|title=We Arm The World		|title=We Arm The World
Line 256:		Line 199:
	|date=October 27, 2006		|date=October 27, 2006
	|author=William D. Hartung		|author=William D. Hartung
−	}}</ref>	+	}}</ref> Some of the Afghan-trained "freedom fighters" were later involved in terrorist acts against the U.S., the very government that had given them support in the early days of their organization, to change U.S. policy in the Middle East.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} The initial bombing of the [[1993 World Trade Center bombing|World Trade Center in 1993]], the attacks on the U.S. embassies in [[1998 United States embassy bombings|Kenya and Tanzania]], the attack on the [[USS Cole bombing|USS Cole]], and the attacks of [[September 11 attacks|September 11]] all have been linked to individuals and groups that at one time were armed and trained by the United States and/or its allies.<ref name="demokratizatsiya2003"/> The perpetrators of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 used a manual written by the CIA for the Mujihadeen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} Sheik Abul Rahman, one of the conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was allowed to come to the U.S. to recruit Arab-Americans to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets.<ref>Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2003, re-published at Find Articles, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200304/ai_n9199132/pg_6 Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism]," by ABC News correspondent John K. Cooley</ref>
−	However, scholars such as [[Jason Burke]], [[Steve Coll]], [[Peter Bergen]], [[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]], and [[Vasily Mitrokhin]] have argued that [[Osama Bin Laden]] was "outside of CIA eyesight" and that there is "no support" in any "reliable source" for "the claim that the CIA funded bin Laden or any of the other Arab volunteers who came to support the mujahideen."<ref>See Jason Burke, Al-Qaeda (Penguin, 2003), p59; Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden (Penguin, 2004), p87; Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know (Free Press, 2006), pp60-1; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World (Penguin, 2006), p579n48.</ref>	+
−	===Turkey 1980===	+	The 2007 movie [[Charlie Wilson's War]] celebrated [[Charles Wilson (Texas politician)|Representative Wilson (D-TX)]]'s and the CIA's involvement in the repulsion of the [[USSR]] troops from Afghanistan.  Representative Wilson was awarded the Honored College Award by the CIA for his involvement.<ref>[http://www.lufkindailynews.com/hp/content/region/ETtoday/cww/stories/book_signing.html "During book signing, Wilson recalls efforts to arm Afghans," Lufkin Daily News, November 11, 2003.]</ref>
−	{{see also|1980 Turkish coup d'état}}	+
−	[[File:FM 31-15 figure 3.png|right|300px|thumb|The command structure of the stay-behind forces, as suggested in [http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA310713&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces]. The Host Country in this case is Turkey.]]	+
−	One day before the military coup of 12 September 1980 some 3,000 American troops of the RDF started a maneuver ''Anvil Express'' on Turkish soil.<ref>''Alternative Türkeihilfe, Militärs an der Macht'' (An alternative aid for Turkey, Military in Power) Herford (Germany), August 1983, pg.6.</ref> At the end of 1981 a Turkish-American Defense Council ({{lang-tr|Türk-Amerikan Savunma Konseyi}}) was founded. Defense Minister Ãœmit Haluk and [[Richard Perle]], then [[United States Assistant Secretary of Defense|US Assistant Secretary of Defense international security policy]] of the new [[Reagan administration]], and the deputy Chief of Staff Necdet Öztorun participated in its first meeting on 27 April 1982.	+
−	U.S. support of the coup was acknowledged by the CIA's Ankara [[station chief]], Paul Henze. After the government was overthrown, Henze cabled Washington, saying, "our boys [in Ankara] did it."<ref name="Birand">Birand, Mehmet Ali. ''12 Eylül, Saat: 04.00'', 1984, pg. 1</ref><ref>Hear Paul Henze say it: {{YouTube|0JS9snE22PE|Fethullahçı Gladyo}} 8m20s in.</ref> This has created the impression that the US stood behind the coup. Henze denied this during a June 2003 interview on [[CNN Türk]]'s ''ManÅŸet'', but two days later Birand presented an interview with Henze recorded in 1997 in which he basically confirmed Mehmet Ali Birand's story.<ref name="birand_henze">Balta, Ibrahim. "[http://arsiv.zaman.com.tr/2003/06/14/haberler/h2.htm Birand’dan Paul Henze’ye ‘sesli–görüntülü’ yalanlama]," ''[[Zaman (newspaper)|Zaman]]'', 14 June 2003.{{Tr icon}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?viewid=279384	+	===Iran 1980===
−	|accessdate=2008-10-09	+	Investigative journalist Robert Parry reports that in a secret 1981 memo summing up a trip to the Middle East, then-Secretary of State [[Alexander Haig]] wrote: "It was also interesting to confirm that [[Jimmy Carter|President Carter]] gave the Iraqis a green light to launch the war against Iran through [[Prince Fahd]]" of Jordan." <ref>[http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/662/missing_us_iraq_history/ In These Times] December 16, 2003, "Missing U.S.-Iraq History" by Robert Parry, including links to web postings of Haig's talking points</ref> Z Magazine reports that in June 1980, students in Iran revealed a 1980 memorandum from U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]] recommending the "destabilization" of the Iranian government by using Iran's neighbors. The U.S. has denied that it gave Iraq a "green light" for its [[September 22]] [[1980]] invasion of Iran.  Five months before Iraq's invasion, on [[April 14]] [[1980]], Zbigniew Brzezinski, signaled the U.S.'s willingness to work with Iraq: "We see no fundamental incompatibility of interests between the United States and Iraq... we do not feel that American- Iraqi relations need to be frozen in antagonisms." According to Iran's president at the time, [[Abolhassan Banisadr]], Brzezinski met directly with Saddam Hussein in Jordan two months before the Iraqi assault. Bani-Sadr wrote, "Brzezinski had assured Saddam Hussein that the United States would not oppose the separation of Khuzestan [in southwest Iran] from Iran." <ref name="znet2002">{{cite news|url=http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/11715
−	|title=Paul Henze ‘Bizim çocuklar yaptı’ demiÅŸ	+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
−	|work=[[Hürriyet]]	+	|title=Fueling the Iran-Iraq Slaughter
−	|date=2003-06-14	+	|work=ZNet
−	|language=Turkish| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20081003162825/http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?viewid=279384| archivedate= 3 October 2008 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref> The [[US State Department]] announced the coup during the night between 11 and 12 September: the military had phoned the US embassy in [[Ankara]] to alert them of the coup an hour in advance.<ref name=Gil>Gil, Ata. "La Turquie à marche forcée," ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]'', February 1981.</ref>	+	|first=Larry
		+	|last=Everest
		+	|date=2002-09-05
		+	}}</ref> The ''[[Financial Times]]'' reported that the U.S. passed satellite intelligence to the regime of Saddam Hussein via third countries, leading Iraq to believe Iranian forces would quickly collapse if attacked. ''Z magazine'' therefore argues that it is likely therefore that the U.S. helped push Saddam Hussein to attack Iran, causing a long and bloody war.<ref name="znet2002"/>
−	After the coup, [[State Security Courts (Turkey)|State Security Courts]] were set up, as prescribed in [[U.S. Army Field Manual]] [http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA310713&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces] (translated into Turkish in 1965 as ''ST 31-15: Ayaklanmaları Bastırma Harekâtı'').<ref name=celik>{{cite journal|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.html	+	The meeting between Brzezinski and Saddam Hussein is also supported by other independent sources.  Author [[Kenneth R. Timmerman]] and former Iranian President Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr separately stated that Brzezinski met with Hussein in July 1980 in Amman, Jordan, to discuss joint efforts to oppose Iran. According to Hussein biographer Said Aburish however, at the Amman meeting Saddam Hussein met with three CIA agents, not Brzezinski personally. Former Carter official Gary Sick denies that Washington directly encouraged Iraq's attack, but instead let "Saddam assume there was a U.S. green light because there was no explicit red light."<ref name="pacific2003">{{cite news|url=http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=c33335175cc184e56416dbb1d1ebc595
−	|accessdate=2008-09-20	+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
−	|title=Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force	+	|title=Four Questions for Saddam -- and the U.S.
−	|first=Serdar	+	|date=2003-12-17
−	|last=Çelik	+	|work=Pacific News Service
−	|volume=17	+
−	|journal=Kurdistan Report	+
−	|month=February/March	+
−	|year=1994	+
	}}</ref>		}}</ref>
