Americans have had many successes in this regard, having been responsible, in most cases, in being able to effect the deposing of regimes and rulers through various means, among then covert acts to achieve their ends, and making use of a wide array of figures in public American life, including business people, spies, government people, politicians, and military leaders. Tracing the history of American action, Kinzer notes that American action goes back to the deposing of the Hawaiian monarchy, and the actions that led to the effective annexation of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba during the so-called Spanish-American War. These initial successes led to the emboldening of the American effort and the extension of is interventions southwards of the American continent, making use of its intervention powers to depose the leaders of Honduras and Nicaragua via successful coup detats. When the Cold War with the Soviet Union kicked into high gear, on the other hand, American interventions in country affairs took on the flavor of an ideological and power struggle to one-up the Communist enemy in a global power struggle, with the United States identified as instigating the collapse of Chilean, Iranian and Guatemalan democratic institutions on the one hand, and the downfall of the president of South Vietnam in a successful assassination effort. Post Cold War, the US has been identified as having played a big hand in overthrowing existing regimes in Iraq, Grenada, Afghanistan, and Panama via invasion exercises (Kinzer 2006).