Eliminating Enemies: CIA Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders

Throughout the Cold War, the United States felt impelled to respond to threats which were, or seemed to be, skirmishes in a global war against Communism. Castro's Cuba raised the spectre of a Soviet outpost at America's doorstep. Events in the Dominican Republic appeared to offer an additional opportunity for the Russians and their allies. The Congo, freed from Belgian rule, occupied the strategic center of the African continent, and the prospect of Communist penetration there was viewed as a threat to American interests in emerging African nations. There was great concern that a Communist takeover in Indochina would have a "domino effect" throughout Asia. Even the election in 1970 of a Marxist president in Chile was seen by some as a threat similar to that of Castro's takeover in Cuba. This volume documents the full range of covert activities taken in response to the operations of Communist clandestine services.