US/Bombing campaigns since 1945

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Countries the US has bombed since 1945 is in fact only the most memorable part of the listings that show violent interference by the United States of America in the affairs of other countries. In practice, US led assassinations, overthrows of legitimate government and interference with elections may be just as damaging, these are also listed here.

This article is intended as an adjunct to two Wikipedia articles, being the Timeline of United States military operations and US Regime-change actions (formerly entitled "Covert US foreign 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. This article aims to be even-handed, clearer and more relevant.

Countries the US has bombed since the end of World War 2

The US is said to have carried out 32 distinct and separate bombing campaigns on 24 different countries between 1945 and 1999.[1] However, the listing below includes later operations as well. In most cases, bombings with aircraft cannot be denied, though in some cases this has been attempted.

Date Country Details Disputed?
2011 Libya Early US attacks under UNSC 1973 are followed by NATO attacks leading to regime change and death of Ghadaffi. No
2003 -
2011		 Iraq Regime change against Saddam Hussein, an ally who had gone rogue. By all accounts, US Ambassador in Baghdad, April Glaspie, gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait in August 1990. She was totally silent on everything until her retirement in 2002 and has not spoken since.[2] No
2001 -
present		 Afghanistan Regime change under the guise of trying to catch Osama Bin Laden. No
1999 Yugoslavia - Serbia Allegedly to stop an ethnic cleansing that had begun or might begin. Targetted television stations and bombed the Chinese Embassy. No
1998 Afghanistan Cruise missiles on Osama Bin Ladens compounds. No
1998 Sudan Cruise missile attack on an antibiotic factory wrongly alleged to be producing WMD. No
1998 Iran ????
1995 Bosnia Serbian forces bombed. Generally accepted as a "good war". No
1992-
1994		 Somalia Known to the West chiefly for "Black Hawk Down" ????
1991 Kuwait See bombing of Iraq, below. Some of the attack took place within Kuwait, leaving quantities of Depleted Uranium, and causing much subsequent concern about cancers. No
1991 Iraq 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
1989 -
1990		 Panama December 1989, a large tenement barrio in Panama City wiped out, 15,000 people left homeless. Casualties disputed.[1] No
1989 Libya Attempt to kill Ghaddafi, Tripoli bombed.
1987 -
1988		 Iran ????
1979 -
1990		 Nicaragua Ronald Reagan's "freedom fighters." Sandinistas overthrow Somoza dictatorship in 1978, CIA arms the Contras (ie Somoza's vicious National Guard and other supporters of the dictator). US taken to the World Court and condemned for terrorism in 1986.[3][4] All-out war, aimed at destroying all social and economic programs of the government, burning down schools and medical clinics, raping, torturing, mining harbors, bombing and strafing. [1] Denied by some
1981 -
1992		 El Salvadore 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 still 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] Disputed by some
1986 Libya One of more than 50 attempts to assassinate foreign leaders (no listing in Pilger's "The World War on Democracy").[5] No
1983 -
1984		 Grenada Was air-power used?
1982 -
1984		 Lebanon Shelled villages from war-ship.
1969 -
1970		 Cambodia More bombs than the whole of WW2.
1961 -
1973		 Vietnam South Vietnam devastated.
1964 -
1973		 Laos
1965 Category:Peru Bombing of Peru and assistance to counter-insurgency operations [6][7] Disputed by some
1965 -
1966		 Dominican Republic ????
1964 Guatemala ????
1964 Belgian Congo Disputed by some
1961 Category:Cuba "Bay of Pigs", a failed invasion, US-sponsored. No
1960 Guatemala Disputed by some
1959 -
1960		 Cuba 40 years of terrorist attacks, bombings, full-scale military invasion, sanctions, embargoes, isolation, assassinations.[1]
1958 Indonesia Large scale killings ????
1954 Guatemala A CIA-organized coup (Operation PBSUCCESS) overthrows the democratically-elected and progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz, initiating 35 or 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] Bombers based in Nicaragua. 200,000 people are eventually dead in a 36 year long Guatemalan Civil War.[8][9][10][11][12] Disputed by some
1950 -
1953		 China Denied by some
1950 -
1953		 Korea At least 20% and perhaps up to 1/3rd of the population killed in order to prevent re-unification. No
1945 -
1946		 China Denied by some

Countries where the US has assasinated 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 geo-political objectives. In almost no cases can any clear humanitarian benefit be identified, even if the target is/was indeed tyrranical.

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.[13][14][15] No [16]
1961 Category:Dominican Republic Gen. Rafael Trujillo, dictator since 1930 shot dead in 1961.[17][18] 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

Increasingly, attacks are being made on individuals or leaders of quite small groups designated "terrorists". In 2011/2012 there are killings of nuclear technicians in Iran.