−	Based on incidents such as the aforementioned, a growing number of people are reaching the conclusion that the United States, acting through the "[[Counter-Guerrilla]]", directed the coup.<ref name=celik/><ref name=turhanabd>{{cite news|url=http://www.talatturhan.com/gazete-17.htm	+	A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former U.S. policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in arming Iraq, although the total. The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous [[dual use]] items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as [[anthrax]] and [[bubonic plague]]. Opinions differ among Middle East experts and former government officials about the pre-Iraqi tilt, and whether Washington could have done more to stop the flow to Baghdad of technology for building weapons of mass destruction. "Fundamentally, the policy was justified," argues David Newton, a former U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, who runs an anti-Hussein radio station in Prague. "We were concerned that Iraq should not lose the war with Iran, because that would have threatened Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Our long-term hope was that Hussein's government would become less repressive and more responsible." Although U.S. arms manufacturers were not as deeply involved as German or British companies in selling weaponry to Iraq, the Reagan administration effectively turned a blind eye to the export of "dual use" items such as chemical precursors and steel tubes that can have military and civilian applications. According to several former officials, the State and Commerce departments promoted trade in such items as a way to boost U.S. exports and acquire political leverage over Hussein. "Everybody was wrong in their assessment of Saddam," said Joe Wilson, Glaspie's former deputy at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and the last U.S. official to meet with Hussein. "Everybody in the Arab world told us that the best way to deal with Saddam was to develop a set of economic and commercial relationships that would have the effect of moderating his behavior. History will demonstrate that this was a miscalculation."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52241-2002Dec29?language=printer
−	|accessdate=2008-11-04	+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
−	|title=12 Mart Hukuku'nun Ardındaki ABD mi?	+	|title=U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup
−	|first=Talat	+	|date=2002-12-30
−	|last=Turhan	+	|work=[[Washington Post]]
−	|work=Politika Gazetesi	+	}}<!-- back-up: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1230-04.htm --></ref>
−	|language=Turkish	+
−	|date=1976-10-11	+
−	}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.candundar.com.tr/index.php?Did=5983	+
−	|accessdate=2008-11-07	+
−	|title=Güncele Dair: Ergenekon	+
−	|date=2008-01-23	+
−	|authorlink=Can Dündar	+
−	|language=Turkish	+
−	|first=Can	+
−	|last=Dündar	+
−	}}</ref>	+
		+	According to reports of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the U.S., under the successive presidential administrations sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, [[West Nile fever]] and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992. The chairman of the Senate committee, Don Riegle, said: "The executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licences for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think its a devastating record."<ref name=ScotHerald2002-09-08>[http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0908-08.htm archive at Sunday Herald (Scotland) September 8, 2002]</ref>
−	[[File:Strike Gdansk 1980.jpg|thumb|left|1980 strike at [[GdaÅ„sk Shipyard]], birthplace of Solidarity]]	+	The U.S. also claimed to have provided critical battle planning assistance at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the war, according to senior military officers with direct knowledge of the program. The U.S. claimed to have carried out the covert program at a time when Secretary of State [[George P. Shultz]], [[Secretary of Defense]] [[Frank C. Carlucci]] and National Security Adviser General [[Colin L. Powell]] were publicly condemning Iraq for its use of poison gas, especially after Iraq attacked Kurdish villagers in Halabja in March 1988. U.S. officials publicly condemned Iraq's employment of [[mustard gas]], [[sarin]], [[VX]] and other poisonous agents, but sixty [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] officers were secretly providing detailed information on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for airstrikes and bomb-damage assessments for Iraq. It has long been known that the U.S.  provided intelligence assistance, such as satellite photography, to Saddam's regime. Carlucci said: "My understanding is that what was provided" to Iraq "was general order of battle information, not operational intelligence." "I certainly have no knowledge of U.S. participation in preparing battle and strike packages," he said, "and doubt strongly that that occurred." "I did agree that Iraq should not lose the war, but I certainly had no foreknowledge of their use of chemical weapons." Secretary of State Powell, through a spokesman, said the officers' description of the program was "dead wrong," but declined to discuss it. His deputy, Richard L. Armitage, a senior defense official at the time, used an expletive relayed through a spokesman to indicate his denial that the United States acquiesced in the use of chemical weapons.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03E0DB133DF93BA2575BC0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
		+	|accessdate=2008-11-20
		+	|title=OFFICERS SAY U.S. AIDED IRAQ IN WAR DESPITE USE OF GAS
		+	|work=[[New York Times]]
		+	|first=Patrick E
		+	|last=Tyler
		+	|date=2002-08-18
		+	}}<!-- back-up: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0818-02.htm --></ref>
−	===Poland 1980-81===	+	Others have instead claimed U.S. intelligence agencies manipulated both sides in the Iran-Iraq war, providing each country with "deliberately distorted or inaccurate intelligence data". One method mentioned was altering satellite photos. In "Veil," his study of CIA covert operations in the 1980s, Bob Woodward found that some CIA officials were "doling out tactical data to both sides" to engineer a stalemate.<ref name="pacific2003"/>
−	The U.S. supported the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] movement in [[Poland]], 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." When the Polish government launched a crackdown of its own in 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."<ref>MacEachin, Douglas J.  "US Intelligence and the Polish Crisis 1980-1981."  CIA. June 28, 2008.  https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/us-intelligence-and-the-polish-crisis-1980-1981/index.htm</ref>	+
		+	===Turkey 1980===
		+	{{Main|1980 Turkish coup d'état}}
		+	The right-wing coup of 1980 was supported by the United States.<ref>{{cite book|title=Necessary |authorlink=Noam Chomsky|first=Noam|last=Chomsky|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2094293/books?id=t5yVao-mv8sC&pg=RA1-PA287&ei=nC0mSYerLorgkwTp29SwDg|pages=287|publisher=South End Press |isbn=9780896083660|year=1989|quote=...the U.S. backed military coup of 1980...}}</ref>
	===Nicaragua 1981-1990===		===Nicaragua 1981-1990===
−	{{see also|Reagan Doctrine|Nicaraguan general election, 1990}}	+	{{Main|Political history of Nicaragua}}
−	From 1981-90, the CIA attempted to overthrow the [[Sandinista]] government of [[Nicaragua]].	+	1981-90: CIA directs [[Contras|Contra]] revolution, plants harbor mines and sinks civilian ships to overthrow the revolutionary [[Sandinista]] government of Nicaragua. After the [[Boland Amendment]] was enacted, it became illegal under U.S. law to fund the Contras; National Security Adviser [[Robert McFarlane]], Deputy National Security Adviser Admiral [[John Poindexter]], National Security Council staffer Col. [[Oliver North]] and others continued an illegal operation to fund the Contras, leading to the [[Iran-Contra]] scandal. The U.S argued that:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_v86/ai_4549750 |title=Nicaragua's role in revolutionary internationalism |work= U.S. Department of State Bulletin |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21}}</ref>
−		+
−	====Destablization through CIA Assets====	+
−	In 1983, the CIA created a group of "Unilaterally Controlled Latino Assets" (UCLAs), whose task was to "sabotage ports, refineries, boats and bridges, and try to make it look like the contras had done it."<ref>Leogrande, Leonard M, "Making the Economy Scream: US economic sanctions against Sandinista Nicaragua" (Third World Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 2), pp 340.</ref>  In January 1984, these UCLA's carried out the operation for which they would be best known, the last straw that led to the ratifying of the [[Boland Amendment]], the mining of several Nicaraguan harbors, which sank several Nicaraguan boats, damaged at least five foreign vessels, and brought an avalanche of international condemnation down on the United States.<ref>Gilbert, Dennis ''Sandinistas: the party and the revolution'', Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988, pp 167</ref>	+
−		+
−	====Arming the Contras====	+
−	[[File:Oliver North mug shot.jpg|thumb|[[Oliver North|North]]'s mugshot taken after his arrest]]	+
−	The Contras, based in neighboring [[Honduras]], waged a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla war]] insurgency in an effort to topple the government of Nicaragua.	+
−		+
−	The Boland Amendment made it illegal under U.S. law to provide arms to the Contra militants. Nevertheless, the Reagan administration continued to arm and fund the Contras through the [[Iran-Contra]] scandal, pursuant to which the U.S. secretly sold arms to Iran in violation of U.S. law in exchange for cash used by the U.S. to supply arms to the Contras.  The U.S. argued that:<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_v86/ai_4549750 |title=Nicaragua's role in revolutionary internationalism |work= U.S. Department of State Bulletin |date= |accessdate=2008-11-21 | year=1986}}</ref>	+
