Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: Narrating a Regime Change
Masters thesis — Naval Postgraduate School, 2015. Full text: https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA620695
Arguments
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: Narrating a Regime Change
Coups win palaces; narratives win the peace — the thesis's conclusion is that the story told during and after a regime change determines whether US policy goals survive it.
America's regime-change operations failed strategically not for lack of covert capability but for lack of narrative — the US toppled governments through special warfare yet never built a story that won domestic and international support; the thesis uses social movement theory on three cases (Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Nicaragua 1978-1990) to argue influence operations must pair a legitimate, credible rebel leader with relentless ideological framing that paints the targeted regime's conditions as unacceptable.
Why it matters
Coups win palaces; narratives win the peace — the thesis's conclusion is that the story told during and after a regime change determines whether US policy goals survive it.
Use when: Covert action without a credible story is a strategic liability — winning the operation and losing the narrative means losing the war you actually fought.