1970-1990s The School of the Americas

Fearing communist threats to the Panama Canal and other U.S. strategic interests (read: business interests), America's lethal aid to Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica ignited civil wars that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The School of the Americas has trained more than 61,000 Latin American soldiers and policemen who have led or participated in many of these violent actions.

1981-1989 Lust For Strife: The Endless South African Unrest

President Reagan praised apartheid South Africa for being "a country that, strategically, is essential to the free world in its production of minerals." Labeling Nelson Mandela's African National Congress a terrorist organization, the U.S. supported South African UNITA rebels in their seizure of some of the world's richest diamond mines from Soviet-allied Angola. UNITA ruled over thousands of illegal diamond miners, selling their finds to corporations, while undermining the government's control of its mining sector.

You think all that CIA money would mean he could afford a suit (Getty Images)

1983 Grenades For Grenada

In late October, the U.S. invaded Grenada, ostensibly to depose Cuban ally and U.S. business anathema, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop - or so they told the American public. But according to Jonathan Kwitny's book Endless Enemies, in reality, Bishop's opponents, Deputy Prime Minister Coard and General Austin, had already overthrown and murdered Bishop. (This sparked speculation that Coard, who was captured but not made available for public questioning, may have been in U.S. pay.) President Reagan also fancied a guaranteed military victory, one that would shut up critics of U.S. proxy wars in Central America, before running for reelection. 

1989 Cocaine In the Membrane

In the 1970s when George H.W. Bush was CIA director, Panamanian military dictator Manuel Noriega was anti-Soviet, pro-big-business stance - and a paid informant. He also received Drug Enforcement Administration money to restrict illegal drug shipments while simultaneously accepting payments from drug dealers. After a contested 1989 election that saw Noriega scrambling to stay in power, President H.W. Bush approved Operation Nifty Package and the Americans invaded. After a multi-day manhhunt and thousands of civilian deaths, soldiers surrounded and blasted him out of his refuge at Panama City's Vatican mission with a 24/7 barrage of deafening rock music.