# United States involvement in regime change

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Since the 19th century, the United States government has participated and interfered, both overtly and covertly, in the replacement of many foreign governments.

## Quotes

* Between 1945 and 2005 the United States has attempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes. In the process, the U.S. caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair.
** William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (2000), Third Edition (2006), pp. 1-2.
* There have also been cases where the United States, while (perhaps) not interfering in the election process, was, however, involved in overthrowing a democratically-elected government, such as in Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, the Congo 1960, Ecuador 1961, Bolivia 1964, Greece 1967, and Fiji 1987.
** William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, third edition (2006), p. 286
* In sum, the post-World War II foreign policy of the U.S. — independent of its massive human rights violations committed over and over around the world — has been predicated on overthrowing democratically elected governments and, even more so, supporting, aligning with, and propping up brutal dictators. This policy has been applied all over the world, on multiple continents and by every administration. It is impossible to understand even the most basic aspects of the U.S. role in the world without knowing that.
** Glenn Greenwald, "Trump’s Support and Praise of Despots Is Central to the U.S. Tradition, Not a Deviation From It" (May 2, 2017), The Intercept
* If we dig behind the rhetoric, it becomes clear that Western support for right-wing coups had little to do with Cold War ideology, and certainly nothing to do with promoting democracy (quite the opposite!); the goal, rather, was to defend Western economic interests. The veil of the Cold War has obscured this blunt fact from view.
** Jason Hickel, The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets. (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018) ISBN 978-0393651362
* We are concerned about what the US and its closest allies are doing with respect to Venezuela, brazenly violating all imaginable norms of international law and actually openly pursuing the policy aimed at overthrowing the legitimate government in that Latin American country. ... Together with other responsible members of the international community, we will do everything to support President Maduro’s legitimate government in upholding the Venezuelan constitution and employing methods to resolve the crisis that are within the constitutional framework. ... We would like to figure out what the international community could do to prevent another blatant violation of international law and violent regime change.
** Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as reported in US policy aimed at toppling Venezuela’s government, TASS (29 January 2019)
* The United States ... supported authoritarian regimes throughout Central and South America during and after the Cold War in defense of its economic and political interests. In tiny Guatemala, the Central Intelligence Agency mounted a coup overthrowing the democratically elected government in 1954, and it backed subsequent rightwing governments against small leftist rebel groups for four decades. Roughly 200,000 civilians died. In Chile, a CIA-supported coup helped put Gen. Augusto Pinochet in power from 1973 to 1990. In Peru, a fragile democratic government is still unraveling the agency's role in a decade of support for the now-deposed and disgraced president, Alberto K. Fujimori, and his disreputable spy chief, Vladimiro L. Montesinos.
** John Perkins in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004), p. 200
* Piers Morgan: You're always very keen to take a view, even if they're unproven, that is anti-American. You're never quite so keen to take a view that is anti-dictator. ...
    Jeffrey Sachs: It's not whether they're dictators or not, it's what the United States' role is. I don't believe that any country can arrogate this task of bringing down other countries' governments. The CIA has been involved in probably 90 or 100 covert regime change operations since it was founded in 1947. My whole life has been the United States at war. It's sickening. It's tiring. These wars are disasters. It's just not our business to say, "That one's despicable. That one has to go." But literally this is what Obama did. It's a shame that he did this. He said, "Assad must go." ... Literally, Piers, it's been 13 years of mass killing since then, no resolution at all. Completely predictable. This is what I'm against.
   * Jeffrey Sachs as interviewed by Piers Morgan, December 5, 2024
* On February 22, 2014, the United States participated actively in the overthrow of Yanakovich. A typical U. S. regime change operation, have no doubt about it.
** Jeffrey Sachs, Understanding the Ukraine conflict. YouTube

## See also

* Foreign policy of the United States
* United States Imperialism
* United States