Dan wrote:
For many long decades the US was willing to live with anti-communist
dictatorships. Yet, if you look at the Phillipeines, Taiwan, and South
Korea, they are, after Japan, the best examples of strong representative
government. If you want to argue that the US cut these dictatorships too
much slack, and that we didn't push enough for democracy in these
countries, I'd agree. But, I don't think it is just coincidence that these countries are the best examples of representative government, after Japan, in the far east.
I think its arguable that many of the mentioned countries, the the Philippians frex as well as many others (such as Iran) were able to move away from their dictatorial governments _despite_ the U.S., not because of its influence. Whether or not our support for Marcos or the Shah was necessary is another question, but to give the U.S. credit for the change in regimes is problematic, IMO.
re Japan and Germany:
It was also, in large measure, a reflection of the ability of the US to
force a governmental form on those countries. In the other countries, the US was not in the same position to do so.
One has to take into consideration the impact of WWII on those countries. What portion of the population was killed? How much of the infrastructure was destroyed? These populations were submissive because of the (self inflicted) devastation they had suffered.
Secondly, and I think this is very important, The populations of both Germany and Japan were very homogeneous at the time. The fact that Iraq has three distinct cultural divisions renders it a far more difficult problem than either Germany or Japan.
re terrorists.
It was minimal...but there were a bit more than a score of combat deaths in the months following VE day.
It did not have enough significance to render a comparison here.
I agree more or less with the rest of your post - that our priorities changed post cold war, but I'd argue that it wasn't necessary to prop up those dictators in the first place.
-- Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