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
Line 325:		Line 254:
	Nicaragua's neighbors have asked for assistance against Nicaraguan aggression, and the United States has responded. Those countries have repeatedly and publicly made clear that they consider themselves to be the victims of aggression from Nicaragua, and that they desire United States assistance in meeting both subversive attacks and the conventional threat posed by the relatively immense Nicaraguan Armed Forces.		Nicaragua's neighbors have asked for assistance against Nicaraguan aggression, and the United States has responded. Those countries have repeatedly and publicly made clear that they consider themselves to be the victims of aggression from Nicaragua, and that they desire United States assistance in meeting both subversive attacks and the conventional threat posed by the relatively immense Nicaraguan Armed Forces.
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>
−	[[File:Frente Sur Contras 1987.jpg|thumb|left|220px|The U.S.-supported Nicaraguan [[contras]]]]
−	The Sandinista government headed by [[Daniel Ortega]] won decisively in the 1984 Nicaraguan elections.<ref>BBC News, 2005 Nov. 5, "On This Day&mdash;1984: Sandinistas Claim Election Victory,"
−	http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/newsid_2538000/2538379.stm</ref> The national elections of 1984 were conducted during a state of emergency officially justified by the war fought against the Contras insurgents and the CIA-orchestrated bombings. Many political prisoners were still held as it took place, and none of the main opposition parties participated due to what they claimed were threats and persecution from the government. The 1984 election was for posts subordinate to the Sandinista Directorate, a body "no more subject to approval by vote than the Central Committee of the Communist Party is
−	in countries of the East Bloc," and there was no secret ballot.<ref>Martin Kriele, "Power and Human Rights in Nicaragua," German Comments, April 1986, pp56-7,
−	63-7, a chapter excerpted from his ''Nicaragua: Das blutende Herz Amerikas'' (Piper, 1986)</ref>  The U.S. continued to pressure the government by illegally arming the Contras insurgency. On October 5, 1985 the Sandinistas broadened the state of emergency begun in 1982 and suspended many more civil rights. A new regulation also forced any organization outside of the government to first submit any statement it wanted to make public to the censorsip bureau for prior censorship.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chamorro Cardenal|first=Jaime|title=La Prensa, A Republic of Paper|publisher=Freedom House|year=1988|page=23}}</ref>
−	As the Contras' insurgency continued with U.S. support, the Sandinistas struggled to maintain power. They were overthrown in 1990, when they ended the SOE and held an election that all the main opposition parties competed in.  The Sandinistas have been accused of killing thousands by Nicaragua's Permanent Commission on Human Rights.<ref>John Norton Moore, The Secret War in Central America (University Publications of America, 1987) p143n94 (2,000 killings); Roger Miranda and William Ratliff, The Civil War in Nicaragua (Transaction, 1993), p193 (3,000 disappearances); Insight on the News, July 26, 1999 (14,000 atrocities).</ref>  The Contras have also been accused of committing war crimes, such as rape, arson, and the killing of civilians.<ref name="CIIR">{{Cite news|title=Right to Survive: Human Rights in Nicaragua|format=print|author=The Catholic Institute for International Relations|publisher=The Catholic Institute for International Relations|year=1987}}</ref>	+	== Overt: Grenada, 1983 ==
		+	{{main|Invasion of Grenada}}
−	''The New York Times'' surveyed ordinary Nicaraguans on the 1990 election:	+	== Overt: Panama 1989 ==
−	<blockquote>	+	{{main|Invasion of Panama}}
−	"The longer they [Sandinistas] were in power, the worse things became. It was all lies, what they promised us" (unemployed person); "I thought it was going to be just like 1984, when the vote was not secret and there was not all these observers around" (market vendor); "Don’t you believe those lies [about fraud], I voted my conscience and my principles, and so did everyone else I know" (young mother); "the Sandinistas have mocked and abused the people, and now we have given our vote to [the opposition] UNO" (ex-Sandinista officer).<ref>New York Times, March 5, 1990.</ref>	+
−	</blockquote>	+
−	===Cambodia 1980-95===	+	== Overt: Others ==
−	{{see also|Sino-Vietnamese War|People's Republic of Kampuchea}}	+	Needs expanding
−	[[File:Cambodia anti-PRK border camps.png|thumb|240px|Border camps hostile to the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea|PRK]]; KPNLF camps shown in black]]	+
−	The [[Reagan Administration]] sought to apply the [[Reagan Doctrine]] of aiding anti-Soviet resistance movements abroad to [[Cambodia]], which was under Vietnamese occupation following the [[Cambodian genocide]] carried out by the communist [[Khmer Rouge]]. The Vietnamese had installed a communist government led by Khmer Rouge dissident Heng Samrin. According to [[Rudolph Rummel|R. J. Rummel]]; the Vietnamese invasion, occupation, puppet regime, ongoing guerrilla warfare, and ensuing famine killed 1.2 million Cambodians in addition to the roughly 2 million who had been killed by the Khmer Rouge.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP4.HTM</ref> The largest resistance movement fighting Cambodia's communist government was largely made up of members of the former Khmer Rouge regime, whose human rights record was among the worst of the 20th century. Therefore, Reagan authorized the provision of aid to a smaller Cambodian resistance movement, a coalition called the [[Khmer People's National Liberation Front]],<ref>Far Eastern Economic Review, December 22, 1988, details the extensive fighting between the U.S.-backed forces and the Khmer Rouge.</ref> known as the KPNLF and then run by [[Son Sann]]; in an effort to force an end to the Vietnamese occupation. Eventually, the Vietnamese withdrew, and Cambodia's communist regime fell.<ref>[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1988/february/Sa13957.htm "Cambodia at a Crossroads", by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, February 1988.]</ref>  Then, under [[United Nations]] supervision, free elections were held.<ref name="UN_SRES7451992">{{UN document |docid=S-RES-745(1992) |type=Resolution |body=Security Council |year=1992 |resolution_number=745 |accessdate=2008-04-09|date=28 February 1992}}</ref>	+
−	===Angola 1980s===	+	== Covert: Others ==
−	{{see also|Democratic International|Angolan Civil War}}	+	Needs expanding
−	War between the Cuban backed [[MPLA]] government in [[Angola]] and South African backed [[UNITA]] forces led to decades of civil war that may have cost as many as 1 million lives.<ref>Médecins Sans Frontières, "Angola: An Alarming Nutritional Situation," August 1999</ref>  The Reagan administration offered covert aid to the anti-communist [[UNITA]] rebels, led by [[Jonas Savimbi]].  Dr. Peter Hammond, a Christian missionary who lived in Angola at the time, recalled:	+
−	<blockquote>"There were over 50,000 Cuban troops in the country. The communists had attacked and destroyed many churches. MiG-23s and Mi-24 Hind helicopter gun ships were terrorising villagers in Angola. I documented numerous atrocities, including the strafing of villages, schools and churches. In 1986, I remember hearing Ronald Reagan's speech – carried on the BBC Africa service – by short wave radio: "We are going to send stinger missiles to the UNITA Freedom Fighters in Angola!" Those who were listening to the SW radio with me looked at one another in stunned amazement. After a long silence as we wondered if our ears had actually heard what we thought we heard, one of us said: "That would be nice!" We scarcely dared believe that it would happen. But it did. Not long afterwards the stinger missiles began to arrive in UNITA controlled Free Angola. Soviet aircraft were shot down. The bombing and strafing of villagers, schools and churches came to an end. Without any doubt, Ronald Reagan's policies saved many tens of thousands of lives in Angola."<ref>http://www.frontline.org.za/Letters%20to%20Editor/reagan_saved_lives_Angola.htm</ref></blockquote>	+	== Aftermath: the most recent covert action: Iran 2010 ==
−	[[File:Savimbiparleur1.jpg|thumb|Savimbi meeting the [[European Parliament]] deputies in 1989]]	+	The CIA, from possibly before the first invasion of Iraq, but most definitely during the second Iraq invasion, has switched to be more integrated with regular forces, and operate as a harassing unit to deal attritive damage and thereby destabilize the Iranian regime, in line with its activity in Central America, but with fewer forces and, so far, less visibility.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Fc7uaHiWu4MC&pg=PA32&dq=cia+iran+21st+century&hl=en&ei=cn8mTcndEcfpOYzz7LsC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&sqi=2&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=cia%20iran%2021st%20century&f=false ''Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up. A woefully incomplete guide''] by Bob Harris</ref>
