US/Efforts to Suppress Democracy since 1945
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 US/Efforts to Suppress Democracy since 1945(United States/Foreign policy)   | |
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| Start | 1945 |
This page is for US Efforts to Suppress Democracy since 1945, but does not include US Bombing campaigns since 1945.
Contents
Countries where the US has attempted to overthrow a democratic government
The US has attempted to overthrow more than 50 national governments, most of them being popular/democratic rather than tyrannical.[1] While bombings with aircraft leave evidence in most cases, covert operations may be difficult to prove.
| Date | Country | Details | Disputed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Chile | The CIA sabotaged Salvador Allende's first election in 1964, and failed to do so in 1970 (when they also tried to kill him). The military was encouraged to be hostile and in Sept 1973 the government was overthrown, Allende dying in the process. The generals closed the country to the outside world for a week, tanks rolled, soldiers broke down doors, stadiums rang with the sounds of execution and bodies piled up along the streets and floated in the river. More than 3,000 were executed, thousands more tortured or disappeared.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] | No |
| 1970 | Italy | CIA supported the failed Borghese coup in Italy. The military attaché at the US embassy was allegedly connected to the coup organizers and one of the accused claimed that US President Richard Nixon had followed the preparations for the coup.[9] A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Italian newspaper La Repubblica in December 2004 confirmed this.[10] | Maybe |
| 1964 | Brazil | Operation Brother Sam. The extent of CIA involvement unverifiable since some documents remain classified, but the US provided logistic support to the rebels and dispatched an aircraft carrier (USS Forrestal), two guided missile destroyers and four destroyers which to Brazil under the guise of a military exercise[11]. The rule of democracy was replaced with a line of military dictatorships for the next 21 years, whom the US supported until at least the late 1970s. | No |
| 1961 | Greece | CIA-backed military coup ushers in Regime of the Colonels in Greece. | ?? |
| 1953 | Guyana | From 1953-64, the UK and the US went to great lengths to prevent a democratically elected leader of British Guiana/Guyana from governing. Cheddi Jagan had tried to remain neutral and independent and was elected three times. Using a variety of tactics including general strikes and disinformation to terrorism and British legalisms, the U. S. and Britain finally forced Jagan out in 1964. John F. Kennedy had given a direct order for his ouster, as, presumably, had Eisenhower. One of the better-off countries in the region under Jagan, Guyana, by the 1980s, was one of the poorest. Its principal export became people.[2] | ?? |
| 1953 | Iran | In 1951 the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the 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 Operation Ajax to depose the prime minister and install a puppet regime. Elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and his government were replaced by the Shah (overthrown 26 years later).[12][13][14][15][16][17] | No |
| 1949 | Syria | CIA helps overthrow the democratically elected government of Syria, bringing in the dictatorship of Husni al-Za'im. Wikipedia says "carried out with discreet backing of the American embassy". | ?? |
Countries where the US has attempted to suppress a populist or national movement
The US has has attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries.[1] Covert operations may be difficult or impossible to prove.
| Date | Country | Details | Disputed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | South America | Operation Condor was a campaign of political repression and terror involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by right-wing dictatorships in South America. The program aimed to eradicate alleged socialist and communist influence and ideas and to control active or potential opposition movements against the participating governments.[18] Due to its clandestine nature, the precise number of deaths directly attributable to Operation Condor is highly disputed. It is estimated that a minimum of 60,000 deaths can be attributed to Condor,[19] possibly more.[20][21][22] Condor's key members were the governments in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. The United States provided support, with Ecuador and Peru joining later in more peripheral roles.[23] | No |
| 1961 - 1963 |
Ecuador | President José María Velasco Ibarra was overthrown by a military coup, replaced with his vice-president Carlos Julio Arosemana, who in turn was overthrown in 1963 and replaced by a more consistently anti-Communist military junta.[24][25] | ?? |
| 1961 - 1962 |
Cuba | Attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro, The Cuban Project, Operation Mongoose, Operation Northwoods | No |
| 1946 - 1949 |
Greece | Intervened in a civil war, taking the side of the neo-fascists against the Greek left which had fought the Nazis courageously. The neo-fascists won and instituted a highly brutal regime, for which the CIA created a new internal security agency, KYP. Before long, KYP was carrying out all the endearing practices of secret police everywhere, including systematic torture.[2] | ?? |
Countries where the US has seriously interfered in democratic elections
The US has seriously interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.[1] Covert operations may be difficult or impossible to prove.
