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As far as I can tell, those didn't look like the USA applying martial law to large swathes of its populace.

That's true, but also not the criteria the original poster proposed.

They presumably meant the Nazi period (1933-1945) and the period of SED rule in East Germany (1949-1990).

It's a sliver over a hundred years ago now, but Germany was also under a military dictatorship lead by Hindenburg and Ludendorff from 1916 through 1918.

Free speech was all but dead between 1914 and 1918 everywhere. Not saying Luddendorff wasn't defacto military dictator, he was, just pointing out that this had no additional negative impact on free speech during this time.

I was talking about the Nazi and the GDR regime. I am aware that US foreign policy is controversial, but never did the US murder people on a comparable scale.