−	Human rights observers have accused the MPLA of "genocidal atrocities," "systematic extermination," "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity."<ref>National Society for Human Rights, Press Releases, September 12, 2000, May 16, 2001.</ref>  The MPLA held blatantly rigged elections in 1992, which were rejected by eight opposition parties.  An official observer wrote that there was little UN supervision, that 500,000 UNITA voters were disenfranchised and that there were 100 clandestine polling stations.  UNITA sent peace negotiators to the capital, where the MPLA murdered them, along with 20,000 UNITA members.  Savimbi was still ready to continue the elections.  The MPLA then massacred tens of thousands of UNITA and [[FNLA]] voters nationwide.<ref>National Society for Human Rights, Ending the Angolan Conflict, Windhoek, Namibia, July 3, 2000.</ref><ref>John Matthew, Letters, The Times, UK, November 6, 1992 (election observer).</ref>	+
−	Savimbi was strongly supported by the conservative [[Heritage Foundation]]. Heritage foreign policy analyst [[Michael Johns (executive)|Michael Johns]] and other conservatives visited regularly with Savimbi in his clandestine camps in Jamba and provided the rebel leader with ongoing political and military guidance in his war against the Angolan government.  During a visit to [[Washington, D.C.]] in 1986, Reagan invited Savimbi to meet with him at the [[White House]]. Following the meeting, Reagan spoke of UNITA winning "a victory that electrifies the world."  Savimbi also met with Reagan's successor, [[George H. W. Bush]], who promised Savimbi "all appropriate and effective assistance."<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DC103EF931A25752C0A96F948260 "Bush pledges Angola rebel aid,"] ''The New York Times'', January 1989.</ref>	+	== See also ==
		+	* [[List of Military Interventions of the United States]]
		+	* [[post-Cold War covert regime change by the US]]
		+	* [[Guatemalan coup d'état of 1954]]
		+	* [[Human_rights in the United States#International_human_rights|Human rights in the United States]]
		+	* [[U.S. intelligence involvement with German war criminals after World War II]]
−	The killing of Savimbi in February 2002 by the Angolan military led to the decline of UNITA's influence.  Savimbi was succeeded by [[Paulo Lukamba]].  Six weeks after Savimbi's death, UNITA agreed to a ceasefire with the MPLA, but even today Angola remains deeply divided politically between MPLA and UNITA supporters.  [[Angolan legislative election, 2008|Parliamentary elections in September 2008]] resulted in an overwhelming majority for the MPLA, but their legitimacy was questioned by international observers.	+	Wikipedia articles:
		+	{|
		+	|- valign="top"
		+	||
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Overthrow (book)]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Killing Hope]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Overthrow of the Hawai'ian Monarchy]]
		+	** [[Wikipedia:List of United States military history events#Covert operations, coups, military advisors etc.|Covert operations, coups, military advisors etc.]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:William Walker (soldier)]] (1824 - 1860)
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Australian constitutional crisis of 1975#Role of the United States government|Australian constitutional crisis of 1975]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:NSC 5412/2 Special Group]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:40 Committee]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories]]
		+	||
		+	* [[Wikipedia:American Empire]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Foreign policy of the United States]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Lesser of two evils]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Kirkpatrick Doctrine]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Truman Doctrine]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:United States and state terrorism]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Overseas expansion of the United States]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Overseas interventions of the United States]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:List of United States military history events]]
		+	||
		+	* [[Wikipedia:List of United States military bases]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:United States military aid]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:United States Foreign Military Financing]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Foreign Military Sales]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:United States Agency for International Development]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Human Rights Record of the United States]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:War crimes committed by the United States]]
		+	* [[Wikipedia:Torture and the United States]]
		+	|}
−	[[Image:Corazon Aquino 1992.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Corazon Aquino, president from 1986-1992]]	+	== References ==
−		+	{{reflist | 2}}
−	===Philippines 1986===	+
−	{{see also|Partido Lakas ng Tao|EDSA Shrine}}	+
−	The United States played a significant role in pressuring dictator [[Ferdinand Marcos]] to step down and in the peaceful transition to democracy in the [[Philippines]], notwithstanding decades of past American support for his regime.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news| url=http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/19/magazine/reagan-and-the-philippines-setting-marcos-adrift.html | work=The New York Times | title=REAGAN AND THE PHILIPPINES: Setting Marcos Adrift | first1=Stanley | last1=Karnow | date=1989-03-19}}</ref>  With the [[People Power Revolution]], [[Corazon Aquino]]'s assumption into power marked the restoration of democracy in the country.	+
−		+
−		+
−		+
−	==See also==	+
−	* [[40 Committee]]	+
−	* [[American imperialism|American Empire]]	+
−	* [[Foreign Military Sales]]	+
−	* [[Foreign policy of the United States]]	+
−	* [[Timeline of United States military operations]]	+
−	* [[Kirkpatrick Doctrine]]	+
−	* [[NSC 5412/2 Special Group]]	+
−	* [[Overseas expansion of the United States]]	+
−	* [[Overseas interventions of the United States]]	+
−	* [[Overthrow of the Hawai'ian Monarchy]]	+
−	* [[Truman Doctrine]]	+
−	* [[United States military aid]]	+
−	* [[United States Foreign Military Financing]]	+
−	* [[United States Agency for International Development]]	+
−	* [[Special Activities Division]] of the CIA	+
−	* [[Torture and the United States]]	+
−	* [[United States war crimes]]	+
−		+
−	==References==	+
−	{{Ibid|date=December 2010}}	+
−	{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}	+
	==Further reading==		==Further reading==
−	===Books===	+	* [[Stephen Kinzer]] ''[[Overthrow (book)|Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq]]'', Times Books, 2006, ISBN 0-8050-7861-4
−	* [[Stephen Kinzer]], ''[[Overthrow (book)|Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq]]'', Times Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8050-7861-9	+	* [[Robert Fisk]] ''The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East''; (October 2005) London. Fourth Estate, xxvi, 1366 pages. ISBN 1-84115-007-X
−	* John Ranelagh, ''The Agency'', 1986	+	* [[William Blum]] 2003 ''[[Killing Hope]]: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II'', revised edition (Common Courage Press) ISBN 1-56751-252-6
−	* Christopher Andrew, ''For the President’s Eyes Only'', 1995	+
−	* Richard Helms with William Hood,  ''A Look over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency''.  New York: Random House, 2003.	+
	==External links==		==External links==
−	* [http://www.monthlyreview.org/0502petras.htm U.S. Offensive in Latin America: Coups, Retreats, and Radicalization]	+	*[http://www.adbusters.org/files/media/flash/hope_and_memory/timeline.swf “Hope and Memory”.] 1801-2004 timeline of 163 U.S. interventions. [[Adbusters]].
−	* [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/08/1353206&mode=thread&tid=25 "Part II...Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq"] May 8, 2006 ''Democracy Now!''	+	*[http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon2/world.html A Map of U.S. Foreign Policy]
−	*[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no3/legacy-of-ashes-the-history-of-cia.html CIA Responds to a Critic]	+	*[http://www.monthlyreview.org/0502petras.htm U.S. Offensive in Latin America: Coups, Retreats, and Radicalization]
−	*[http://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2007/09/sins-of-omissio.html Sins of Ommission and Commission]	+	*[http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12805.htm Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Amy Goodman interviews [[Stephen Kinzer]].]
−	*[http://www.foia.cia.gov/browse_docs.asp The CIA's "Family Jewels"]	+	*[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/08/1353206&mode=thread&tid=25 "Part II...Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq"] May 8, 2006 ''Democracy Now!''
−	*[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5325069 Kinzer on National Public Radio]	+
	{{Central Intelligence Agency}}		{{Central Intelligence Agency}}
	{{DEFAULTSORT:Covert U.S. Regime Change Actions}}		{{DEFAULTSORT:Covert U.S. Regime Change Actions}}
−	[[Category:Central Intelligence Agency operations]]	+	[[Category:Central Intelligence Agency operations]][[Category:Cold War]][[Category:Lists]][[Category:War]][[Category:Secret Wars]][[Category:Covert military operations]][[Category:State collapse]]
−	[[Category:Cold War conflicts]]	+
−	[[Category:Secret government programs]]	+
−	[[Category:Changes in political power]]	+
−		+
−	[[pt:Ações de derrubada de governos patrocinadas pela CIA]]	+

