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There was basically an era in US foreign policy where "communism bad" was the single guiding principle. If someone wasn't communist, they got our support. It d
by api 3y ago
There was basically an era in US foreign policy where "communism bad" was the single guiding principle.
If someone wasn't communist, they got our support. It didn't matter if they were bloodthirsty monsters or if they were even more anti-American than the communists.
If someone seemed to even be tilting red, they get undermined and sometimes even overthrown either directly or through us backing one of the previously mentioned anti-communist forces.
There really was no other principle at work beyond "communism bad, USSR bad," and we made a lot of devils' bargains in that era on the theory that the enemy of our enemy is our friend. It's a great example of monomania and paranoia guiding bad policy.
The only thing I can say in defense of people from that era is that everyone thought WWIII was around the corner and we were going to all get nuked anyway. It was a really paranoid time.
- almatabata 3y agoOf course the communism part worried them but they already started thinking about it after losing control over the iranian oil.
- api 3y agoControl of oil was a huge thing but that in the end boiled down to geopolitical positioning vs. the USSR. Oil equals economic might, and control of oil also means the power to turn the oil spigot off and harm the economy. The Cold War really dominated all foreign policy thinking in that era. Everyone else was seen as a chess piece up for grabs by either the US or the USSR. I'm really not defending it. I think a lot of terrible decisions were made during that time. But it is useful to understand why.