“The truth, as the US writer Charles Krauthammer has pointed out, is that America’s influence for good in suffering states is directly measurable in three very different examples.”

No question America “did good”. But why those areas, and not many others?

Krauthammer - "And in each case — South Korea versus North, West Germany as against East, Taiwan as opposed to Communist China — the territory which took the American path enjoyed greater freedom and prosperity."

Why was North Korea ceded to the communists after WWII, and not claimed from Japan? Why was South Korea attacked?

North Korea was seen as a buffer. It bordered both China and Russia. South Korea was attacked after the Truman Administration left it out of the public pronouncements of the US interests, which included Japan and seemed to indicate no interest in South Korea. (Similar to what April Glaspke told Saddam about Kuwait.) Not much concern for the people of North Korea, freedom, prosperity, etc.

South Korea was seen as a base for protecting Japan, which was being “developed” for its’ cheap labor.

Why was Taiwan protected? Again, cheap labor accessible to the West.

Why was West Germany kept in the Western sphere? Politically to break up Germany so as to limit war-making potential. Economically it was protecting European markets for US products.

The US did good, absolutely true! And it was always in US commercial interests to do so. And that’s understandable and legitimate.

Where the propaganda enters is when politicians try to tell us that it was unmitigated altruism. It’s important to recognize BS for BS.

Tell the people of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, China, North Korea, etc., etc., that the US was interested in freeing people from oppression. Eisenhower sold out the Hungarians who were seeking independence as badly as did Bush the First did the Kurds. Eisenhower promised them the world, and when they revolted he gave ‘em nothing.

One further comment. The PEOPLE of the US believed it was freeing people from oppression. That was the “line”. And the resources were devoted for commercial reasons.

Krauthammer – “Which takes us to the myth of America the locust state, the predator on the poorest nations of the Earth.”

Subsidizing corporate farmers in the US who dump American products in African countries, driving the indigenous farming industry out of business is the action of a “locust state”. Is America just a "locust state"?

The US is both – a country which can do wonderful things, and understandably a country which can do great damage, and does both based on self-interest. If it happens to help others, so much the better, but that’s not the motivation.

All, again, legitimate. And it’s important, one more time, for the citizenry to not believe one’s own propaganda, to understand the processes and drivers.

Arf