Who all got deposed directly or indirectly by the US in the 20th century, leaving someone that Americans later complained about behind?
Liliuokalani, queen of Hawaii, 1893
Gerardo Machado, president of Cuba, 1933
Mohammed Mosaddeq, prime minister of Iran, 1953
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, president of Guatemala, and Federico Chávez, president of Paraguay, both in 1954
Ngo Dinh Diem, president of South Vietnam, 1963
Salvador Allende, president of Chile, 1973
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan, 1977
Manuel Noriega, de facto head of state of Panama, 1989
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president of Haiti, 1991
And in the 21st century…
Mullah Mohammed Omar, de facto head of state of Afghanistan, 2001
Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, 2003
There were allegations about CIA involvement in the sacking of the Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, in 1975. It may be impossible ever to know for sure, but I don’t think there’s enough evidence for more than some US officials knowing in advance and being happy with the dismissal.
Should’ve mentioned, we didn’t complain about all of their successors.
I’m fairly sure that we’re happy with Panama at least, so yeah.
You missed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, so I suspect there are a few more to be mentioned.
I found this guy: Kwame Nkrumah
Are you referring only to heads of state or government? Because if not, then you’re talking about potentially tens of thousands of government officials. And your second condition is rather broad; just about everyone in any position of power has been complained about by at least one American at least once.
To Elendil’s Heir’s list you can probably add Karl Dönitz, the President of Germany, in 1945, as well as his entire cabinet. He was deposed by the Allies, including the Americans, a few weeks after the conclusion of World War II. His state was succeeded by the FRG and the GDR, the latter of which was quite often complained about by the Americans.
The Allies probably deposed quite a number of other Axis leaders as well upon their defeat or surrender.
Patrice Lamumba in the Congo in 1961 – maybe. The US wanted to assassinate him, but it’s unclear how much they were involved in his death.
My mom was ragging on Carter for deposing the Shah of Iran and leaving us with our current issues with Iran–the idea being that everything in the world is a Democrat’s fault. I, on the other hand, am decently sure that every president, regardless of his party, has done something similar since WWII.
Raoul Cedras, Haiti, 1994.
Has US involvement in the 1991 Haiti coup ever been reliably sourced outside Aristide himself?
Depending on how indirectly you want to reach, you could potentially add Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic to that list. And, depending on how you view US support for German unification, Erich Honecker.
The US waffled about backing the shah in 1979. That may be too passive to count as “deposing.” If the Shah is included on this basis, then Baby Doc Duvalier should probably be on the list as well.
Yeah, its not like the Carter admin WANTED the Shah removed from power. Its just they were not prepared to back him unconditionally.
Actually, the US helped oust Mossadegh and put the Shah back on the throne in 1953, something a lot of Americans have regretted since.
In 1967, some Greek generals stepped in to prevent Papandreou from forming a government after elections the leftists did well in. The US involvement ranged from possibly staging the whole thing to just being happy it happened. Replacing an elected government with a brutal dictatorship (again) is something that many Americans can’t be happy about.
In 1965, there was a possible Communist backed coup in Indonesia, which led to the downfall of Sukarno and the rise of Suharto who became president 2 years later. Suharto was pro-western but not a big fan of human rights. Cf. East Timor. The US may not have been involved in the action at the time of the coup, but helped provide support in the violent suppression of the leftists which lead to Suharto solidifying power.
You can add Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines, in 1901. (His successors weren’t really complained about by Americans aside from the technically-American residents of the Philippines).
Cheddi Jagan Chief Minister of British Guiana in 1964.
A quick search indicates that the British changed the voting system before the 1964 elections, enabling rival parties (to his) to form a coalition and assume government despite his party having most votes, but no mention of American interference…
Further online reading, please (i.e. cite!)
I realize that as nits go it’s even tinier than usual, but they’re usually referred to as Colonels. I don’t know what the Greek title would be nor whether their rank would be more equivalent to a US General than a Colonel.
She was overthrown in an internal revolution, by Hawaiian citizens.
No, they’d be colonels, mostly occupying staff positions or acting as executive officers.
From Wiki: “The Greek military junta of 1967-1974 is also known as “The Regime of the Colonels” because most of its chief leaders were of Colonel rank, including two of the three chief leaders, George Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos.”
Pahlavi became the Shah of Iran when Mosaddeq was deposed. He was thrown out of office by the Iranian revolution, which was definitely not backed by the U.S.
Not really–