Dictators: A Successful American Export?

April 26, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

Joshua E. Keating notes that the United States has become a training ground of sorts for military dictators. Examples include:

  • Amadou Haya Sanogo who overthrew Mali’s government last month and received basic officer training in the United States.
  • Yahya Jammeh who received military police training in Alabama and remains in power after a coup in The Gambia 18 years ago. He has told his critics to go to hell and has vowed to rule for a billion years.
  • Michel Francois who received small arms and ammunition repair training in Maryland and helped lead a coup in Haiti in 1991.

To read many more examples, including the dictator who fled to the very place he swore to destroy, the School of the Americas that seems to produce a disproportionate number of coup leaders, and the man who survived 13 coup attempts, click here.

Source: Foreign Policy

Via: Freakonomics