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vladimir Putin | “Western countries have been saying for centuries that they bring freedom and democracy to other nations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of bringing democracy they suppressed and exploited, and instead of giving freedom they enslaved and oppressed. The unipolar world is inherently anti-democratic and unfree; it is false and hypocritical through and through.
The United States is the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons twice, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. And they created a precedent. Recall that during WWII the United States and Britain reduced Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne and many other German cities to rubble, without the least military necessity. It was done ostentatiously and, to repeat, without any military necessity. They had only one goal, as with the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities: to intimidate our country and the rest of the world. The United States left a deep scar in the memory of the people of Korea and Vietnam with their carpet bombings and use of napalm and chemical weapons. It actually continues to occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and other countries, which they cynically refer to as equals and allies. Look now, what kind of alliance is that? The whole world knows that the top officials in these countries are being spied on and that their offices and homes are bugged. It is a disgrace, a disgrace for those who do this and for those who, like slaves, silently and meekly swallow this arrogant behaviour. They call the orders and threats they make to their vassals Euro-Atlantic solidarity, and the creation of biological weapons and the use of human test subjects, including in Ukraine, noble medical research. It is their destructive policies, wars and plunder that have unleashed today’s massive wave of migrants. Millions of people endure hardships and humiliation or die by the thousands trying to reach Europe.” | Vladimir Putin | 2022 |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Harold Pinter - 2005 Nobel Prize lecture | speech | 7 December 2005 | Harold Pinter | Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize acceptance speech made by video-link to the ceremony in Norway because of his illness. He was in the terminal stages of cancer. The speech is inspirational in its scathing rejection of Western (especially US) foreign policy objectives and methods. |
| Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower | book | 2000 | William Blum | A critical examination of United States foreign policy during and following the Cold War |
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References
- ↑ a b c The World War on Democracy One of more than 50 attempts to assassinate foreign leaders (but no listing) Global Research, John Pilger Jan 19, 2012, citing William Blum's "updated summary of the record of US foreign policy". Since the Second World War" of July 2011.
- ↑ a b c A Brief History of U.S. Interventions 1945 to the Present by William Blum - Z magazine, June 1999.
- ↑ Secretary of State Colin L. Powell Interview On Black Entertainment Television's Youth Town Hall U.S. Department of State.
- ↑ [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973. National Security Archive.
- ↑ CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet’s Repression Report to Congress Reveals U.S. Accountability in Chile National Security Archive.
- ↑ New Transcripts Point to US Role in Chile Coup.
- ↑ The Kissinger Telcons National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 123 National Security Archive.
- ↑ Documents reveal U.S. funding for Chile coup CNN.com.
- ↑ Enquêtes sur la droite extrême, Le Monde-éditions, 1992, p.84. Cited by Wikipedia.
- ↑ Il golpe Borghese. Storia di un'inchiesta, La storia siamo noi, Rai Educational, cited by Wikipedia.
- ↑ Kornbluh, Peter. BRAZIL MARKS 40th ANNIVERSARY OF MILITARY COUP GWU National Security Archive. Retrieved August 20, 2007.
- ↑ Special Report: Secret History of the CIA in Iran New York Times. 2000.
- ↑ An Anti-Democracy Foreign Policy: Iran Future Freedoms Foundation.
- ↑ "Country Studies: Iran". Library of Congress, March 7, 2007.
- ↑ "Muhammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran". Edited by Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne. Syracuse University Press, 2004.
- ↑ "U.S. Comes Clean About The Coup In Iran". CNN Insight, April 19, 2000 (transcript of video).
- ↑ "U.S. Ending A Few Of The Sanctions Imposed On Iran", New York Times, March 18, 2000. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright: "’In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh’"
- ↑ Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein, Picador, 2007.
- ↑ Editoriales - Operacion Condor Victor Flores Olea. El Universal, Mexico 10 April 2006.
- ↑ Centro de Documentación y Archivo para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos 25 June 2007.
- ↑ Tracking the Origins of a State Terror Network: Operation Condor. J. Patrice McSherry 2002 Latin American Perspectives, vol 29, iss 1, p.36-60.
- ↑ 2006: el ocaso de los "cóndores mayores" La Nación (Chile) 13 December 2007.
- ↑ Predatory States. Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America/When States Kill. Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror Journal of Third World Studies 2006.
- ↑ Post-transition Ecuador 2000 An essay in honor of Martin needler1 Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 2005.
- ↑ Ecuador 1960 to 1963: A Textbook of Dirty Tricks William Blum.