---

Latest revision as of 20:18, 11 July 2012

The United States government has been involved in and assisted in overthrowing many governments by the use of covert military force, primarily through the Central Intelligence Agency.

Euphemistically called "Regime Change", this has been attempted through direct involvement of US operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, coup d'états, and other, often illegal, activities usually conducted as operations by the CIA. The US has also accomplished regime change a combination of secret operations and by direct military action, such as the US invasion of Panama in 1989, before which time the CIA sponsored a radio station to broadcast anti-Noriega propaganda (Wikipedia:Operation Acid Gambit), and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Some argue that non-transparent United States government agencies working in secret sometimes mislead or do not fully implement the decisions of elected civilian leaders and that this has been an important component of many such operations.^[1] See Plausible deniability. Some contend that the US has supported more coups against democracies that it perceived as communist, or becoming communist.^[1] The balance of powers cannot have envisioned the power of the Executive to carry out operations in secret, some operations being kept secret from the Legislative branch as well.

In international law, of course, these operations have no standing at all. It was convenient enough for nations to operate secret intelligence operations when all that was to lose was being found out, but 'regime change' can affect the very autonomous existence of nations themselves.

Introduction[edit]

According to a variety of sources,^[2][3][4] the United States of America government has forcibly overthrown, and attempted to overthrow, foreign governments perceived as hostile, and replaced them with new ones, actions that has become known as regime change.^[2][3][4] Almost all governments targeted by the U.S. have been democratically-elected governments replaced by authoritarian governments, regimes or juntas, with at least one case in Iran where the new Prime Minister installed by the CIA was pro-Nazi,^[5] and the man who replaced him was the son of the Iranian leader that collaborated with the Nazis.

Regime change has been attempted through direct involvement of U.S. operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, coup d'états, and other, often illegal, activities usually conducted as operations by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The U.S. has also accomplished regime change by direct U.S. military action, see List of United States military history events, instead of by covert means.

It has been argued that non-transparent United States government agencies who work in secret and sometimes mislead or do not fully implement the decisions of elected civilian leaders has been an important component of many such operations.^[1]

For example the historian Spencer R. Weart has argued that the US has more supported coups against democracies that it perceived as nondemocracies, such as Communist states, or turning into such.^[1]

Notwithstanding a history of U.S. covert actions to topple democratic governments and installing authoritarian regimes in their places (see, e.g. Iran 1953, below), some U.S. officials have publicly expressed support for democracy as best supporting US national interests: "democracy is the one national interest that helps to secure all the others. Democratically governed nations are more likely to secure the peace, deter aggression, expand open markets, promote economic development, protect American citizens, combat international terrorism and crime, uphold human and worker rights, avoid humanitarian crises and refugee flows, improve the global environment, and protect human health."^[6] Former President Bill Clinton of the Democratic Party: "Ultimately, the best strategy to ensure our security and to build a durable peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere. Democracies don't attack each other."^[7] In one view mentioned by the US State Department, democracy is also good for business. In this view, countries that embrace political reforms are more likely to pursue economic reforms that improve the productivity of businesses. Accordingly, since the mid-1980s, there has been an increase in levels of foreign direct investment going to emerging market democracies relative to countries that have not undertaken political reforms.^[8]

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, launched by China and Russia and later joined by other Asian governments, has been seen as an attempt to stop regime changes that would establish a world of market democracies arbitrated by U.S. power.^[9]

Prior to World War II[edit]

Russia[edit]

The Bolshevik revolution of 1917 was met with overt hostility from President Woodrow Wilson's administration. After withdrawing funding for Russia and opposing a British and French plan to include the Bolsheviks as allies against Germany in 1918, the United States extended its maritime blockade of Germany to include Soviet Russia and began covertly supporting Russian opposition factions.^[10][11]

In 1918, the Allied powers including the United States began a military intervention in the Russian Civil War. The US sent troops to the Russian port cities of Vladivostok and Archangel. President Wilson appointed General William S. Graves to lead the thousands of American troops at Vladivostok.^[12][13]

During the Cold War[edit]

Communist states 1945-1989[edit]

The United States supported the overthrow of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. One example is the counter-espionage operations following the discovery of the Farewell dossier which some argue contributed to fall of Communism.^[14][15] The National Endowment for Democracy supported pro-capitalist movements in the Communist states and has been accused of secretly supporting regime change, which it itself denies.^[16][17][18] Many of the Eastern European states later turned to capitalism and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In addition to this the perceived threat of worldwide Soviet sponsored revolutionary guerrilla movements - dubbed by Premiere Nikita Khrushchev as "wars of national liberation" defined much of US policy in the third world with regard to covert action and led to what could be considered as proxy wars between the United States and Soviet Union.

