American presidents have never been shy about unseating foreign heads of state, by either overt or covert means. But such efforts can backfire. The 1961 attempt to topple Fidel Castro, organized under President Eisenhower and executed under President Kennedy, led to a slaughter of CIA-trained invasion forces at the Bay of Pigs and a triumph for Castro’s communist government. Despite being driven from power by President George W. Bush in retribution for the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban roared back in 2023, again making Afghanistan a haven for terrorist groups. One of the least known but most consequential U.S.-backed coups occurred in 1963, when the Kennedy administration secretly encouraged South Vietnam’s generals to rise up against their authoritarian president, Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was murdered during the revolt along with his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, who ran the country’s counterinsurgency program against the communist Viet Cong. Their demise had far-reaching consequences that U.S. officials did not foresee. The Diem coup effectively decapitated the South Vietnamese government, unleashing a host of long-suppressed blocs – military, political, and religious – whose ensuing competition badly destabilized the country. President Trump has decapitated the Venezuelan regime, with consequences yet to be known. While he has pledged to “run” Venezuela, we have few details of how he plans to do that. Note: For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on war. - Quincy Center for Responsible Statecraft