Since its birth as a country in 1776, the United States has had a tainted history of conducting just operations involving regime changes to achieve the goal of timely creating a minimally just political community. For example, on the one hand, the United States took part in one of the most just, successful, and commendable regime changes in history, helping to defeat and rebuild Japan and Germany after World War II. On the other hand, the United States took part in one of the worst and most unjust operations in history involving Cuba and the Bay of Pigs invasion. Between these two extremes there are many other regime-changing operations where their rightness has been called into question based on one or more aspects of just war theory. Just war theory is best explained by the author, Brian Orend, and states that, “sometimes, it is at least morally permissible for a political community to go to war and has the goal of limiting both the incidence and destructiveness of war ” (Orend, 31). One such operation where the rightness of the invasion has been called into question is Operation Just Cause. Operation Just Cause was the United States invasion of Panama in December 1989. The operation was led by President George HW Bush and its goal was to replace Panama's current leader, General Noriega, with the new legitimately elected leader, Guillermo Endara. Manuel Noriega had close ties to the United States over the years serving as an informant and resource for the United States against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. His efforts included sabotaging Soviet-backed governments in both El Salvador and Nicaragua, which helped reduce Soviet control in Central America (…… middle of paper … to war under jus ad bellum, the question must be answered if the United States followed the principles of jus in bello, which means adhering to right conduct in the midst of battle (Orend, 105), the responsibility for following these rules lies with a state's military, rather than its political leaders internal rules concern how a state should treat its citizens during war, while external rules concern how a state should behave in the midst of war regarding the enemy state and its civilians (Orend, 106). If the United States has followed the principles of jus in bello, the focus will be on external rather than internal rules because the invasion was not a serious war and it was. ultimately limited to a limited day in Panama.