US/Bombing campaigns since 1945
Countries the US has bombed since 1945 is the most memorable part of listings detailing violent interference in the affairs of other countries by the United States of America. However, US terrorism is often less noticeable and more damaging than high-profile attacks.
This article is intended as an adjunct to two Wikipedia articles, being the Timeline of United States military operations and the list of covert US Regime-change actions. There is a great deal of bias in many parts of the Wikipedia articles, and the detail overwhelms the picture. There are no useful "summaries" or totals of the interventions and articles confusingly put the earlier interventions (going right back to 1776) at the top of the page.
Contents
- 1 Countries the US has bombed since the end of World War 2
- 2 Countries where the US has attempted to assassinate a movement leader
- 3 Countries where the US has attempted to overthrow a democratic government
- 4 Countries where the US has attempted to suppress a populist or national movement
- 5 Countries where the US has seriously interfered in democratic elections
- 6 Wikpedia bias
- 7 Notes
Countries the US has bombed since the end of World War 2
The US carried out 32 distinct and separate bombing campaigns on 24 different countries between 1945 and 1999.[1] This listing includes later operations.
Country | Year(s) | Details | Denied? |
---|---|---|---|
Libya | 2011 | Early US attacks under UNSC 1973 are followed by NATO attacks leading to regime change and death of Ghadaffi. | No |
Iraq | 2003 - 2011 | Regime change against a previous ally. | No |
Afghanistan | 2001 - present | Regime change under the guise of trying to catch Osama Bin Laden. | No |
Yugoslavia - Serbia | 1999 | Television stations and the Chinese Embassy. | |
Afghanistan | 1998 | Cruise missiles on Osama Bin Ladens compounds. | No |
Sudan | 1998 | Cruise missile attack on an antibiotic factory wrongly alleged to be producing WMD. | |
Iran | 1998 | ???? | |
Bosnia | 1995 | Serbian forces bombed. | No |
Somalia | 1992-94 | ???? | |
Kuwait | 1991 | Considerable use of Depleted Uranium, much subsequent concern about cancers. | No |
Iraq | 1991 | Bombing for 40 days and nights devastated the ancient and modern capital city of one of the most advanced nations in the Middle East. 177 million pounds of bombs fell in the most concentrated aerial onslaught in the history of the world.[1] Genuine multi-national effort and seen by most as a "good war". | No |
Panama | 1989-90 | December 1989, a large tenement barrio in Panama City wiped out, 15,000 people left homeless. Casualties disputed.[1] | No |
Libya | 1989 | Attempt to kill Ghaddafi, Tripoli bombed. | |
Iran | 1987-88 | ???? | |
Nicaragua | 1981-90 | US taken to the World Court and condemned for terrorism. | Denied by some |
El Salvadore | 1981-92 | Officially, the U.S. military presence in El Salvador was limited to an advisory capacity. About 20 Americans were killed or wounded in helicopter and plane crashes while flying reconnaissance or other missions over combat areas, and considerable evidence surfaced of a U.S. role in the ground fighting as well. The war came to an official end in 1992; 75,000 civilian deaths at a cost of six billion dollars. Meaningful social change largely thwarted by 1999. A handful of the wealthy still owned the country, the poor remained as ever, and dissidents still suffered from death squads.[1] | Denied by some |
Libya | 1986 | One of more than 50 attempts to assassinate foreign leaders (no listing in Pilger's "The World War on Democracy").[2] | No |
Grenada | 1983-84 | Or only guns? | |
Lebanon | 1982-84 | Shelled villages from war-ship. | |
Cambodia | 1969-70 | More bombs than the whole of WW2. | |
Vietnam | 1961-73 | South Vietnam devastated. | |
Laos | 1964-73 | ||
Peru | 1965 | Denied by some | |
Dominican Republic | 1965-66 | ???? | |
Guatemala | 1964 | ???? | |
Belgian Congo | 1964 | Denied by some | |
Guatemala | 1960 | Denied by some | |
Cuba | 1959-60 | 40 years of terrorist attacks, bombings, full-scale military invasion, sanctions, embargoes, isolation, assassinations.[1] | |
Indonesia | 1958 | ???? | |
Guatemala | 1954 | A CIA-organized coup overthrew the democratically-elected and progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz, initiating 40 years of death-squads, torture, disappearances, mass executions, and unimaginable cruelty (peaking 1967-69) totaling well over 100,000 victims - one of the most inhuman chapters of the 20th century. Arbenz had nationalized the U.S. firm, United Fruit Company. The Russians had so little interest in the country that it didn't even maintain diplomatic relations.[1] | Denied by some |