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.[5]

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

Date Country Details Disputed?
1973 Category:Chile The CIA sabotaged 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.[1][19][20]CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet’s Repression Report to Congress Reveals U.S. Accountability in Chile National Security Archive.</ref>New Transcripts Point to US Role in Chile Coup.</ref>The Kissinger Telcons National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 123 National Security Archive.</ref>[21] No
1970 Category:Italy CIA support for failed Golpe 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.[22] A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Italian newspaper La Repubblica in December 2004 confirmed this.[23] Maybe
1964 Category:Brazil Democratic government overthrown and replaced with a military dictator, and with American support military dictators dominated Brazil until the late 1970s. Maybe
1961 Category:Greece CIA-backed military coup ushers in Regime of the Colonels in Greece. ??
1953 Category: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.[1] ??
1953 Category: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).[24][25][26][27][28][29] No
1949 Category: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.[5] 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.[30] 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,[31] possibly more.[32][33][34] 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.[35] 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.[36][37] ??
1961 -
1962		 Category:Cuba Attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro, The Cuban Project, Operation Mongoose, Operation Northwoods No
1946 -
1949		 Category: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.[1] ??

Countries where the US has seriously interfered in democratic elections

The US has seriously interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.[5] Covert operations may be difficult or impossible to prove.

Reliability of this information

The shortage of material in the MSM means that some of this Wikispooks article has used sources which, while they are better than blogs, are not really subject to the kind of "editorial control" exerted by responsible publishers. In many cases, this comes down to the reliability of individual authors. While some of the authors used here may be opinionated, prone to using flowery language and (inevitably) accused of errors, none of them are known to deliberately distort the facts.

Wikpedia bias

Substantial bias can be seen in many parts of the Wikipedia articles (eg no mention of the successful World Court action by Nicaragua against the US). Partly this is simply concealment of the overall picture in the mass of detail.

However, there are other clues which betray the impossible editing conditions which are tolerated and indeed imposed at the Wikipedia, whereby good editors are driven off by bad editors.

Notes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j A Brief History of U.S. Interventions 1945 to the Present by William Blum - Z magazine, June 1999.
  2. ↑ Is the US State Department still keeping April Glaspie under wraps? Information Clearing House 12/25/2005.
  3. ↑ Judgment of the International Court of Justice of 27 June 1986 concerning military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua: need for immediate compliance United Nations General Assembly 3 Nov 1986.
  4. ↑ US-Nicaragua (1979-) history of US Interventions cooperative research.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, 2003
  7. ↑ US Bombing Interventions Since WW II, Third World Traveler
  8. ↑ Washington Monthly [SILENCE ON THE MOUNTAIN Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala by Daniel Wilkinson Houghton Mifflin.
  9. ↑ "Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954" Stanford University Press, 2006.
  10. ↑ "Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954" Princeton University Press, 1992.
  11. ↑ "Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961" Ohio University Press, 2000.
  12. ↑ "U.S. Foreign Policy toward Radical Change: Covert Operations in Guatemala, 1950-1954". Latin American Perspectives, 1983, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 88-102.
  13. ↑ A Tyrant 40 Years in the Making New York Times March 14 2003.
  14. ↑ The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq Princeton University Press. 1978.
  15. ↑ Iraq Since 1958 Peter and Marion Sluglett. 1990.
  16. ↑ Regarding the CIA's "Health Alteration Committee's work in Iraq, see U.S. Senate's Church Committee Interim Report on Assassination, page 181, Note 1.
  17. ↑ Report: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders History Matters website.
  18. ↑ Church Committee Report - Trujillo
  19. ↑ Secretary of State Colin L. Powell Interview On Black Entertainment Television's Youth Town Hall U.S. Department of State.
  20. ↑ [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.
  21. ↑ Documents reveal U.S. funding for Chile coup CNN.com.
  22. ↑ Enquêtes sur la droite extrême, Le Monde-éditions, 1992, p.84. Cited by Wikipedia.
  23. ↑ Il golpe Borghese. Storia di un'inchiesta, La storia siamo noi, Rai Educational, cited by Wikipedia.
  24. ↑ Special Report: Secret History of the CIA in Iran New York Times. 2000.
  25. ↑ An Anti-Democracy Foreign Policy: Iran Future Freedoms Foundation.
  26. ↑ "Country Studies: Iran". Library of Congress, March 7, 2007.
  27. ↑ "Muhammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran". Edited by Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne. Syracuse University Press, 2004.
  28. ↑ "U.S. Comes Clean About The Coup In Iran". CNN Insight, April 19, 2000 (transcript of video).
  29. ↑ "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’"
  30. ↑ Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein, Picador, 2007.
  31. ↑ Editoriales - Operacion Condor Victor Flores Olea. El Universal, Mexico 10 April 2006.
  32. ↑ Centro de Documentación y Archivo para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos 25 June 2007.
  33. ↑ Tracking the Origins of a State Terror Network: Operation Condor. J. Patrice McSherry 2002 Latin American Perspectives, vol 29, iss 1, p.36-60.
  34. ↑ 2006: el ocaso de los "cóndores mayores" La Nación (Chile) 13 December 2007.
  35. ↑ 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.
  36. ↑ Post-transition Ecuador 2000 An essay in honor of Martin needler1 Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 2005.
  37. ↑ Ecuador 1960 to 1963: A Textbook of Dirty Tricks William Blum.
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