US/Efforts to Suppress Democracy since 1945

US/Efforts to Suppress Democracy since 1945 (United States/Foreign policy)
Start	1945

This page is for US Efforts to Suppress Democracy since 1945, but does not include US Bombing campaigns since 1945.

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. 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.	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. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Italian newspaper La Repubblica in December 2004 confirmed this.	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. 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.	??
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).	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. 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. 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, possibly more. 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.	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.	??
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.	??

Countries where the US has seriously interfered in democratic elections

The US has seriously interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries. 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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