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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: Neocon who wrote (46792)7/24/1999 9:22:00 AM
From: Dayuhan  Read Replies (2) of 108807
 
The sudden unburdening of the imperial powers left a vacuum filled largely by kleptocrats and lunatics throughout the Third World...

True, and not entirely coincidental. The third world was not much of a priority in the post-WW2 years, and to the extent that we noticed it at all, we tried to promote regimes that would toe the line obediently against Moscow, rather than regimes which would pursue the interests of their own people. In many cases the maintenance of colonial privilege was a priority: are you familiar with the treaties imposed on the Philippines by the US as a condition to the grant of independence?

In many cases there were alternatives, and if part of our postwar mission had been a serious effort to foster the development of prosperous, politically independent states among the ex-colonies, rather than controllable satellites, the world might seem a different place today - and communism would have seemed a less attractive alternative to many in the 3rd world. If you know the former colonial power is your enemy, and the communists are their enemy, it's easy to assume that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, and the communists made very good use of this tendency. I'm not saying such a task would have been easy, only that we didn't try.
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