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Comment by teakettle42 | Hacker News Reader

> It’s not like america didn’t do the exact same thing in South America, but on the other side of the political spectrum.

What did America do in South America that you think is "the exact same thing" as the USSR's establishment — and four decades of control — of puppet communist governments across central and eastern Europe?

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Just one data point, the democratically elected government of Guatemala was overthrown with support by the CIA and a military dictatorship installed that killed about 150 000 people through disappearances etc.. Read up on the Guatemalan civil war.

The history of every Latin American country reads very similar, ironically with the exceptions being the strongly soviet aligned countries.

"The exact same thing" is hyperbole of course, but the US was playing the "great game" of the Cold War just as well as the Soviets. Where the Soviets many times directly interfered by sending troops (while the US was less direct, with the exceptions of Korea, Vietnam, etc), the US preferred undermining existing regimes they didn't like in South America -- their "backyard" -- and propping up right-wing dictators trained in the School of the Americas (Chile, Argentina, etc).

The Soviets were way less subtle and way more direct, but I believe there are geographical reasons for this.

Personally I think that the difference between a CIA backed coup and direct military invasion is a distinction without a difference if you live in the country. Either way you have a stronger foreign power stripping you of your local political autonomy and threatening your physical safety.

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