Regime Change, an Abbreviated Saga

Revolution. Invasion. Coup d’état. Countless governments have been changed by force over the centuries. It’s called regime change when an external power ousts one government and replaces it with another. The wishes of the target population don’t matter; what counts is the interest of the intervening power. It doesn’t always turn out well.

Honduras, 1911: control of resources. Americans developed a taste for bananas. Honduras had the climate and soil to grow them. The U.S.-based United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) acquired land and built infrastructure to make the economy completely dependent on bananas for export. In 1911, U.S. Marines helped install a Honduran president willing to take orders from United Fruit. The American author O. Henry coined the term “banana republic” with Honduras in mind.

Iran, 1953: superpower rivalry. The Cold War pitted Western capitalism against Soviet-style state control. After the elected parliament of Iran voted to nationalize the country’s oil industry, Britain and the U.S. collaborated to orchestrate a coup. The pro-Western monarch Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi promoted economic growth, squelched dissent, and controlled elections for the next quarter century. Islamist militants overthrew him in 1979.

Iraq, 2003: national security. After a U.S.-led coalition thwarted an Iraqi conquest of neighboring Kuwait in 1991, some regretted letting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein stay in charge. Fears grew that he was abetting terrorists and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Al-Qaeda’s attack on the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, added a sense of urgency. With Congressional authorization, the U.S. and a few allies invaded Iraq. Saddam was captured and executed. In the power vacuum left by the 2003 invasion, U.S. troops fought and died in Iraq for eight more years. No weapons of mass destruction or links to al-Qaeda were ever found.

Other examples abound. It is easier to eject an old regime than to establish an effective new one.

Image: Photo by @mhrezaa on Unsplash.