Talk:Puppet state/the list


Accusations of puppet states since 1900

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As one of two major participants in the Cold War, and a significant power in the Western Hemisphere since then, the United States has been accused many times of controlling foreign puppet states. For instance, between 1903 and 1968, the US-appointed governor of the Panama Canal Zone was said to have more power than the elected head of state. Similarly, US interventions in Haiti (between 1915 and 1934 and from 2004 to the present) and the Dominican Republic (1916-1924 and 1965-1978) have led to similar accusations.

Especially during the Cold War, the US was accused of controlling South Korea and South Vietnam as puppet states, especially during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Even now, however, North Korea's government reiterates the accusation about South Korea. The convened National Assembly in Cambodia deposed Norodom Sihanouk in 1970 in favor of the pro-US Prime Minister Lon Nol, another example of a regime accused of being a US puppet state.

Grenada's (1983-1984) interim government led by Sir Nicholas Brathwaite was established after the Invasion of Grenada in 1983 under considerable US influence, leading to similar accusations. In more recent times, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq have led to largely U.S.-led nation-building efforts in these two nations, fostering accusations among critics of the administration that the governments established under U.S. occupation, particularly the Iraqi Interim Government, were American puppet states.

Before and especially during the Cold War, the accusation was often made by the Western Bloc that the entire Eastern Bloc consisted of nothing but Soviet puppet states. Chief among these were the Warsaw Pact satellite states: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany (1945-1989). The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia during Prague Spring in 1968 was seen as a response to Czechoslovakia deviating from the strict course set by Moscow, in effect publicly enforcing its authority over the puppet states. The Soviet point of view, as expressed in the Brezhnev Doctrine, differed from the Western interpretation.

Other communist states accused of being Soviet puppet states included:

Yugoslavia was uniquely a socialist country that rather than joining the communist bloc started the Non-Aligned Movement to stay out of Cold War politics. North Korea is another socialist state that has charted an independent course, embracing complete isolationism under the Juche ideology. Cuba since the fall of the Soviet Union has continued to exist as a small, independent socialist state.

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnam was accused of holding puppet states in Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia and Laos.

During Japan's imperial period, and particularly during the Pacific War (parts of which are considered the Pacific theatre of World War II), Japan established a number of states that historians have come to consider puppet states.

Most of the West-European governments under the domination of Nazi Germany, particularly the fascist-leaning, during World War II are now and then called puppet régimes, not the least in Allied literature:

Other recent puppet states

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Other examples since 1900 include:

Historic puppet states

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Examples from earlier centuries include:

See also

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Comintern Cominform Soviet Empire World War II Cold War Warsaw Pact COMECON Banana republic Satellite state