Editing Assassination (section)

==Further motivations==

===As a military and foreign policy doctrine===
{{See also|Manhunt (military)|Decapitation (military strategy)|Covert operation}}
[[File:Hokusai-sketches---hokusai-manga-vol6-crop.jpg|thumb|The functions of the [[ninja]] included espionage, [[sabotage]] and assassination.]]

Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused: [[Sun Tzu]], writing around 500&nbsp;BC, argued in favor of using assassination in his book ''[[The Art of War]]''. Over 2000 years later, in his book ''[[The Prince]]'', [[Machiavelli]] also advises rulers to assassinate enemies whenever possible to prevent them from posing a threat.<ref>Machiavelli, Niccolò (1985), The Prince, University of Chicago Press. Translated by Harvey Mansfield</ref> An army and even a nation might be based upon and around a [[cult of personality|particularly strong, canny, or charismatic leader]], whose loss could paralyze the ability of both to make war.

For similar and additional reasons, assassination has also sometimes been used in the conduct of [[foreign policy]]. The costs and benefits of such actions are difficult to compute. It may not be clear whether the assassinated leader gets replaced with a more or less competent successor, whether the assassination provokes ire in the state in question, whether the assassination leads to souring domestic public opinion, and whether the assassination provokes condemnation from third-parties.<ref name="iraja" /><ref name=Thomas2000/> One study found that perceptual biases held by leaders often negatively affect decision making in that area, and decisions to go forward with assassinations often reflect the vague hope that any successor might be better.<ref name="iraja">{{cite journal | title=Decision Making in Using Assassinations in International Relations | url=http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19545 | journal=[[Political Science Quarterly]] | volume=131| issue=3 | date=Fall 2016 | pages= 503–539 | last1=Schilling | first1=Warner R. | author-link=Warner R. Schilling | last2= Schilling | first2=Jonathan L. |doi = 10.1002/polq.12487}}</ref>

In both military and foreign policy assassinations, there is the risk that the target could be replaced by an even more competent leader, or that such a killing (or a failed attempt) will prompt the masses to contemn<!-- not a typo for "condemn" --> the killers and support the leader's cause more strongly. Faced with particularly brilliant leaders, that possibility has in various instances been risked, such as in the attempts to kill the Athenian [[Alcibiades]] during the [[Peloponnesian War]]. A number of additional examples from [[World War II]] show how assassination was used as a tool:
* The [[Operation Anthropoid|assassination of Reinhard Heydrich]] in Prague on May 27, 1942, by the British and Czechoslovak government-in-exile. That case illustrates the difficulty of comparing the benefits of a foreign policy goal (strengthening the legitimacy and influence of the [[Czechoslovak government-in-exile]] in London) against the possible costs resulting from an assassination (the [[Lidice massacre]]).<ref name="iraja"/>
* The American interception of Admiral [[Isoroku Yamamoto]]'s plane during World War II after his travel route had been decrypted.
* [[Operation Gaff]] was a planned British commando raid to capture or kill the German field marshal [[Erwin Rommel]], also known as "The Desert Fox".<ref name="Skor">''Commando Extraordinary'' – Foley, Charles; Legion for the Survival of Freedom, 1992, page 155</ref>

