Global InformationUnited States involvement in regime change information
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| History of U.S. expansion and influence |
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Since the 19th century, the United States government has participated and interfered, both overtly and covertly, in the replacement of many foreign governments. In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. government initiated actions for regime change mainly in Latin America and the southwest Pacific, including the Spanish–American and Philippine–American wars. At the onset of the 20th century, the United States shaped or installed governments in many countries around the world, including neighbors Hawaii, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
During World War II, the United States helped overthrow many Nazi German or Imperial Japanese puppet regimes. Examples include regimes in the Philippines, Korea, East China, and parts of Europe. United States forces, together with the Soviet Union, were also instrumental in removing Adolf Hitler from power in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy.
In the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. government struggled with the Soviet Union for global leadership, influence and security within the context of the Cold War. Under the Truman administration, the U.S. government feared that communism would be spread, sometimes with the assistance of the Soviet Union's own involvement in regime change, and promoted the domino theory, a precedent which later presidents followed. Subsequently, the United States expanded the geographic scope of its actions beyond traditional area of operations, Central America and the Caribbean. Significant operations included the United States and United Kingdom–planned 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion targeting Cuba, and support for the overthrow of Sukarno by General Suharto in Indonesia. In addition, the U.S. has interfered in the national elections of countries, including Italy in 1948,[1] the Philippines in 1953, Japan in the 1950s and 1960s[2][3] Lebanon in 1957,[4] and Russia in 1996.[5] According to one study, the U.S. performed at least 81 overt and covert known interventions in foreign elections during the period 1946–2000.[6] According to another study, the U.S. engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change during the Cold War.[7]
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States has led or supported wars to determine the governance of a number of countries. Stated U.S. aims in these conflicts have included fighting the War on Terror, as in the Afghan War, or removing alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), as in the Iraq War.
- ^ "CIA Covert Aid to Italy Averaged $5 Million Annually from Late 1940s to Early 1960s, Study Finds | National Security Archive". nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
- ^ Weiner, Tim (October 9, 1994). "C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's (Published 1994)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- ^ "The Long History of the US Interfering with Elections Elsewhere". The Washington Post. October 13, 2016. Archived from the original on June 16, 2017.
- ^ Tharoor, Ishaan. "Analysis | The long history of the U.S. interfering with elections elsewhere". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
- ^ Beinart, Peter (July 22, 2018). "The U.S. Needs to Face Up to Its Long History of Election Meddling". The Atlantic.
- ^ Shane, Scott (February 17, 2019). "Russia Isn't the Only One Meddling in Elections, We Do It, Too". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 19, 2018. Citing Conflict Management and Peace Science, September 19, 2016 "Partisan Electoral Interventions by the Great Powers: Introducing the PEIG Dataset," http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0738894216661190
- ^ O'Rourke, Lindsey A. (November 29, 2019). "The Strategic Logic of Covert Regime Change: US-Backed Regime Change Campaigns during the Cold War". Security Studies. 29: 92–127. doi:10.1080/09636412.2020.1693620. ISSN 0963-6412. S2CID 213588712.