China | 1950-53 | Denied by some | |
Korea | 1950-53 | No | |
China | 1945-46 | Denied by some |
Countries where the US has 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"[3] Noam Chomsky called it "Far and away the best book on the topic."[4] Former CIA officer John Stockwell called it "The single most useful summary of CIA history."[5]
All such operations are illegal and almost all such killings are aimed at geo-political objectives. In almost no cases can a clear humanitarian benefit be identified, no matter how tyrranical the target.
2011 - Osama Bin Laden
2003 - Saddam Hussein and his two sons
2002 - Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan Islamic leader and warlord
1999 - Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia
1998, 2001-2 - Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant
1993 - Mohamed Farah Aideed, prominent clan leader of Somalia
1991 - Saddam Hussein, leader of Iraq
1985 - Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Shiite leader (80 people killed in the attempt)
1984 - The nine comandantes of the Sandinista National Directorate
1983 - Miguel d'Escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
1983 - Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, Moroccan Army commander
1982 - Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran
1980-1986 - Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya, several plots and attempts upon his life
1976 - Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica
1975 - Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire
1972 - General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Panama Intelligence
1970s, 1981 - General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama
1970 - Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile
1970 - Salvador Allende, President of Chile
1967 - Che Guevara, Cuban leader
1965-6 - Charles de Gaulle, President of France
1965 - Francisco Caamaño, Dominican Republic opposition leader
1960s - Raúl Castro, high official in government of Cuba
1960s-70s - Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, many attempts on his life
1963 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
1961 - Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic
1961 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo (Zaire)
1961 - Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, leader of Haiti
1950s-70s - José Figueres, President of Costa Rica, two attempts on his life
1960 - Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader of Iraq
1959, 1963, 1969 - Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
1957 - Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt
1955 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
1950s (mid) - Claro M. Recto, Philippines opposition leader
1953 - Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran
1951 - Kim Il Sung, Premier of North Korea
1950s, 1962 - Sukarno, President of Indonesia
1950s - Chou En-lai, Prime minister of China, several attempts on his life
1950s - 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
1949 - Kim Koo, Korean opposition leader
Increasingly, attacks are being made on individuals or leaders of quite small groups. Or even individuals (eg Iranian nuclear engineers).
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.[2]
1973 - Chile
1953 - Iran
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.[2]
Countries where the US has seriously interfered in democratic elections
The US has interfered in some "gross" fashion in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.[2]
Wikpedia bias
Substantial bias in many parts of the Wikipedia articles (eg no mention of the World Court action by Nicaragua). Concealment of the overall picture in the mass of detail. The writing of this Wikispooks article is not necessarily based on all good information, however.
Notes
- ↑ a b c d e f A Brief History of U.S. Interventions 1945 to the Present by William Blum - Z magazine, June 1999.
- ↑ a b c d 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.
- ↑ Wikipedia description of "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II". William Blum. 2003. Updated and revised version of his book The CIA - A Forgotten History.
- ↑ "Far and away the best book on the topic." says Noam Chomsky on "Killing Hope" according to the Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Hope
- ↑ "The single most useful summary of CIA history." John Stockwell on "Killing Hope", according to the Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Hope