The United States has shown itself to be a threat to developing democracies

I agree to the definitions that you have provided. I will begin my argument by citing instances of US aggression towards developing democracies throughout history. I would like to acknowledge that while some of these governments are indeed developing governmentally, others are developing as nations, as in they still hold third world status and/or have only been democratic for a relatively short period of time. 1. Iran 1953 Since the beginning of the 1900s Great Britain exploited Persia's oil. During that time the country went through a series of Britain friendly monarchs up until the man who would be the last Shah of Iran, Shah Pahlavi. In the early 1950s public pressure forced the Shah to give more power to his people, leading to the election of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. When the Shah reduced himself to a figurehead, the country become a parliamentary monarchy, although because the prime minister held more power than the Shah it could have been considered a full fledged democracy. Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry so that they would no longer be exploited by British companies. The country was completely within their rights to do this, however Great Britain reacted by attempting to undermine the country and send it into economic turmoil. During this time Mossadegh actually requested help from the President of the United States, saying "Remember your own revolution against Britain" This clearly stated Iran's intent to follow in America's foot steps and remain a democracy, and even become an ally. But due to pressure from Great Britain, President Eisenhower was unable to aid the country. Mossadegh also made it clear that if the United States was unwilling to help, then he would have to turn to the Soviet Union instead. When their original tactics did not work immediately, Great Britain convinced the United States that Iran had in fact followed through on their threat and were allied with the Soviets (this was untrue, however the Soviets had shipped Iran weapons hoping to win them over, without success). The US government sent in agents from the CIA (at that time a new organization) to topple Iran's democratic government and reinstall the Shah. CIA agents worked to undermine the government, even bombing a religious leader's house in order to stir up Islamic hate against the government. In the end the agents failed, however a last minute coup by the Iranian military achieved their goals and put the Shah back in power. The Shah's US backed government, although reformist and generally progressive, arrested, tortured, and murdered thousands of innocent people. This instance shows that the US government acted with utter disregard for the sovereignty of Iran. President Eisenhower even turning down Mossadegh' s requests for assistance in which he made it clear that he had a choice between allying with America and the Soviet Union, and that he came to America for help first. Mossadegh was sympathetic towards the communists, but he was clearly a democratic leader. . http://www.globalsecurity.org... 2. Guatemala 1954 (Don't worry, this isn't going to be a year by year list. ) In 1944 a dictatorship in Guatemala was overthrown, and the country became a democracy soon after. From 1945 onward Guatemala's elected leaders implemented popular reforms, giving more power to the poor, peasants, and workers. These policies worried the US government, who dreaded the thought of a communist sympathising nation so close to its borders. In addition the government's policies threatened the might of the United Fruit Company, which essentially owned Guatemala. When the government nationalized unused land owned by United Fruit, the company urged the US government to intervene to defend their economic interests. The CIA set to work organizing an army, and in 1954 Guatemala's democracy was toppled and replaced by a US backed military dictatorship. What followed was over forty years of bloody civil war and instability. And to top it all off, military forces trained and financed by the United States went on a genocidal killing spree, murdering 200,000 innocent Native Americans. . http://www.globalsecurity.org... . http://www.ppu.org.uk... 3. Chile 1973 From 1970 to 1973, President Allende of Chile made major reforms viewed as a push towards socialism amidst an extremely divided government. The Chilean people continually elected far left and far right candidates, ensuring a volatile political situation. You can probably guess the rest. Mines owned by US companies were nationalized, the CIA was sent in to cause political and economic chaos in order to weaken the already frayed government, and ultimately Allende committed suicide, making way for a US backed military dictatorship. Many members of the Chilean government were assassinated, however it is unclear to what extent the CIA was involved in these incidents. Chile's new government went on to purge the country of suspected political opposition, arresting, torturing, and murdering thousands of people, often with the aid of lists provided by the CIA. . http://www.globalsecurity.org... The actions were unjustified- The supposed justification for the US's actions was that these countries were under Soviet influence. That does not justify overthrowing a democracy, Soviet influenced or otherwise, and replacing it with a dictatorship, when that is the very threat that the Soviet Union would have posed. This boils down to a flawed logic. That is, that the US had to overthrow democracies and create dictatorships to stop the Soviet Union from convincing democracies to become dictatorships. The only difference between the actions of the Soviet Union and the US was that the US imposed (with some exceptions) right wing dictatorships, whereas the Soviet Union imposed left wing dictatorships. Because the United States claimed to support democracy, the argument that a right wing dictatorship had to be created to prevent a left wing dictatorship makes no sense when the preexistent democracy could have been preserved instead. Other developing democracies are at risk- In each of these cases, the supposed offenses committed by these countries were to take action to prevent a foreign company from exploiting the countries' natural resources or land, and/or to implement socialist policies. Under these requirements, a foreign company that controls an American resource might complain to their country's government when the US decides to nationalize it. Perhaps the country's government will say that they find welfare and health care in the US to be a sign that it is leaning away from democracy towards communism, and that just can't happen. So America's democracy gets toppled in the name of democracy. But of course there is no country capable of doing such a thing to the US. However, if the same situation were applied to an weak, developing nation, it could occur. And if communism is not used as an excuse, then perhaps if a religious fundamentalist is elected the US could claim that the country has been taken over by radicals. The point is that those 3 instances were not extraordinary, and there is no reason to assume that any other developing democracy that decides to resist American hegemony is any safer than those 3.