Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow: The Imperialist Regime

Throughout the past hundred years the U.S. has participated or organized many regime changes. In Stephen Kinzer’s “Overthrow” he shows how the U.S. participated in various regime changes throughout the world, whether it was orchestrated by the U.S. or if they were helping an ally. The U.S. participated in various “overthrows” over the last hundred years because during these eras many American business were threatened, there was concern for other countries falling into communism and the U.S. wanted to spread its cultural influence to other countries.
During the Imperialist Era the United States went into Hawaii in order to annex Hawaii and profit more from the money coming in from the sugar plantations. In order to accomplish this overthrow, John Stevens, who was the United States minister to the kingdom of Hawaii, sent an over …show more content…
At this time there was concern for countries falling into communism. A Vietnamese general was used to get insider information and turn against his country. Once enough information was collected, there was a raid on the house of the president of Vietnam. The president escaped through tunnels and fled to a church. He was tracked to the church and killed. The initial report claimed that he committed suicide, but then pictures were released showing him tied up with gunshots that could not have been from committing suicide. This coup resulted in controversy of who was behind it and whether or not the orders should have been given to go along with it. Kinzer states, “The Americans who approved Diem’s overthrow did so because they were determined to win the Vietnam War, and concluded that Diem was an obstacle to victory” (207). Kennedy was upset about the death of Ngo Dinh Diem because he was an American ally, Kennedy and personally supported him, and because he was a fellow Catholic. Kennedy did not consider the possibility that the coup, which was American-backed, would end this