Iran 1953[edit]

Main article: 1953 Iranian coup d'état

See also: CIA Activities by Region: Near East, North Africa, South and Southwest Asia#Iran

In 1953, the CIA worked with the United Kingdom to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Iran led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh who had attempted to nationalize Iran's oil, threatening the interests of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Declassified CIA documents show that Britain was fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize its oil industry and pressed the U.S. to mount a joint operation to remove the prime minister.^[19] In 1951 the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the oil fields of the country. Anti-Communism had also risen to a fever pitch in Washington, and officials were worried that Iran might fall under the sway of the Soviet Union, a historical presence there. "The aim was to bring to power a government which would reach an equitable oil settlement, enabling Iran to become economically sound and financially solvent, and which would vigorously prosecute the dangerously strong Communist Party."^[19] Prime minister Mossadegh had dissolved the parliament, claiming massive support for the measure in a plebiscite and accepted the support of the Communist Tudeh party for his government, leading to U.S. fears of a Communist overthrow.^[20]

The coup was led by CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. (grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt). With help from British intelligence, the CIA planned, funded and implemented Operation Ajax.^[21] The U.K. and U.S. boycott and other political pressures by both governments, together with a massive covert propaganda campaign in the months leading up to the coup created the environment necessary for success. The CIA hoped to plant articles in American newspapers saying that Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi's return to govern Iran resulted from a homegrown revolt against a Communist-leaning government. This attempt to manipulate the U.S. media largely failed, although the CIA successfully used its contacts at the Associated Press to put on the news wire a statement from Tehran about royal decrees that the C.I.A. itself had written. The CIA hired Iranian assets who posed as Communists, harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of one cleric's home to turn the Islamic religious community against the government.^[19]

The coup initially seemed to fail and the Shah (monarch) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country. After four days of rioting pro-shah army units and street crowds defeated Mossadeq's forces and the Shah returned. According to the 1906 constitution he was a constitutional monarch who should rule together with the democratically-elected parliament, but after the coup he ruled autocratically, with little concern for democracy.^[22][23]

The Shah has been condemned for human rights violations and political repression ^[24] which arguably increased support for the radical movements which culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.^[25] However, partially due to US pressure, he also attempted to modernize Iran and introduced many social reforms (See the White Revolution).

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in a speech on March 17, 2000 before the American-Iranian Council on the relaxation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, finally acknowledged:^[26]

In 1953, the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The Dwight D. Eisenhower administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons, but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.

Moreover, during the next quarter century, the United States and the West gave sustained backing to the Shah's regime. Although it did much to develop the country economically, the Shah's government also brutally repressed political dissent.

As President Bill Clinton has said, the United States must bear its fair share of responsibility for the problems that have arisen in U.S.-Iranian relations. Even in more recent years, aspects of U.S. policy toward Iraq during its conflict with Iran appear now to have been regrettably shortsighted, especially in light of our subsequent experiences with Saddam Hussein.

Guatemala 1954[edit]

Main article: 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état

See also: CIA activities in the Americas#Guatemala 1954

The CIA participated in the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Guatemala.^{[27][28][29][30]}

Cuba 1959-[edit]

Main article: Bay of Pigs Invasion

The largest and most complicated coup effort, approved at White House level, was the Bay of Pigs operation. Under initiatives by the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations, CIA trained Cuban anti-communist exiles and refugees to land in Cuba and attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Plans originally formed under Eisenhower were scaled back under Kennedy.

The CIA made a number of attempts to assassinate Castro, often with White House approval, as in Operation Mongoose.

Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960[edit]

Patrice Émery Lumumba, an African anti-colonial leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after he helped to win its independence from Belgium in June 1960, was deposed in a US CIA-sponsored coup during the Congo Crisis.^[31] He was subsequently imprisoned and assassinated under controversial circumstances.

Iraq 1963[edit]

See also: CIA activities in Iraq

In 1963, the United States is claimed to have backed a coup against the government of Iraq headed by General Abdel Karim Kassem, who five years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy. The CIA helped the new Baath Party government in ridding the country of suspected leftists and Communists.^{[32][33][34][35]}

To pave the way for the new regime, the CIA is claimed to have provided to the Baathists lists of suspected Communists and other leftists. The new regime is claimed to have used these lists to orchestrate a bloodbath, systematically murdering untold numbers of Iraq's educated elite—killings in which Saddam Hussein himself is said to have participated. The victims included hundreds of doctors, teachers, technicians, lawyers and other professionals as well as military and political figures.^[33][36][37] According to an article in the New York Times, the U.S. sent arms to the new regime, weapons later used against the same Kurdish insurgents the U.S. supported against Kassem and then abandoned. American and U.K. oil and other interests, including Mobil, British Petroleum and Bechtel, were once again conducting business in Iraq.^[33]

Brazil 1964[edit]

Main article: 1964 Brazilian coup d'état

See also: CIA activities in Brazil; Operation Brother Sam

A democratically-elected government headed by President João Goulart was successfully overthrown by a CIA-supported coup in March 1964. Declassified U.S. government documents show that members of the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson engaged in active preparations to aid Brazil's military coup plotter, and the U.S. was preparing support for a bloody coup, however in the event no blood appeared to have been shed. A military dictatorship which lasted for 21 years was successfully installed.^[38]

Republic of Ghana 1966[edit]

On February 24, 1966, Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah of the Ghana was overthrown by a claimed CIA-backed coup.^{[39][40][41][42][43] [44]}

Iraq 1968[edit]

The leader of the new Baathist government, Salam Arif, died in 1966 and his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, not a Ba'athist, assumed the presidency.^[25][33] Said K. Abuirsh alleges that in 1967, the government of Iraq was very close to giving concessions for the development of huge new oil fields in the country to France and the USSR. PBS reported that Robert Anderson, former secretary of the treasury under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, secretly met with the Ba'ath Party and came to a negotiated agreement according to which both the oil field concessions and sulphur mined in the northern part of the country would go to United States companies if the Ba'ath again took over power.^[45] In 1968, with a claimed backing of the CIA, Rahman Arif was overthrown by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Baath Party, bringing Saddam Hussein to the threshold of power.^{[25][32][33][35]}

Roger Morris in the Asia Times writes that the CIA deputy for the Middle East Archibald Roosevelt (grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and cousin of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.) stated, referring to Iraqi Ba'ath Party officers on his payroll in the 1963 and 1968 coups, "They're our boys, bought and paid for, but you always gotta remember that these people can't be trusted."^[25] General Ahmed Bakr was installed as president. Saddam Hussein was appointed the number two man.^[25][45]

Chile 1973[edit]

Main article: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

The CIA is alleged to have participated in the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Chile.^{[46][47][48][49][50]}

Afghanistan 1973-74[edit]

