Journalists are wailing that the Trump administration is cozying up to dictators. This, to my mind, is a terrible thing, but it is a far cry from new or even unusual. The United States has a long history of INSTALLING dictators all over the world. All through the 20th century, any democratically elected leader who gave priority to his own citizens over U.S. business interests was declared “communist” or “socialist” and overthrown in a CIA-led coup, and a dictator put in place and supported. 1937 — Nicaragua — With help from the U.S. Marine Corps, ousted President Adolpho Diaz and Anastasio Somoza declared himself president — for life, as it turned out. 1953 — Iran — The U.S. and Britain engineered a coup which overthrew Prime Minister Mosaddegh and installed Rezz Pahlavi as Shah (that one really worked out well for us). 1954 — Guatemala — Operation PBSUCCESS overthrew Jacobo Arbenz and installed General Callus Castillo Armas.
1966 — Argentina — CIA-supported coup overthrew Arturo Umberto Illia and installed a series of generals beginning with Juan Carlos Ongania.
1973 — Chile — Our National Security Council engineered a coup against Salvador Allende, replacing him with General Augusto Pinochet.
In addition, we supported dictators who took over on their own, like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Victor Orban in Hungary — the list is long — as long as they supported U.S. business interests.
It seems to me that our government has always paid lip service to democracy. We may be reaping what we have sown.
Bill Gillmore
Columbus
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