The collapse of the Soviet Union and the conclusion of the Cold War left America trying to blindly reorient its foreign policy in a new direction. Previously, the US’s primary goal was to defeat the Soviet Union, but the completion of this straightforward agenda left many directions for the United States to pursue. With new world challenges that terrorism presented and Barack Obama, America’s first African-American president, America was in a completely new era than it was in in previous decades. While searching for direction, American policymakers could have simply relied on previous Cold War policies, goals, ideologies, and assumptions, but instead they chose to diverge from that outdated agenda to one that is more suitable for current world
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One group of people who experienced this were Muslims, but Obama’s current foreign policy vastly contrasts with the past’s policy by refusing to do such actions. In Obama’s speech, he recalls back to a time during the Cold War when “the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government.” This overthrow consisted of the deposition of Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of Mohammad Reza Shah, a dictator. Despite supporting democracies, American covert operatives deposed of a democratically elected leader because of Mosaddegh’s attempt at nationalizing the oil industry in Iran. Americans were attempting to prevent something like what occurred in 1973, when OPEC “shifted the balance of power in the world economy away from the importing nations and toward oil exporters.” By installing the American supported Shah, the US hoped to produce the same effect as in Saudi Arabia in which they would “play the role of America’s ‘good little boy’ in the region.” It’s simpler to control a state’s actions through a dictator as opposed to a democratic country’s actions through its people. The US not only mistreated Muslims and used them as proxies, but also did the same towards Guatemalans and Chileans. In Guatemala in 1954, Americans assisted in the deposing of democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz and replaced him with military dictator Carlos Castillo Armas. This was done because of
One group of people who experienced this were Muslims, but Obama’s current foreign policy vastly contrasts with the past’s policy by refusing to do such actions. In Obama’s speech, he recalls back to a time during the Cold War when “the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government.” This overthrow consisted of the deposition of Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of Mohammad Reza Shah, a dictator. Despite supporting democracies, American covert operatives deposed of a democratically elected leader because of Mosaddegh’s attempt at nationalizing the oil industry in Iran. Americans were attempting to prevent something like what occurred in 1973, when OPEC “shifted the balance of power in the world economy away from the importing nations and toward oil exporters.” By installing the American supported Shah, the US hoped to produce the same effect as in Saudi Arabia in which they would “play the role of America’s ‘good little boy’ in the region.” It’s simpler to control a state’s actions through a dictator as opposed to a democratic country’s actions through its people. The US not only mistreated Muslims and used them as proxies, but also did the same towards Guatemalans and Chileans. In Guatemala in 1954, Americans assisted in the deposing of democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz and replaced him with military dictator Carlos Castillo Armas. This was done because of