# Foreigners assassinated in the United States? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686 "2010-11-14T22:51:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/21 "2010-11-15T17:59:15Z")
Doing Africa’s independence period and the Cold War intrigue that followed, quite a few independence leaders/potential heads of newly independent states (particularly, but not always, those seen as potentially aligning with the Soviets) found themselves mysteriously dead, occasionally on foreign soil. [Félix-Roland Moumi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix-Roland_Moumi%C3%A9) comes to mind, although if you look at Wikipedia’s [list of assassinated](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_people)people, a few African names pop up as having spent their last day on European soil. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/22 "2010-11-15T18:05:44Z")
Here is another Wikipedia list of [assassinated anti-colonialist leaders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonization#Assassinated_anticolonialist_leaders). editorializing: And we wonder why Africa doesn’t have good leadership, when France et al went out and shot pretty much the entire first generation of talented leaders, to better install their corrupt cronies…grrrrrrrr ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/23 "2010-11-15T18:45:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think I found a definite case. Mehmet Baydar, the Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles and Bahadir Demir, his Deputy, were killed by an Armenian named Gourgen Yanikian on January 27, 1973. Asked and answered. Hawaii Five-0 screwed up. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/24 "2010-11-15T18:48:43Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > The Serbian government was behind the assassination. You’re right, I misstated things. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/25 "2010-11-16T06:15:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Kennedy was shot in Dallas. That sort of counts, at least to some Texans. > [@Moonlitherial](#): > > Are you saying Texans considered Kennedy a foreign dignitary? Damned Yankees. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/26 "2010-11-16T15:04:34Z")
A quck look here [1960 United States presidential election - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1960#Results) shows that Kennedy carried Texas as a whole, and a sizable fraction of all Texas counties. The idea that Texas is hard-right Republican is really pretty new; say a mid-80s and later phenomenon. Same applies to most of the rest of the South. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/27 "2010-11-17T03:59:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A quck look here [1960 United States presidential election - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1960#Results) shows that Kennedy carried Texas as a whole, and a sizable fraction of all Texas counties. > > The idea that Texas is hard-right Republican is really pretty new; say a mid-80s and later phenomenon. Same applies to most of the rest of the South. Sheesh! Has no one a sense of humor anymore when it comes to assassinations? I was just kidding. :mad: Anyway, I remember well when Texas started turning Republican. That was the 1978 election, when Bill Clements won to become the first Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction. Before that, it was assumed Hell would have to freeze over to pave the way for such an occurrence. But even back in Democrat days, the Texas Democrats saw themselves as a breed above all the other Democrats in the country, every single one of them, believe me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/28 "2010-11-17T15:33:08Z")
Dallas was notoriously hostile to the Kennedy Administration, though. Adlai Stevenson, at the time the US ambassador to the UN, got bonked on the head with a sign by a hard-right conservative protestor there not long before the President’s visit, and warned him not to go. _Time_ article on the assault on Amb. Stevenson: [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875296,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875296,00.html) A handbill passed out on the morning of the President’s visit: [http://nomoregames.net/911/jim\_marrs\_JFK\_911/Wanted\_for\_treason.jpg](http://nomoregames.net/911/jim_marrs_JFK_911/Wanted_for_treason.jpg) The newly-appointed U.S. ambassador to Lebanon was kidnapped and murdered in 1976: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis\_E.\_Meloy,\_Jr](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_E._Meloy,_Jr). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/29 "2010-11-17T23:59:01Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Dallas was notoriously hostile to the Kennedy Administration, though. Adlai Stevenson, at the time the US ambassador to the UN, got bonked on the head with a sign by a hard-right conservative protestor there not long before the President’s visit, and warned him not to go. “The City of Hate.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/30 "2010-11-18T12:54:25Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Kennedy was shot in Dallas. That sort of counts, at least to some Texans. Then it sort of wouldn’t be American soil. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/31 "2010-11-18T12:59:02Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The idea that Texas is hard-right Republican is really pretty new; say a mid-80s and later phenomenon. Same applies to most of the rest of the South. This is due more to shifts in Demo and GOP policies than to any change in philosophy by voters. Specifically, after the Democrat-led Civil Rights Act of 1965, it was GOP that, to “profit” from that Act, took deliberate measures to appeal to racist rednecks. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/32 "2010-11-18T15:26:56Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Specifically, after the Democrat-led Civil Rights Act of 1965, it was GOP that, to “profit” from that Act, took deliberate measures to appeal to racist rednecks. [Moderator Note] Political jabs are not permitted in GQ. While the GOP may have been pursuing a Southern strategy, that’s an inappropriately loaded statement for this forum. No warning issued. Colibri General Questions Moderator To everyone else, I think the discussion of the Kennedy assassination and Texas politics is getting pretty far afield from the question in the OP. Let’s stick to the original topic. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686/33 "2010-11-20T23:22:55Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > And Trotsky, at least, was assassinated BY his country, or at least at the request thereof. Trotsky was killed in 1940 in Mexico City by Ramon Mercader. The Russians now think that a mole, who has since escaped their country, was responsible for outing the ten spies recently expelled from the U.S. Moreover, and somewhat menacingly, President Medvedev recently claimed that “a ‘Mercader’ had already been sent to deal with the traitor”, which got the attention of U.S. officials, as the individual likely would be on U.S. territory: [Russia Sends Out a Hit Man](http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/14/russia-sends-out-a-hit-man.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreigners-assassinated-in-the-united-states/560686.md?page=1)