Posted by Sigismund on January 1, 2009, at 17:29:25
In reply to Now comes the hard part!, posted by fayeroe on January 1, 2009, at 11:11:22
The favourable image of the US has come from its openness, the quality of its educational institutions, the generosity of the scholarships offered to people from the third world, and its culture, particularly popular music.
The unfavourable image of the US, since WWII at any rate, has come from its foreign policy in the third world which reflects another concern apparent more recently, a certain bellicosity.
Since Vietnam cultural changes have led to an identification with the armed forces, for reasons of which I am unclear. However that may be, Americans must know that their influence in the world never came from their armed forces.
I suppose once China was lost the McCarthyite pressures on the Democrats led to Vietnam? Or maybe those pressures were not even needed for the commitment to contain communism? Anyway the US is in the (IMO) ridiculous position of having troops in most (123?) of the countries of the world.
Being too clever by half.....proxy wars, for example Afghanistan (the mujaheddin one), and coups (take your pick).
(When Brzezinski said that the US would give the USSR its Vietnam, one can't help but wonder about how his Polish background influenced his judgment.)Wasn't Nixon (for heavens sake!) doing things to conserve energy? And of course Carter.
What a waste of time.
poster:Sigismund
thread:871778
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20081212/msgs/871817.html