Assassination

Assassination is defined as the murder of a prominent person, such as a head of state, politician, or celebrity. It usually takes place when the perpetrator lies in wait for the victim and may be carried out by a person paid by a third party to carry out the assassination. In US history, assassins have murdered presidents, notably Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, and prominent activists including human rights leaders Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Harvey Milk. In world history, assassination victims include Roman dictator Julius Caesar, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, and Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.

The motives of assassins vary. They may seek political or social change or have personal grudges. Assassinations lead to a variety of outcomes, including world wars, regime changes, and crackdowns on dissidents. The death of a leader can also lead to social change.

The assassination of leaders can profoundly affect nations and individuals alike. Psychologists say that they can trigger flashbulb memorya person’s permanent, vivid recall of what they were doing at the moment they heard the news.

Brief History

Assassinations likely took place long before recorded history, when humans first developed societies. Leaders of communal groups may have assumed power by removing other existing leaders. In some civilizations, politically motivated assassinations have led to the complete restructuring of social and political systems.

Possibly the most famous political assassination of ancient times was that of Julius Caesarkilled in 44 BCE. Caesar was a victorious military general and statesman who rose through the political ranks by making shrewd alliances and defeating his enemies in civil wars. Caesar was so popular with the people of Rome that he became a dictator, which contradicted Rome’s existing republican government. Many senators grew concerned about his power and influence, fearing that he would declare himself king, and conspired to kill him. Among these were several of his former opponents who had been forgiven and placed in positions within his regime, including Caesar’s close associate Marcus Junius Brutus. About sixty senators accosted and stabbed Caesar. The assassination, and the civil wars that resulted from it, brought about the downfall of the Roman republic and the start of the Roman Empire.

The assassination that sparked World War I also led to the downfall of an empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, often referred to as Austria-Hungary, was a constitutional monarchy in Central Europe that began in 1867 following periods of war and revolution. The emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph, negotiated terms and consolidated the empire, although many of the people of Hungary were displeased with the conditions. Many regarded themselves as Magyar rather than Hungarian and clung to this identity despite a law that declared all citizens of the Hungary a single nation. In June 1914 Franz Joseph’s son and heir, Franz Ferdinand, visited Bosnia-Herzegovina, which Austria-Hungary had recently annexed. Revolutionary students plotted to assassinate him but failed in their first attempt. Later that day, Gavrilo Princip, a nineteen-year-old Serbian nationalist, shot and killed Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Germany supported Austria-Hungary against Serbia. A month after the assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war, triggering the start of World War I (1914–1918). Within a week, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Montenegro, and Russia were drawn into the war, which continued until the defeat of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and their allies in 1918. More than nine million soldiers died during the First World War, along with millions of civilians; the war ultimately led to the collapse of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, and the subsequent reorganization of the maps of Europe and the Middle East.

Overview

Assassinations are often prompted by ideological, military, political, or religious reasons. Further, the perpetrators may be motivated by the desire for revenge, anger over policies, or the desire for change in leadership, among other reasons.

Some assassinations are strategic decisions made during war or conflict. For example, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was working on a plan in the early twenty-first century to track down and kill leaders of Al Qaeda. Under President George W. Bush, the government planned to send teams of assassins to kill terrorist leaders rather than continue to target them with drone strikes, because the latter approach often resulted in civilian casualties. In the 1970s, US intelligence agencies had developed plans to assassinate foreign leaders hostile to the United States, including Cuba’s Fidel Castro. These revelations indicated that US leaders had considered assassination despite its illegality and disregard for foreign nations’ sovereignty.

Research shows that some social conditions are more likely to be related to assassination efforts. For example, radical ethnic, racist, or and nationalist beliefs and general political instability are more common conditions for assassination than poor economic conditions. Nationalist beliefs often include hostility to perceived outsiders, such as immigrants and minority groups, who may be viewed as a threat by racists and nativists. An example of an assassin motivated by racism was James Earl Ray, a career criminal who assassinated African American civil rights activist Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. Although he never stated his reason for shooting King, Ray was supportive of segregation and admired Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, which led him to resent King’s passionate support of racial equality and justice.

Assassinations in modern times became more common in the later twentieth century as terrorist groups became active and oppressive regimes used assassinations to eliminate political opposition. Political instability seems to be a factor as well. Analysis shows that members of government bodies such as parliament are most often targeted, while opposition leaders who are not members of executive or legislative branches of government are the second-most-targeted group, followed closely by heads of state.

High-profile assassinations and assassination attempts continued into the early twenty-first century. World governments widely suspect Russian leader Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of many of his political opponents. Most were poisoned while in other countries. For example, Alexei Navalny, one of Putin’s most high-profile critics and political opponents, was poisoned in August 2020 on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, possibly from something he drank, but survived. Defector Alexander Litvinenko, a former intelligence agent, died slowly and painfully in 2006 in London when radioactive material was put in his tea. Sergei Skripalanother defected intelligence officerand his daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent applied to the doorknob of their home in England in 2018. A police officer was also poisoned. They recovered, although a bystander who found the bottle that probably contained the nerve agent died. Analysts say that Putin likes to use poison against his enemies because it creates uncertainty and fearmoreso than threats of physical violence. Then, in 2022, Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan, was shot and killed at a public speaking event in Japan.

In November 2023, Canada and India’s diplomatic relations took a serious downturn following allegations that an assassination team of Indian government agents had murdered a Sikh dissident in Vancouver, Canada. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was an Indian citizen and political refugee in Canada when his separatist advocacy had run afoul of the Indian government. Nijjar was murdered outside of a Sikh temple in June 2023 after being surrounded by six men. In November 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed the Canadian parliament that the Indian government was behind the assassination. India would later deny its involvement. Trudeau’s claims were bolstered after the United States issued a warrant for a separate Indian national who was to carry out a similar assassination in New York City.

On July 13, 2024, an attempt was made on the life of Donald Trump when a gunman targeted the 2024 presidential candidate at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The gunman fired several shots at Trump from a vantage point, wounding the former president in his ear and killing an attendee and severely injuring two others. Trump was evacuated from the area and brought to a hospital shortly after Secret Service agents killed the gunman.

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