Roger Morris, writing in the Asia Times, argues that as early as 1973-74, the CIA began offering covert backing to Islamic radical rebels in Afghanistan premised on the claim that the right-wing, authoritarian government headed by Mohammed Daoud Khan, might prove a likely instrument of Soviet military aggression in South Asia. Morris argues that this premise was without basis in fact; Daoud had always held the Russians, his main patron when it came to aid, at arm's length, and had savagely purged local communists who supported him when he overthrew the Afghan monarchy in 1973. The Soviets had also shown no inclination to use the notoriously unruly Afghans and their army for any expansionist aim.^[25] Morris claims that during this period U.S. foreign policy leaders saw the Soviets as always being "on the march." This apprehension resulted in a rash of U.S. secret wars, assassinations, terrorist acts and manifold corruptions. U.S. secret backing of radical Islamic rebels ceased following an abortive rebel uprising in 1975.^[25]

Argentina 1976[edit]

Main article: 1976 Argentine coup d'état

See also: Dirty War#US involvement

The democratically-elected government of Argentina headed by Isabel Martínez de Perón was successfully overthrown by a military putsch in March 1976. Eight days before the coup, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, Chief of the Argentine Navy and a major coup plotter, turned to Ambassador Robert Hill, U.S. ambassador to Argentina, for help in getting a recommendation for a U.S. public relations firm that would manage the Argentine coup leaders' propaganda operation for the coup and the crackdown against democracy and human rights activists that was to follow. Ambassador Hill stated that the United Stated government cannot interfere in such affairs and provided Admiral Massera with a list of reputable public relations firms maintained by the Embassy. More than two months before the coup, senior coup plotters consulted with American officials in Argentina about the coup, and Ambassador Hill reported to Washington that he was encouraged that the military coup plotters were "aware of the problem" that their killings might cause and "are already focusing on ways to avoid letting human rights issues become an irritant in US-Argentine relations" by being pro-active with the preparation of the public relations operation.^[51]

U.S. planners were aware that the coup could not likely succeed without murderous repression. Two days after the coup, Assistant Secretary for Latin America, William Rogers advised Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that "we ought not at this moment rush out and embrace this new regime" because he expects significant repression to follow the coup.

"I think also we've got to expect a fair amount of repression, probably a good deal of blood, in Argentina before too long. I think they're going to have to come down very hard not only on the terrorists but on the dissidents of trade unions and their parties."

But Kissinger made his preferences clear: "Whatever chance they have, they will need a little encouragement… because I do want to encourage them. I don't want to give the sense that they're harassed by the United States." ^[52] For years the government-backed death squads supported by groups the such as the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA), and the Argentina intelligence unit Battalion 601 initiated a murderous campaign to oppress those who they perceived as hostile leftist "subversives" as part of Operation Condor.^[53]

Afghanistan 1978-1980s[edit]

Main article: Operation Cyclone

See also: Charlie Wilson's War and Badaber Uprising

Roger Morris, writing in the Asia Times, states that in April 1978, the crackdown by Mohammed Daoud Khan's regime on Afghanistan's small Communist Party provoked a successful military coup d'état by Communist Party loyalists in the army. The coup occurred in defiance of a skittish Moscow, which had stopped earlier coup plans.Template:Citation needed

According to Morris, by autumn 1978, an Islamic insurgency, armed and planned by the U.S., Pakistan, Iran and China, and soon to be actively supported, at Washington's prodding, by the Saudis and Egyptians, was fighting in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. planners continued funding the radical Islamic insurgency to "suck" the Russians into Afghanistan.^[25] According to the "Progressive South Asia Exchange Net", claiming to cite an article in Le Nouvel Observateur, U.S. policy, unbeknownst even to the Mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy "to induce a Soviet military intervention." National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski stated:

According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise. That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap.... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter "We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War."^[54]

With instability and bloody civil strife raging in a country on their border, the Soviets invaded in December 1979, according to the Asia Times report, fulfilling the hopes of Washington as expressed by National Security Adviser Brzezinski.^[25][55]

The CIA provided assistance to the fundamentalist insurgents through the Pakistani secret services, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in a program called Operation Cyclone. Somewhere between $3–$20 billion in U.S. funds were funneled into the country to train and equip troops with weapons, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles.^[56][57]. Together with similar programs by Saudi Arabia, Britain's MI6 and SAS, Egypt, Iran, and the People's Republic of China,^[58] the ISI armed and trained over 100,000 insurgents. On July 20, 1987, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country was announced pursuant to the negotiations that led to the Geneva Accords of 1988,^[59] with the last Soviets leaving on February 15, 1989. Following the Soviet withdraw the ongoing Civil war in Afghanistan continued with the Soviets continuing to provide thousands of ballistic missiles, other arms, and food to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan with active US opposition until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Fighting in the country continues to this day.

One and a half million died during more than a quarter-century of war and unrest.^[25][60] Five million Afghan people, one third of the prewar population of the country, were made refugees in Pakistan and Iran, and an additional two million Afghans were forced by the war to migrate within the country. In the 1980s, one out of two refugees in the world was an Afghan.^[61][62]

The United States role in arming, training, and supporting the radical Islamic terrorist group, the Mujihadeen of Afghanistan in the 1980s, has been called the model for state-sponsored terrorism, and led to a new generation of regime change actions around the world by this group and its off-shoots. This guerrilla movement, initially intended to oust the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, gave rise to terrorist groups in nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia, with a view to bring about regime change along Islamic lines.^[63] The early foundations of al-Qaida were built in part on relationships and weaponry that came from the billions of dollars in U.S. support for the Afghan mujahadin during the war to expel Soviet forces from that country.^[64] Some of the Afghan-trained "freedom fighters" were later involved in terrorist acts against the U.S., the very government that had given them support in the early days of their organization, to change U.S. policy in the Middle East.Template:Citation needed The initial bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack on the USS Cole, and the attacks of September 11 all have been linked to individuals and groups that at one time were armed and trained by the United States and/or its allies.^[63] The perpetrators of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 used a manual written by the CIA for the Mujihadeen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives.Template:Citation needed Sheik Abul Rahman, one of the conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was allowed to come to the U.S. to recruit Arab-Americans to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets.^[65]

The 2007 movie Charlie Wilson's War celebrated Representative Wilson (D-TX)'s and the CIA's involvement in the repulsion of the USSR troops from Afghanistan. Representative Wilson was awarded the Honored College Award by the CIA for his involvement.^[66]

Iran 1980[edit]

Investigative journalist Robert Parry reports that in a secret 1981 memo summing up a trip to the Middle East, then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig wrote: "It was also interesting to confirm that President Carter gave the Iraqis a green light to launch the war against Iran through Prince Fahd" of Jordan." ^[67] Z Magazine reports that in June 1980, students in Iran revealed a 1980 memorandum from U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance recommending the "destabilization" of the Iranian government by using Iran's neighbors. The U.S. has denied that it gave Iraq a "green light" for its September 22 1980 invasion of Iran. Five months before Iraq's invasion, on April 14 1980, Zbigniew Brzezinski, signaled the U.S.'s willingness to work with Iraq: "We see no fundamental incompatibility of interests between the United States and Iraq... we do not feel that American- Iraqi relations need to be frozen in antagonisms." According to Iran's president at the time, Abolhassan Banisadr, Brzezinski met directly with Saddam Hussein in Jordan two months before the Iraqi assault. Bani-Sadr wrote, "Brzezinski had assured Saddam Hussein that the United States would not oppose the separation of Khuzestan [in southwest Iran] from Iran." ^[68] The Financial Times reported that the U.S. passed satellite intelligence to the regime of Saddam Hussein via third countries, leading Iraq to believe Iranian forces would quickly collapse if attacked. Z magazine therefore argues that it is likely therefore that the U.S. helped push Saddam Hussein to attack Iran, causing a long and bloody war.^[68]

