,
5 tweets,
1 min read
Read on Twitter
There is a long history of the US government and its intelligence agencies working together to fix elections and/or remove governments they object to. Originally, it was ideological, with the goal to prevent the spread of communism, starting with Italian election after WWII.
In 1948, the CIA gave funds to Italian "center parties" and allegedly published forged letters in order to discredit the leaders of the Italian Communist Party. National Security Act of 1947 made foreign covert operations possible. web.archive.org/web/2001083115…
Italy was just the start. The techniques were perfected and used over and over again. An election became an opportunity for intelligence services to insert 'their man' into power. But why wait for elections?
In the Cold War, CIA regularly helped topple foreign governments they did not like. Some examples are the 1953 Iranian coup (CIA Operation Ajax), Guatemala 1954 (CIA Operation PB Success).
As far as intelligence services are concerned, elections are an opportunity and it's part of their bag of tricks to topple democratically-elected governments.
