US-Backed Regime Changes

Method: CIA coup (Operation Ajax)

Leadership: PM Mossadegh → Shah Pahlavi

Blowback: 1979 Islamic Revolution. 44 years of hostility. Nuclear crisis.

Method: CIA coup (Operation PBSUCCESS)

Leadership: President Árbenz → Military junta

Blowback: 36-year civil war. 200,000+ dead. Ongoing instability driving migration.

Method: CIA-supported military coup

Leadership: President Allende → General Pinochet

Blowback: 17-year dictatorship. 3,200+ killed. 40,000 tortured.

Method: Failed CIA invasion

Leadership: Target: Castro

Blowback: Pushed Cuba toward USSR. Cuban Missile Crisis. 60+ years of failed embargo.

Method: Military intervention

Leadership: Elected leader → US-backed regime

Blowback: Decades of authoritarian rule.

Method: NATO bombing campaign

Leadership: Gaddafi → State collapse

Blowback: Failed state. Open-air slave markets. ISIS stronghold. Migration crisis.

Method: Full-scale invasion

Leadership: Saddam Hussein → Sectarian chaos

Blowback: ISIS. 300,000+ civilian deaths. Iran empowered. $2 trillion spent.

Method: Full-scale invasion + 20-year occupation

Leadership: Taliban → Taliban (again)

Blowback: $2.3 trillion. 176,000 dead. Taliban returned to power in 2021.