In the 1950s, the CIA overthrew the freely-elected, democratic government of Guatemala and blocked free elections in Vietnam.
In the 1960s, the United States undermined democracy in Brazil and in the Congo (the first scrapping of a legally recognized democratic system in post-colonial Africa).
In 1963, the United States backed a coup by the Ba'ath party in Iraq-Saddam Hussein's party -and gave them names of communists to kill.
In the 1970s, the CIA helped to snuff out democracy in Chile. (and AU."our man Kurr.")As Kissinger told a top-secret meeting, "I don't see why we need to standby and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of itsown people."
In 1981, vice-president George Bush Sr. told Philippine dictatorFerdinand Marcos, "We love your adherence to democratic principle."
Consider Indonesia, ruled by a dictator, Suharto, who killed more "of his own people" than did Saddam Hussein (with U.S. arms and, again, with lists of names of Communists to liquidate). In 1997, the year before the
Indonesian people drove Suharto into exile, Paul Wolfowitz told Congress that "any balanced judgment of the situation in Indonesia today,
including the very important and sensitive issue of human rights, needs
to take account of the significant progress that Indonesia has already
made and needs to acknowledge that much of this progress has to be
credited to the strong and remarkable leadership of president Suharto."
Consider the report written for Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu in 1996 by a group of U.S. neoconservatives, many of whom hold prominent positions in the current Bush war administration (Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and David Wurmser). This report recommended restoring the Hashemite monarchy to power in Iraq.
There has been little acknowledgment of just how deep U.S. opposition to
democracy has been.
