Extract from OED Online

régime, regime

SECOND EDITION 1989

DRAFT ADDITIONS MARCH 2006

regime change n. replacement of one governing administration by another; (in later use also euphem.) removal of a hostile foreign government, esp. by military force.

1925 Los Angeles Times 1 Aug. 8/4 (headline) *Regime change effort denied. 1965 World Politics 17 239 Those NATO designs..would be severely compromised by regime changes in individual nations which shifted their foreign policies in a neutralist direction. 1990 Internat. Security 15 70 The U.S. government tacitly acknowledged that the struggle to promote regime change [in Nicaragua] had shifted from the military to the political-electoral terrain. 2002 Sun (Baltimore) 18 Aug. A1/3 Iraq's use of gas in that conflict is repeatedly mentioned..as justification for ‘regime change’ in Iraq.