Use of assassination has continued in more recent conflicts:
* During the [[Vietnam War]], the US engaged in the [[Phoenix Program]] to assassinate [[Viet Cong]] leaders and sympathizers. It killed between 6,000 and 41,000 people, with official "targets" of 1,800 per month.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Barnett |first1=James |url=https://strausscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Barnett_James.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://strausscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Barnett_James.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=When Culture Eats Strategy: Examining the Phoenix/Phung Hoang Bureaucracy in the Vietnam War, 1967-1972 |website=Strauss Center |access-date=February 9, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=McCoy, Alfred W.|title=A question of torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror |publisher=Macmillan|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8050-8041-4|page=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVwUYSBwtKcC&pg=PA68|author-link=Alfred W. McCoy }}</ref><ref name=hersh03>{{cite magazine |author-link=Seymour Hersh |last=Hersh|first=Seymour|title=Moving Targets|magazine=The New Yorker|date=December 15, 2003|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/12/15/031215fa_fact?currentPage=all|access-date=February 9, 2021}}</ref>
* With the January 3, 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, the US [[Assassination of Qasem Soleimani|assassinated]] the commander of Iran's [[Quds Force]] General [[Qasem Soleimani]] and the commander of Iraq's [[Popular Mobilization Forces]] [[Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis]], along with eight other high-ranking military personnel. The assassination of the military leaders was part of escalating tensions between the US and Iran and the [[American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)|American-led intervention in Iraq]].<ref>{{cite news | title=Qassem Suleimani: 'Death to America' chants at Baghdad funeral procession | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/huge-crowds-expected-in-baghdad-for-funeral-of-iranian-general-killed-by-us | first=Ghait|last=Abdul-Ahat|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date= January 4, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Iran Says It Has Decided How to React to U.S. Strike That Killed Soleimani | url=https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/four-rockets-hit-military-base-near-baghdad-airport-report-says-1.8350357 | first=Amos|last=Harel|newspaper=[[Haaretz]]|date= January 4, 2020}}</ref>

===As a tool of insurgents===
Insurgent groups have often employed assassination as a tool to further their causes. Assassinations provide several functions for such groups: the removal of specific enemies and as propaganda tools to focus the attention of media and politics on their cause.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The [[Irish Republican Army (1917–22)|Irish Republican Army]] guerrillas in 1919 to 1921 killed many [[Royal Irish Constabulary]] Police intelligence officers during the [[Irish War of Independence]]. [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]] set up a special unit, [[The Squad (IRA unit)|the Squad]], for that purpose, which had the effect of intimidating many policemen into resigning from the force. The Squad's activities peaked with the killing of 14 British agents in [[Dublin]] on [[Bloody Sunday (1920)|Bloody Sunday]] in 1920.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The tactic was used again by the [[Provisional IRA]] during [[the Troubles]] in Northern Ireland (1969–1998). Assassination of [[unionism in the United Kingdom|unionist]] politicians and activists was one of a number of methods used in the [[Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997]]. The IRA also attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] by [[Brighton hotel bombing|bombing the Conservative Party Conference]] in a [[Brighton]] hotel.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-10-12 |title=Brighton Grand Hotel: 'We immediately knew it was a bomb' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62g443yq06o |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> [[Ulster loyalism|Loyalist paramilitaries]] retaliated by killing Catholics at random and assassinating [[Irish nationalist]] politicians.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What You Need to Know About The Troubles |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-troubles |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=Imperial War Museums |language=en}}</ref>

[[Basque people|Basque]] separatists [[ETA (separatist group)|ETA]] in Spain assassinated many security and political figures since the late 1960s, notably the president of the [[Francoist]] government of Spain, [[Luis Carrero Blanco]], 1st Duke of Carrero-Blanco Grandee of Spain, in 1973. In the early 1990s, it also began to target academics, journalists and local politicians who publicly disagreed with it.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve15p2Ed2/d196 |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=history.state.gov}}</ref>

The [[Red Brigades]] in Italy carried out assassinations of political figures and, to a lesser extent, so did the [[Red Army Faction]] in Germany in the 1970s and the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sundquist |first=Victor H. |date=2010 |title=Political Terrorism: An Historical Case Study of the Italian Red Brigades |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26463145 |journal=Journal of Strategic Security |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=53–68 |doi=10.5038/1944-0472.3.3.5 |jstor=26463145 |issn=1944-0464|doi-access=free }}</ref>

In the [[Vietnam War]], communist insurgents routinely assassinated government officials and individual civilians deemed to offend or rival the revolutionary movement. Such attacks, along with widespread military activity by insurgent bands, almost brought the [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] regime to collapse before the US intervened.<ref>Pike, Douglas (1970). ''Viet Cong'' (new edition). The MIT Press.</ref>