US/Assassinations since 1945

Countries where the US has assassinated or attempted to assassinate a movement leader

The US has made more than 50 attempts to assassinate political party leaders according to William Blum in "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II", 2003. Noam Chomsky called this book "Far and away the best book on the topic.". Former CIA officer John Stockwell called the same book "The single most useful summary of CIA history."

All such operations are illegal and almost all such killings are aimed at geopolitical objectives. In almost no cases can any clear humanitarian benefit be identified, even if the target is/was indeed tyrannical.

While bombings with aircraft leave evidence in many cases, covert operations may be difficult to prove.

Date	Country	Details	Disputed?
2011	Category:Pakistan	Osama Bin Laden. Killing of a captured man.	Maybe
2003	Category:Iraq	Saddam Hussein and his two sons. Two killings and a semi-judicial execution.	Maybe
2002	Category:Afghanistan	Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Islamic leader and warlord	Maybe
2001	Category:Afghanistan	Invasion of Afghanistan, followed by an unsuccessful attempt to catch Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora.	No
1998	Category:Afghanistan	Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant. Cruise missiles followed by a full-scale invasion.	Maybe
1993	Category:Somalia	Mohamed Farah Aideed, prominent clan leader. Failed attempt but he died later.	Maybe
1991	Category:Iraq	Saddam Hussein, leader. Attempt to kill him?	Maybe
1985	Category:Lebanon	Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Shiite leader (80 people killed in the attempt)	Maybe
1984	Category:Nicaragua	The nine comandantes of the Sandinista National Directorate	Maybe
1983	Category:Nicaragua	Miguel d'Escoto, Foreign Minister	Maybe
1983	Category:Morocco	Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, Army commander	Maybe
1982	Category:Iran	Ayatollah Khomeini, leader	Maybe
1980- 1986	Category:Libya	Muammar Qaddafi, leader, several plots and attempts upon his life	Maybe
1976	Category:Jamaica	Michael Manley, Prime Minister	Maybe
1976	Category:Chile	exiled Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier is blown up in Washington DC, part of Operation Condor with at least tacit US support	?
1975	Category:Zaire	Mobutu Sese Seko, President.	Maybe
1972	Category:Panama	General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Intelligence. Captured alive and been imprisoned ever since.	Maybe
1970s, 1981	Category:Panama	General Omar Torrijos, leader	Maybe
1970	Category:Chile	Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army.	Maybe
1970	Category:Chile	Salvador Allende, President unsuccesful US supported coup "Project FUBELT"	No
1967	Category:Bolivia	Che Guevara, revolutionary leader. CIA-organized military operation ends in capture and execution by the Bolivian Army.	Maybe
1965 - 1956	Category:France	Charles de Gaulle, President	Maybe
1965	Category:Dominican Republic	Francisco Caamaño, opposition leader	Maybe
1965	Category:Zaire	President overthrown and replaced by Mobutu, see entry for 1961, deposing of Lumumbu.	No
1960s	Category:Cuba	Raúl Castro, high official in government	Maybe
1960s - 1970s	Category:Cuba	Fidel Castro, President, many attempts on his life including poisoned cigars.	Maybe
1963	Category:South Vietnam	Ngo Dinh Diem, President. Successful attempt to replace one puppet leader with another.	Maybe
1963	Category:Iraq	The CIA supports the Ba'athists, including Saddam Hussein, in a coup in Iraq against the Qassim government.	No
1961	Category:Dominican Republic	Gen. Rafael Trujillo, dictator since 1930 shot dead in 1961.	Yes
1961	Category:Zaire	In June 1960, Patrice Lumumba became the Congo's first prime minister after independence from Belgium. Calls for the nation's economic liberation and is branded a communist. Eleven days later, the mineral rich Katanga province, owned by Belgium and prominent Eisenhower administration officials, seceedes. Lumumba dismissed in September at the instigation of the United States, and in Jan 1961 assassinated at the express request of Dwight Eisenhower. Several years of civil conflict and chaos end in the CIA backed deposing of President Joseph Kasavubu and the 1965 accession to power of the CIA linked Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu ruled and robbed the country for more than 30 years (a "kleptocracy") while the Zairian people lived in abject poverty.	No
1961	Category:Haiti	Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, leader	Maybe
1950s- 1970s	Category:Costa Rica	José Figueres, President, two attempts on his life	Maybe
1960	Category:Iraq	Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader	Maybe
1959	Category:Cambodia	Norodom Sihanouk, leader. And again, 1963, 1969.	Maybe
1957	Category:Egypt	Gamal Abdul Nasser, President	Maybe
1955	Category:India	Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister	Maybe
1951	Category:Iran	Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister	Maybe
1951	Category:North Korea	Kim Il Sung, Premier	Maybe
1950s (mid)	Category:Philippines	Claro M. Recto, opposition leader	Maybe
1950s, 1962	Category:Indonesia	Sukarno, President	Maybe
1950s	Category:China	Prime minister Chou En-lai, several attempts on his life	Maybe
1950s	Category:Germany	CIA/Neo-Nazi hit list of more than 200 political figures in West Germany to be "put out of the way" in the event of a Soviet invasion	Maybe
1949	Category:Korea	Kim Koo, opposition leader	No

Recent Developments

The CIA has long had a policy of assassinating individuals for a mixture of reasons. Increasingly, attacks are being made on individuals or leaders of quite small groups designated "terrorists". Since 2011 there have been killings of nuclear technicians in Iran. Drones are proving increasingly effective at killing targets, and are even being programmed to make autonomous decisions about whom to kill.