In practice, the US has on occasion encountered difficulty in its Imperial progress, most often due to country leaders proving resistant to American colonisation. In such cases, if payments of cash and the promise of free weapons fail to turn a patriot into a traitor, the obstacle must unfortunately be eliminated. Following is a list of prominent foreign individuals whom the US assassinated or, in a few instances, tried to kill and failed, including three attempts on the life of China’s Premier Zhou En-lai.
The list does not include assassinations the US subcontracted to Israel’s Mossad or to other groups, and also does not include a long list of more than 100 lesser figures whom the CIA has routinely eliminated throughout South and Central America, Asia and Africa. Only two nations in the world have ever had an official policy of state-sponsored assassinations, and they still have them today – the US and Israel.
The official CIA Assassination Manual, released to the public under a court order, contained detailed instructions on the methods of elimination of political obstacles. Here is one such example:
“For secret assassinations…the contrived accident is the most effective technique. When successfully executed, it causes little excitement and is only casually investigated. The most effective accident .. is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface. Elevator shafts, stair wells, unscreened windows and bridges will serve. The act may be executed by sudden, vigorous grabbing of the ankles, tipping the subject over the edge.”
The following is adapted in part from a list prepared by William Blum for his book “Killing Hope”.
- 1949 – Kim Koo, Korean opposition leader
- 1950 – Zhou En-lai, Prime Minister of China (3 attempts)
- 1950 – Sukarno, President of Indonesia
- 1950 – Claro Recto, Philippines opposition leader
- 1950 – Jose Figueres, President of Costa Rica, two attempts
- 1951 – Kim Il Sung, Premier of North Korea
- 1953 – Zhou En-lai, Prime Minister of China
- 1953 – Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran
- 1955 – Jose Antonio Remon, President of Panama
- 1955 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
- 1955 – Jose Figueres, President of Costa Rica
- 1957 – Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt
- 1959 – Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
- 1960 – Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader of Iraq
- 1960 – Fidel Castro, President of Cuba (638 attempts)
- 1960 – Raul Castro, high official in government of Cuba
- 1961 – Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, leader of Haiti
- 1961 – Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations
- 1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo (Zaire)
- 1961 – Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic
- 1962 – Sukarno, President of Indonesia
- 1963 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
- 1963 – Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
- 1965 – Pierre Ngendandumwe, Prime Minister of Burundi
- 1965 – Francisco Caamanao, Dominican Republic opposition leader
- 1965 – Charles de Gaulle, President of France
- 1967 – Che Guevara, Cuban leader
- 1969 – Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
- 1970 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile
- 1970 – Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile
- 1970 – General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama
- 1972 – General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Panama Intelligence
- 1973 – Jose Figueres, President of Costa Rica
- 1975 – Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire
- 1975 – King Faisal of Saudi Arabia
- 1976 – Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica
- 1979 – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Leader of Pakistan
- 1980 – Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya, several attempts
- 1981 – Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile
- 1981 – General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama
- 1982 – Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran
- 1983 – Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, Moroccan Army commander
- 1983 – Miguel d’Escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
- 1984 – The nine comandantes of the Nicaraguan Government – the Sandinista National Directorate
- 1985 – Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Shiite leader (80 people killed in the attempt)
- 1986 – Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya, several attempts
- 1988 – General Mohammed Zia Ul-Haq, Military Leader of Pakistan
- 1991 – Saddam Hussein, leader of Iraq
- 1993 – Mohamed Farah Aideed, prominent clan leader of Somalia
- 1998 – Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant
- 1999 – Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia
- 1999 – Mullah Mohammad Omar, in Kandhar, Afghanistan
- 2001 – Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant
- 2002 – Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan Islamic leader and warlord
- 2003 – Saddam Hussein and his two sons
- 2011 – Moammar Ghaddafi, his cabinet members and his family
On the topic of Dag Hammarskjold, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, in early 2015 news reports revealed that Sweden had formally asked the UN to reopen the investigation into the man’s death, and with a specific request to all UN nations to release all documents in their possession.
A New York Times article noted that this event had been “an open wound” in Sweden for more than 50 years and that the nation would like some closure. The same article noted what it called “persuasive evidence” that Hammarskjold’s aircraft had been attacked.
Many questions were raised at the time about the unusual delay to inspect the wreckage. Although the plane crashed only a few kilometers from the airport, local authorities refused to approach the wreckage until the following morning. It also made references to the involvement of lucrative commercial concessions as well as the NSA’s refusing to release its documents on the matter.
On the death of Pakistan’s leader Mohammed Zia Ul-Haq, the CIA doesn’t mind sacrificing its own on occasion. Zia Ul-Haq and many of his most senior staff were on a US military C-130 transport along with the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnie Raphel, when the plane crashed and exploded shortly after take-off. The cause of the crash was never publicly stated but media reports claimed the US sent a team of investigators to assist the Pakistanis but that the two sides reached “sharply different conclusions”.
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Larry Romanoffis a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. His writing has been translated into more than 20 languages and is available on more than 100 foreign-language websites around the world. He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com.
Larry Romanoff is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new COVID-19 anthology ”When China Sneezes”.
Copyright © Larry Romanoff,Moon of Shanghai, 2020
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