Shocking: U.S. Government Assassination Plots Since End of World War II

William Blum

The U.S. bombing of Iraq, June 26, 1993, in retaliation for an alleged Iraqi plot to assassinate former president George Bush, “was essential,” said President Clinton, “to send a message to those who engage in state-sponsored terrorism … and to affirm the expectation of civilized behavior among nations.”

Following is a list of prominent foreign individuals whose assassination (or planning for same) the United States has been involved in since the end of the Second World War. The list does not include several assassinations in various parts of the world carried out by anti-Castro Cubans employed by the CIA and headquartered in the United States.

• 1949 – Kim Koo, Korean opposition leader
• 1950s – 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
• 1950s – Chou En-lai, Prime minister of China, several attempts on his life
• 1950s, 1962 – Sukarno, President of Indonesia
• 1951 – Kim Il Sung, Premier of North Korea
• 1953 – Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran
• 1950s (mid) – Claro M. Recto, Philippines opposition leader
• 1955 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
• 1957 – Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt
• 1959, 1963, 1969 – Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
• 1960 – Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader of Iraq
• 1950s-70s – José Figueres, President of Costa Rica, two attempts on his life
• 1961 – Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, leader of Haiti
• 1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo (Zaire)
• 1961 – Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic
• 1963 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
• 1960s-70s – Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, many attempts on his life
• 1960s – Raúl Castro, high official in government of Cuba
• 1965 – Francisco Caamaño, Dominican Republic opposition leader
• 1965-6 – Charles de Gaulle, President of France
• 1967 – Che Guevara, Cuban leader
• 1970 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile
• 1970 – Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile
• 1970s, 1981 – General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama
• 1972 – General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Panama Intelligence
• 1975 – Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire
• 1976 – Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica
• 1980-1986 – Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya, several plots and attempts upon his life
• 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 Sandinista National Directorate
• 1985 – Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Shiite leader (80 people killed in the attempt)
• 1991 – Saddam Hussein, leader of Iraq
• 1993 – Mohamed Farah Aideed, prominent clan leader of Somalia
• 1998, 2001-2 – Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant
• 1999 – Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia
• 2002 – Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan Islamic leader and warlord
• 2003 – Saddam Hussein and his two sons
• 2011 – Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya

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This is a chapter from Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum.

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