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Originally posted by marichiko
Try being an American in Latin America in the late sixties and early seventies when Vietnam was raging and the CIA had just assasinated the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvadore Allende. Complete strangers would stop me on the street in the city in Brazil where I was staying at the time, and treat me to invectives against Johnson and Nixon and hold me personally responsible for American foreign policy. We have been well hated before, my friend, and we will continue to be.
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You are confusing a time when America was acting just as we are today. But lets go back to 1963 when my grandfather was in Santiago Chile. When Kennedy was shot. People were literally crying in the Chilean streets. Is that a world who hates Americans? No. America was loved before presidents lied and 'Pearl Harbored' sovereign nations.
VietNam is when America attacked a nation for no good reason - no smoking gun - exactly like Iraq. Then yes, US citizens were called ugly American. The book goes by that exact title. Americans went from being loved to being outrightly confronted on the street. But according to George Jr, those other nations are only confused or are 'old Europe'. Anything to justify the knowledge provided to him by god and righteousness.
Nam was just another time when the American government was so corrupt that it even feared we might read the Pentagon Papers. And it does not stop with Vietnam either. The US even tried to manipulate the Australian elections. One today would have thought Americans had learned the lessons of the 1970s. No. Many of us are so historically ill informed as to even trust anything George Jr says and foolishly belive the doctrine of evil - called preemption. A man whose credibility is so bad that Americans again are learning what it is to be the Ugly American. Three plus years ago, American were well received throughout the world. Clinton was even given a 5 minute standing ovation in the UN General Assembly. Not the Security Council. The General Assembly where all nations are represented. How quickly George Jr has again made it dangerous to admit to being American - just like during Johnson's and Nixon's time. Expecially during Nixon's time when lying presidents were even reelected by 49 out of 50 states.
Yes, liars like George Jr can be popular in America where the citizens would rather listen to Rush Limbaugh than learn real world history. How quickly we forget why the book Ugly American applied to America during VietNam - another war fought without a smoking gun due to a lying president.
Lets not forget how popular being American was on 11 Sept 2001 - before George Jr's lies became prolific. From Ron Suskind's "The Price of Loyalty":
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Military cares arrived at midmorning the next day to pick up the O'Neill (Sec of Treasury) delegation. As the enturage emerged from the main entrance, they saw hundreds of Imperial Hotel employees - bellman, desk clerks, cooks, - lined up to the waiting vehicles, applauding loudly all the way.
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Then George Jr lies made the world unsafe for Americans again.