Talk:Puppet state/the list

Accusations of puppet states since 1900

United States

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.

Soviet Union

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:

• Far Eastern Republic (1920-1923) - Set up by the Bolsheviks in the Russian Far East.
• Hungarian Soviet Republic (1919) - Short-lived government under the leadership of Béla Kun.
• Mongolian People's Republic (1924-1992).
• Democratic People's Republic of Korea at its founding in 1948 with the assistance of the USSR.
• People's Republic of China - The Communist Party of China finally defeated the Kuomintang in 1949. Despite the fact that the Chinese communist movement had developed largely independently of the Soviet Union, the position that the PRC was a Soviet puppet state was commonly taken by American propaganda of the 1950s. The PRC and the USSR later broke relations in 1962, an incident known as the Sino-Soviet Split.
• Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1950-1976) - Established with substantial support from both the USSR and PRC, later absorbed the Republic of Vietnam to become the united Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976-present).
• Communist Cuba (1959-1991) - Supported by the Soviet Union (substantially after the Cuban Missile Crisis).
• People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1969-1990).
• People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1975-1990).
• Mozambique under FRELIMO (1975-1991) - Supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
• Angola under the MPLA (1975-1991) - Supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
• Nicaragua under the Sandinistas (1979-1990) - Supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
• Grenada after the New Jewel Movement-led coup (1979-1983), under the leadership of later-deposed Maurice Bishop as well as Bernard Coard, supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
• Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1979-1990).

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.

Vietnam

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

• Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979); People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1989) - The Khmer Rouge (Communist Party of Cambodia) under Pol Pot received significant assistance from the North Vietnamese Army but felt betrayed by the abandonment of the movement after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords. When the party captured Phnom Penh in 1975 it appeared as a homogenous victory of communist forces that year on the Indochinese peninsula, yet tensions mounted between Cambodia and the united Vietnamese government, with the People's Republic of China supporting the position of Phnom Penh and the USSR that of Hanoi. This culminated in an invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam (and subsequently Vietnam by China) in which a more Vietnamese-friendly regime was installed under the leadership of Hun Sen.
• Lao People's Democratic Republic under the Pathet Lao (1975-present) - Defeated the loyalist forces in Laos in 1975 with the assistance of North Vietnam, having a Hanoi-friendly (and USSR-supplied) regime since.

Imperial Japan

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.

• Manchukuo (1931-1945), set up in Manchuria under the leadership of Emperor Puyi.
• Mengjiang (1936-1945), similar to Manchukuo but in Inner Mongolia.
• Reformed Government of the Republic of China (1937-1945) - Established in Nanjing by collaborationists under Wang Jingwei.
• Burma (1942-1945) - Head of state Ba Maw.

Axis-occupied Europe 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:

• Belgium (1939-1945) - The violent Rexist movement had achieved some electoral success in the 1930s and many of its members assisted the Nazi occupation during World War II.
• Croatia (April 10, 1941-May 8, 1945)- The Independent State of Croatia, often referred to simply by the abbreviation NDH, was a World War II puppet state of Germany and Italy, which was established in parts of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.10.88.241 (talk) 14:13, 27 February 2016 (UTC)
• Albania (1939-1944) - Puppet of Italy during the rule of King Zog and the subsequent invasion.
• Slovakia under the Slovak People's Party (1939-1944) - The Slovak People's Party was a quasi-fascist nationalist movement associated with the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor Jozef Tiso became the Nazis' quisling in a nominally independent Slovakia.
• France under the Vichy régime of Philippe Pétain (1940-1944).
• Independent State of Croatia under the Ustasha (1941-1945).
• Norway (1943-1945) - Vidkun Quisling had already during the German invasion on April 9th, 1940, attempted a coup d'état, but was appointed to head a government first from February 1, 1943.
• Italian Social Republic (1943-1945) - After the Badoglio government withdrew from the Axis Powers, the Germans occupied Italy, and founded the Italian Social Republic.
• The Arrow Cross regime of Ferenc Szálasi in Hungary (1944-1945).
• Romania under the régime of Conducător Ion Antonescu (1940-1944).

Other recent puppet states

Other examples since 1900 include:

• Kingdom of Poland 1916-1918, controlled by the German Empire.
• Iraq (1932-1958) and Transjordan (1921-1951), ruled by British-installed Hashemite kings.
• Bantustans (1951-1994) of apartheid-era South Africa.
• Katanga (1960-1963), backed by the United States and Belgium.
• Namibia, which continued to be controlled by South Africa even after the United Nations dissolved its trust territory (1966-1990).
• Cyprus during the short-lived Greek-installed government of 1974.
• Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - On territory occupied by the armed forces of Turkey in 1974.
• Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (1976-present) financed and supplied by Algeria.
• Lebanon (1976-2005) under de facto rule of Syria.
• Seychelles (1977-1993) whose government was installed and influenced heavily by Tanzania.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991-present), according to opponents of that government, is effectively ruled by Western countries in general through the unelected international high representative, who has the power to dismiss state officials and strike down policy decisions of the elected authorities.
• Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under Taliban rule (1996-2001) - Controlled by Pakistan before 1998, then allied with Al-Qaeda.
• Venezuela (2002) during the coup which fell after one day.
• Central African Republic after the Chad-sponsored coup in 2003.
• Solomon Islands since the 2003 Australian Peacekeeping Mission.

Historic puppet states

Examples from earlier centuries include:

• Kingdom of Poland, controlled by Imperial Russia.
• Duchy of Warsaw, controlled by Napoleonic France.
• Kingdom of Holland, controlled by Napoleonic France.
• Batavian Republic, controlled by Revolutionary France.
• The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, controlled by the Ottoman Empire, who kept their Christian culture and population.
• The Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian (1864-1867) installed by the Second French Empire.
• Nicaragua under William Walker, backed by the US.
• Kingdom of Granada during the late phase of Reconquista, a vassal of Castile that channeled African gold into Europe.
• Honduras under the de facto control of Guatemala during 1876-1891.
• The Goryeo Dynasty of Korea was for a time controlled by the Mongol Empire.
• Herodian Judea, vassal of the Roman Empire.
• Macedon, vassal of the Persian Empire.
• Nubia, controlled by Ancient Egypt.

See also

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