The Cold War: America and Dictators

Figure 1.--.

One critism of America is that during the Cold War, the United States was too willing to deal with dictators. That is a valid issue and one that some HBC readers have possed. That is a valid question. It is one actually that I agree with, we have too often been to willing to deal with dictators. I believe it is possible to list a variety of dictators that America supported or at least tolerated that was not beneficial to America or the countries involved. This is, however, a very complicated issue. Here we attach a discussion of this issue with a Canadian reader. The same conversation could of course be held by reraders in other countries.

Political Perspectives

Views on this issue is often colored by one's political orientation. Here this question is most often asked by observers on the left side of the political spectrum. Many on the lefty are horrified (with good reason) by right-wing dictators, but less critical (with poor reason) about left-wing dictatorships. The most deadly dictatorships in ternms of mumners of people killed are Stalinmist Russia and Maoist China. Pf course those from the right often are most horrified by Communist dictatorships and more willing to accept the actions of military dictorshipds and other right-wing regimes.

Power Politics

The answer to this question is basically power politics.

World War II

Should America (and Canada) not have accepted Stalin as an ally in World War II because Stalin was as evil as Hitler? Churchill summed it up when he said that he would make common cause with the devil to defeat the NAZIs. I'm not sure the Allies would have prevailed without Stalin. You know that Britain and France contemplated declaring war on the Soviet Union when Stalin invased Finland. Without the Soviets, victory in World War II, if it came at all, would have been at a hige cost of American (and Canadian) lives. While working on HBC I have found that the draft was quite an issue in Canada during World War I and II. Apparently (and correct me if I am wrong), many French Canadians didn't want to be drafted to liberate France. The Canadian Army that invaded France and liberated France had relatively few French Canadian soldiers. Presumably French Canadians had no difficulty with an evil dictator (Stalin) have Russian soldiers defeat the Germans.

The Cold War

The question of America and dictators is most commonly asked about the Cold War. I think the answer is basically the same. Common purpose to defeat the greater evil. Can you name a dictator America has supported that was more evil than Stalin (not to metion Mao). Another important point. How can you do buiness in the world today and not do business with dictators? Once you get outside of Europe and North America and a few Asian countries just how many demoracies are there. There are I believe over 200 member of the United Nations. Less than 25 percenbt of those countries are democracies. And again back to Canada. Canada has extensive trade relations and a varierty of assistance programs with Cuba. The last tiome I checked, Cuba was not exactly a liberal democracy.

Soviet Policies

Conclusion

We agree with the basic contention that America in fighting the Cold War was too cozy with dictators. It is possible to list quite a number of unsavory dictators with which America was too willing to deal. (We might add here that the same is true of most of America's European allies including Britain and France.) Our contention is that America has opposed the most vicious and evil dictatorships of the 20th century and played a major role in their demise, to the great benefit of both Europe and the world as a whole.

Targetting Dictators

It is interesting to note that that many of the same people who lament America's support of dictatorships, or quick to condemn actions America takes against dictators. There was widespread criticism in Russia of America action against Milosovich in Serbia when the Unites States intervened to stop the killing in Kosovo (1999). There was even more voviferous criticism in Western Europe when America moved against Saddam Hussein in Iraq (2002).

Created: 10:12 PM 12/1/2004
Last updated: 10:12 PM 12/1/2004