Ray Maghroori and Stephen M. Gorman
Abstract:
The United States has had difficulty in dealing with third-world authoritarian regimes in the 20th century. Specifically, United States foreign policy has failed to promote the establishment of pro-American regimes due to its fundamentally flawed assumptions. In countries such as Vietnam, Iran, and Nicaragua, the United States failed to understand each country’s political climate, and its foreign policy therefore operated on a series of incorrect assumptions. What makes these failures remarkable is the degree to which they were unpredicted. For example, the C.I.A., the State Department, the US Congress, academicians, journalists, and businessmen alike all failed to predict that the Iranian Shah would be overthrown 1979. This article explores why the US has failed to establish pro-US regimes. The most significant factor in these failures can be attributed to the false belief that economic growth would result in development and political stability in third-world countries. The US relied on methods successful in countries which already prioritized economic strength and Western values by the time they received US aid. US foreign policy failed to understand the most important aspects of third-world authoritarian regimes.
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