Posted by Nothing unsettles a country’s politics and people like the assassination of their leader. That leader doesn’t always have to be political; often it’s just a strong and influential voice, but that person’s death can send shock waves through a country and sometimes the international community at large. As we near the anniversary of the assassination of JFK, here’s a short list of the most politically disastrous assassinations in history.
JFK
Ask any middle aged American where they were when they heard President Kennedy got shot and they’ll probably be able to tell you. For many that Friday, November 22nd stands as one of the defining political moments in U.S. history; movies have been made about it, books have been written, t-shirts printed.
But it wasn’t just the grisly imagery of the assassination or the mystery surrounding what happened that that so deeply scarred Americans. With the death of Kennedy, the United States radically altered its political trajectory. Robert McNamara [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara] himself has stated that in the wake of the President’s 1963 speech about world peace at American University, Kennedy seriously considered pulling all American troops out of Vietnam. Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy’s hawkish vice-President and eventual replacement, not only overturned Kennedy’s decision to begin withdrawal from Vietnam, but began escalating the conflict. This decision would splinter the Democratic Party and the nation and pave the way for the ascendance of Richard Nixon and almost a decade of Republicanism.
Julius Ceasar
He came. He saw. He conquered. They killed him. Unfortunately, when the senators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, finally gave Julius the stabbing of a lifetime, Caesar had already been declared “dictator in perpetuity”–a title that would make even the coldest of tyrants warm and fuzzy inside. The assassins who had wished to restore their glorious Republic had actually done the worst possible thing, ensuring that their democratic government disappeared.
In Caesar’s absence a power vacuum opened up. Civil war rocked Rome and when the dust settled not only had the Republic not been restored, but the people had set up autocracy with Gaius Octavianus, Caesar’s nephew, as the new emperor of Rome. Two years later Julius Ceasar was declared a deity, and the era of God Emperors had begun.
Benazir Bhutto
When Benazir Bhutto was assassinated the Pakistani people rioted for days. Twenty people died, cars were burnt and reports say rioters wrecked nine election offices, 176 banks and 34 gas stations.
Bhutto was the first woman ever elected to lead a Muslim state. She served as Pakistan’s first and only female Prime Minister from 1988-90 and 1993-96. In 1998 she fled to Dubai and spent almost a decade in exile because of corruption charges. Bhutto eventually returned to Pakistan in October 2007, after President Musharraf to run a third time for PM.
She campaigned on a platform of women’s social and health issues, and criticism of the Taliban. From the moment Bhutto stepped off the plane in Karachi she faced intimidation and death threats.
Bhutto was killed while standing up, waving to the massive crowds through the sunroof as her bulletproof car as she returned from a Pakistan Peoples Party rally. Someone fired into the crowd and explosives were detonated near the vehicle and Bhutto was killed. The international community saw the assassination as an attack on Pakistan’s democracy.
Franz Ferdinand
How many people could say that their death sparked a worldwide conflict? It wasn’t because he was so important or because he was such a nice guy, but the timing and circumstances surrounding the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand had the whole world at each others’ throats.
Ferdinand had the poor timing to die as the forces of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism were peaking in Europe. It could be argued that any dignitary of a similar rank killed around that time could have set off the chain of events that drove an entire continent to pick sides and declare war within the space of less than a year, that the increasingly modern nations in Europe were itching for a war. But be that as it may, Ferdinand holds the distinction.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi was the epitome of a peaceful freedom fighter. He led India’s independence movement and pioneered a form of non-violent resistence that would inspire political activists for generations afterwards.
On January 1948 while out taking his regular walk around the Birla House in New Delhi Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist extremist, shot Gandhi because he felt the pacifist was weakening the country. Gandhi had “fasted-unto-death” in order to end riots between the Muslim and Hindu factions that were fighting because problems surrounding the partitioning of India. When Gandhi died the nation went into mourning and India lost one of its seminal leaders.
Abraham Lincoln
Oh how many American school children have reenacted the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as part of their President’s Day ceremonies in the U.S.? Or maybe that’s just in the Simpsons. Regardless, the death of Lincoln at the hands of actor and confederate spy John Wilkes Booth was the first, but not the last, time a controversial American President was assassinated. But that’s not the only first to come out of this situation. It was also the first, but not the last, time a Vice-President would come to power and leave in disgrace.
After Lincoln’s death his Vice-President Andrew Johnson came to power. Johnson is often ranked as the worst president in American history and stands as the first U.S. President to be impeached.
Lincoln’s presidency had seen the emancipation of the slaves the end of the the Civil War and redefined Republicanism. His death made him a national martyr and probably help secure his position as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history.
Patrice Lumumba
Lumumba was the first ever legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo. He was ardently anti-colonialist and helped his country gain independence from Belgium in 1960. Just 10 weeks after securing his country’s independence, however, Lumumba was deposed as PM, arrested and subsequently murdered.
After gaining independence, Lumumba decided not to raise the pay of army officers. Those in the military revolted and uprisings started all over the country. When the UN would not help him keep the peace, he turned to the Soviets for help.
Many historians agree that the detention and assassination of Lumumba was supported by both the U.S. and Belgian governments. Both governments feared that the Republic of Congo was falling to the communists. The Republic of Congo would remain unstable, seeing coups, assassinations and outside meddling for years to come.
Jorge Eliécer Gaitan
Colombia’s struggle for stability after independence was not a pretty one. The late 1800s were riddled with civil wars and political unrest. But after the Thousand Day Civil war, which ended in 1902, the country breathed a collective sigh of relief as things began to settle.
That is until Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a liberal presidential candidate in the 1948 elections was assassinated. Gaitan was a populist leader and former Labour and Education Minister of Colombia who believed in changing the country from an oligarchy into a democracy.
His death in April of 1948 sparked a period in Colombian history referred to as La Violencia that lasted a decade and claimed the lives of close to 200,000 Colombians. The CIA is suspected of having a hand in Gaitan’s death, fearing the would-be President’s socialist ideals.
Anwar Sadat
Sadat stands as a controversial figure in Middle Eastern politics. During his 11 years a President of Egypt he reinstituted the multi-party political system in Egypt, liberalized the economy, engineered a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and launched a war to regain the Sinai peninsula for Egypt.
Sadat is reviled by much of the Arab world for making peace with Israel and westernizing the country. Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric who was convicted in the U.S. for his role in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 issued a fatwa on Sedat.
He was assassinated in October of 1981 during the country’s annual victory parade despite his four layers of security, the troop trucks accompanying him and the Mirage jets flying overhead. It was the first time in history that an Egyptian leader had been assassinated by one of their own.
José Antonio Remón Cantera
Remon Cantera was president of Panama at a critical point in the county’s history. Gaining the Presidency in 1952, he spent much of his term fighting to amend the Panama Canal treaty with President Eisenhower to raise the annual annuity paid to the Panamanian government by the U.S. and take back property from the Panama Canal Company. He was famous for his statement “Neither millions nor alms – we want justice” and fought to improve the treatment of Panama internationally.
Remon Cantera’s death is still shrouded in mystery to this day. He was gunned down by a machine gun in broad daylight at a race track in Panama City in January 1955. His murderer was never caught and CIA documents released recently claim that the President may have been assassinated by Lucky Luciano after Remon Cantera siezed a shipment of the gangster’s heroin.
