2. Take advantage of a civil war to kill, imprison, or force the enemy leader to flee - examples: Syria in 2025, Libya in 2011, Afghanistan in 2021.
3. Use a guerilla movement to weaken a country so that an invasion can succeed - example: South Vietnam in 1975.
4. Use a guerilla movement in a civil war to force the existing government to surrender or flee - example: Nepal in 2008.
5. Use nationwide strikes and protests to force the leader to step down or flee - examples: Romania in 1989 and Serbia in 2000.
6. Use a war and/or a rigged election to install a puppet government - examples: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, East Germany, Albania and Bulgaria between 1945 and 1950.
7. Stage a military coup - this is most common and successful means of toppling a government. examples: there have been successful coups in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Bolivia, Myanmar, Thailand, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, Mali, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, and Yemen since 2010. There have been attempted coups in many other countries during the same period.
One of the advantages of a strong military is that it will try to overthrow a government it sees as weak. That is unlikely to happen in the US given the federal government's paramilitary forces and the fact that a large percentage of Americans have their own weapons. A large guerilla movement could topple the US government or at least carve out free areas of de facto sovereignty. The novel Neither Predator Nor Prey by Mark Spungin gives a realistic depiction of such a resistance movement.
Bottom line, overthrowing a government requires money, guns, and men in great quantities.
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