The meeting between Brzezinski and Saddam Hussein is also supported by other independent sources. Author Kenneth R. Timmerman and former Iranian President Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr separately stated that Brzezinski met with Hussein in July 1980 in Amman, Jordan, to discuss joint efforts to oppose Iran. According to Hussein biographer Said Aburish however, at the Amman meeting Saddam Hussein met with three CIA agents, not Brzezinski personally. Former Carter official Gary Sick denies that Washington directly encouraged Iraq's attack, but instead let "Saddam assume there was a U.S. green light because there was no explicit red light."^[69]

A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former U.S. policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in arming Iraq, although the total. The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous dual use items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague. Opinions differ among Middle East experts and former government officials about the pre-Iraqi tilt, and whether Washington could have done more to stop the flow to Baghdad of technology for building weapons of mass destruction. "Fundamentally, the policy was justified," argues David Newton, a former U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, who runs an anti-Hussein radio station in Prague. "We were concerned that Iraq should not lose the war with Iran, because that would have threatened Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Our long-term hope was that Hussein's government would become less repressive and more responsible." Although U.S. arms manufacturers were not as deeply involved as German or British companies in selling weaponry to Iraq, the Reagan administration effectively turned a blind eye to the export of "dual use" items such as chemical precursors and steel tubes that can have military and civilian applications. According to several former officials, the State and Commerce departments promoted trade in such items as a way to boost U.S. exports and acquire political leverage over Hussein. "Everybody was wrong in their assessment of Saddam," said Joe Wilson, Glaspie's former deputy at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and the last U.S. official to meet with Hussein. "Everybody in the Arab world told us that the best way to deal with Saddam was to develop a set of economic and commercial relationships that would have the effect of moderating his behavior. History will demonstrate that this was a miscalculation."^[70]

According to reports of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the U.S., under the successive presidential administrations sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992. The chairman of the Senate committee, Don Riegle, said: "The executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licences for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think its a devastating record."^[71]

The U.S. also claimed to have provided critical battle planning assistance at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the war, according to senior military officers with direct knowledge of the program. The U.S. claimed to have carried out the covert program at a time when Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci and National Security Adviser General Colin L. Powell were publicly condemning Iraq for its use of poison gas, especially after Iraq attacked Kurdish villagers in Halabja in March 1988. U.S. officials publicly condemned Iraq's employment of mustard gas, sarin, VX and other poisonous agents, but sixty Defense Intelligence Agency officers were secretly providing detailed information on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for airstrikes and bomb-damage assessments for Iraq. It has long been known that the U.S. provided intelligence assistance, such as satellite photography, to Saddam's regime. Carlucci said: "My understanding is that what was provided" to Iraq "was general order of battle information, not operational intelligence." "I certainly have no knowledge of U.S. participation in preparing battle and strike packages," he said, "and doubt strongly that that occurred." "I did agree that Iraq should not lose the war, but I certainly had no foreknowledge of their use of chemical weapons." Secretary of State Powell, through a spokesman, said the officers' description of the program was "dead wrong," but declined to discuss it. His deputy, Richard L. Armitage, a senior defense official at the time, used an expletive relayed through a spokesman to indicate his denial that the United States acquiesced in the use of chemical weapons.^[72]

Others have instead claimed U.S. intelligence agencies manipulated both sides in the Iran-Iraq war, providing each country with "deliberately distorted or inaccurate intelligence data". One method mentioned was altering satellite photos. In "Veil," his study of CIA covert operations in the 1980s, Bob Woodward found that some CIA officials were "doling out tactical data to both sides" to engineer a stalemate.^[69]

Turkey 1980[edit]

Main article: 1980 Turkish coup d'état

The right-wing coup of 1980 was supported by the United States.^[73]

Nicaragua 1981-1990[edit]

Main article: Political history of Nicaragua

1981-90: CIA directs Contra revolution, plants harbor mines and sinks civilian ships to overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista government of Nicaragua. After the Boland Amendment was enacted, it became illegal under U.S. law to fund the Contras; National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, Deputy National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter, National Security Council staffer Col. Oliver North and others continued an illegal operation to fund the Contras, leading to the Iran-Contra scandal. The U.S argued that:^[74]

The United States initially provided substantial economic assistance to the Sandinista-dominated regime. We were largely instrumental in the OAS action delegitimizing the Somoza regime and laying the groundwork for installation for the new junta. Later, when the Sandinista role in the Salvadoran conflict became clear, we sought through a combination of private diplomatic contacts and suspension of assistance to convince Nicaragua to halt its subversion. Later still, economic measures and further diplomatic efforts were employed to try to effect changes in Sandinista behavior.

Nicaragua's neighbors have asked for assistance against Nicaraguan aggression, and the United States has responded. Those countries have repeatedly and publicly made clear that they consider themselves to be the victims of aggression from Nicaragua, and that they desire United States assistance in meeting both subversive attacks and the conventional threat posed by the relatively immense Nicaraguan Armed Forces.

Overt: Grenada, 1983[edit]

Main article: Invasion of Grenada

Overt: Panama 1989[edit]

Main article: Invasion of Panama

Overt: Others[edit]

Needs expanding

Covert: Others[edit]

Needs expanding

Aftermath: the most recent covert action: Iran 2010[edit]

The CIA, from possibly before the first invasion of Iraq, but most definitely during the second Iraq invasion, has switched to be more integrated with regular forces, and operate as a harassing unit to deal attritive damage and thereby destabilize the Iranian regime, in line with its activity in Central America, but with fewer forces and, so far, less visibility.^[75]

See also[edit]

• List of Military Interventions of the United States
• post-Cold War covert regime change by the US
• Guatemalan coup d'état of 1954
• Human rights in the United States
• U.S. intelligence involvement with German war criminals after World War II

Wikipedia articles:

Wikipedia:Overthrow (book) Wikipedia:Killing Hope Wikipedia:Overthrow of the Hawai'ian Monarchy Covert operations, coups, military advisors etc. Wikipedia:William Walker (soldier) (1824 - 1860) Australian constitutional crisis of 1975 Wikipedia:NSC 5412/2 Special Group Wikipedia:40 Committee Wikipedia:Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories

Wikipedia:American Empire Wikipedia:Foreign policy of the United States Wikipedia:Lesser of two evils Wikipedia:Kirkpatrick Doctrine Wikipedia:Truman Doctrine Wikipedia:United States and state terrorism Wikipedia:Overseas expansion of the United States Wikipedia:Overseas interventions of the United States Wikipedia:List of United States military history events

Wikipedia:List of United States military bases Wikipedia:United States military aid Wikipedia:United States Foreign Military Financing Wikipedia:Foreign Military Sales Wikipedia:United States Agency for International Development Wikipedia:Human Rights Record of the United States Wikipedia:War crimes committed by the United States Wikipedia:Torture and the United States

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Stephen Kinzer Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, Times Books, 2006, ISBN 0-8050-7861-4
• Robert Fisk The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East; (October 2005) London. Fourth Estate, xxvi, 1366 pages. ISBN 1-84115-007-X
• William Blum 2003 Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, revised edition (Common Courage Press) ISBN 1-56751-252-6

External links[edit]

• “Hope and Memory”. 1801-2004 timeline of 163 U.S. interventions. Adbusters.
• A Map of U.S. Foreign Policy
• U.S. Offensive in Latin America: Coups, Retreats, and Radicalization
• Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Amy Goodman interviews Stephen Kinzer.
• "Part II...Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq" May 8, 2006 Democracy Now!

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