Elections That Didn't Seem To Count For Much

On 28 April 1951 the Parliament of a Middle Eastern nation named a new Prime Minister the man was not only popular with the public but had begun to amass considerable political power.  He considered himself patriot, maybe even a nationalist but not in that absolute way.  He believed that a nation's natural resources and the income they brought should remain with the country he was chosen to lead.  Outside forces believed otherwise and set in motion a means and a method to remove him from power and they were successful.  

The election in question is of Mohammad Mosaddegh Iranian Prime Minister from April 1951 to August 1953 when a coup engineered by Kermit Roosevelt led to his overthrow and house arrest  until his death in 1967.

Mossadegh's crime was the nationalization of Iran's oil industry taking control from British Petroleum and other foreign own oil producers.   He believed that Iran and its citizens should be the ones to profit from the countries natural resources and not enrich multinational corporations.  

 In March 1953, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was headed by his younger brother Allen Dulles, to draft plans to overthrow Mosaddegh.^[52] On 4 April 1953, Allen Dulles approved $1 million to be used "in any way that would bring about the fall of Mosaddegh". Soon the CIA's Tehran station started to launch a propaganda campaign against Mosaddegh. Finally, according to The New York Times, in early June, American and British intelligence officials met again, this time in Beirut, and put the finishing touches on the strategy. Soon afterward, according to his later published accounts, the chief of the CIA's Near East and Africa division, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. the grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, arrived in Tehran to direct it.^[53] In 2000, The New York Times made partial publication of a leaked CIA document titled Clandestine Service History – Overthrow of Premier Mosaddegh of Iran – November 1952-August 1953. This document describes the point-by-point planning of the coup by agent Donald Wilber, and execution conducted by the American and British governments. The New York Times published this critical document with the names omitted. The New York Times also limited its publication to scanned image (bitmap) format, rather than machine-readable text. This document was eventually published properly – in text form, and fully unexpurgated. The word blowback in the context of covert operations appeared for the very first time in this document

Mohammad Mosaddegh was immensely popular with the Iranian popular, so popular that once the Shah of Iran issued the decree dismissing him from office was forced to flee the country.  Mohammad Mosaddegh,s removal from office till this day taints relations between Iran and the United States.



Ngo Dinh Diem  was President of South Vietnam  from 1955 to 1963 he was America's kind of president a staunch  anticommunist   who was willing do what was necessary to rid the Vietnam of the communist menace be it through torture, mass arrests or or the killing of suspected communist sympathizers.

America and Vietnam's military who were growing disenchanted with Diem set about fostering a coup against him once again with the assistance of the CIA.

  As the Buddhist crisis deepened in July 1963, noncommunist Vietnamese nationalists and the military began preparations for a coup. Bùi Diễm, later South Vietnam's Ambassador to the United States, reported in his memoirs that General Lê Văn Kim requested his aid in learning what the U.S. might do about Diệm's government.^[59] Diễm had contacts in both the embassy and with the high-profile American journalists then in South Vietnam, David Halberstam (New York Times), Neil Sheehan (United Press International) and Malcolm Browne (Associated Press).^[60] On 20 August 1963, Nhu's security forces raided the Xá Lợi pagoda in Saigon. They chose to wear Army uniforms during the raid to make it appear as if the Army were behind the crackdown. Nhu's forces arrested more than 400 monks who had been sitting cross-legged in front of a statue of the Buddha. Thousands of other Buddhists were arrested throughout the countryHenry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the American ambassador to South Vietnam, refused to meet with Diệm. Upon hearing that a coup d'état was being designed by ARVN generals led by General Dương Văn Minh, and supported by the CIA, Lodge gave secret assurances to the generals that the U.S. would not interfere. Lucien Conein, a CIA operative, had become a liaison between the U.S. Embassy and the generals, who were led by Trần Văn Đôn.^[61] Conein provided a group of South Vietnamese generals with US$40,000 to carry out the coup with the promise that U.S. forces would make no attempt to protect Diệm.^[62] Minh and his co-conspirators overthrew the government on 1 November 1963 in a swift coup. On 1 November, with only the palace guard remaining to defend Diệm and his younger brother, Nhu, the generals called the palace offering Diệm exile if he surrendered. However, that evening, Diệm and his entourage escaped via an underground passage to Cholon, where they were captured the following morning, 2 November. The brothers were assassinated together in the back of an armoured personnel carrier with a bayonet and revolver by Captain Nguyễn Văn Nhung, under orders from Dương Văn Minh, while en route to the Vietnamese Joint General Staff headquarters.^[63][64]Diệm was buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery next to the house of the U.S. ambassador

   Vietnam following Diem's removal from office and assassination never again had a stable government and the war which had been a low level insurgency would escalate into all out war with the United States ending in their defeat and withdrawal from Vietnam in April of 1975.


Seoul in 1988 was getting ready to host the Summer Olympic games and was ruled by a military dictatorship which had came to power in 1960 with a coup led by Park Chung-hee until his assassination by the head of the KCIA on October 29 1979 and was succeed by Chun Doo-hwan and then Roh Tae-woo  both army generals.


Under pressure from its ally the United States, the International Olympic Organization and other world powers Roh Tae-woo agreed to presidential elections to be held in April 1988.

Three opposition leaders emerged to challenge President Roh:  Kim Dae-jung who would be elected president in 1998 and create the Sunshine policy in an effort to foster better relations with North Korea.

Kim Young-sam leader of the Reunification Democratic party would be inaugurated President in February of 1993 and serve a single 5 year term.

The third person was Kim Jong-pil leader of the New Democratic Republican party and former Prime Minister.

Collectively known as the three Kim's they were unable or unwilling to come to an agreement to form a unified opposition party allowing Roh Tae-woo to win the election because the three Kim's split the opposition vote.   Allowing Roh Tae-woo the now former army general to retain the presidency.