Hi y’all,
I don’t want a flame war, just the facts (and I tried googling but millions of useless hits). Any dictators put in power, or openly supported by Democratic Presidents of the U.S.?
Thanks. 
“Openly supported”? Most pro-American dictators were openly supported by the Kennedy and Johnson administration.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said of Somoza (dictator of Nicaragua) “He’s a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.”
As for “installed”- weeeell, that gets dicey. Does a successfull rebellion we funded count as a coup? What about where we wash our hands of a leader, and suddenly that leader goes away?
The best example of a Democratic President installing a dictator might be Kennedy suggesting to South Vietnamese leaders that a coup against Diem would not be a bad idea; a few months later, Diem was gunned down and a new leader installed.
The first Somoza, for one, was put in power by FDR. (FDR’s quote: “He may be a bastard, but at least he’s our bastard”) And then, of course, FDR also supported Stalin during WWII (although, that was more of a “lesser of two evils” sort of thing).
President Kennedy supported (and gave the green light to, actually) the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem and General Minh’s military coup in South Vietnam, and then President Johnson supported the coup by General Khahn against General Minh.
President Carter supported the military junta that ruled El Salvador, as well as Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillipines, and the Shah of Iran (and Marcos and the Shah had been supported by previous presidents as well, of course, of both parties).
More generally, US foreign general policy during the Cold War, during both Republican and Democratic admininstrations, was to support non-Communist governments, no matter what form that government took.
I have a running dispute with my UPS driver and he makes all republicans (and especially republican presidents) evil. Only republican presidents put dictators in power, blah, blah, blah. Just wanted to hit 'im between the eyes tomorrow. Any more? Thanks.
Rumor has it we backed Suharto in 65.
Take a gander at Wikipedia’s list of US foreign interventions since WWII. Democrats were in office pre-1950, 1950-1952, 1961-1968, 1977-1980, and 1993-2000. Note that many items are alleged, and aren’t fully proven.
A good example would be the CIA’s alleged involvement in the murder of Patrice Lumumba. That led to Mobutu Sese Seko becoming president of the Belgian Congo. Since he (Mobutu) was perceived as anti-communist, he was supported by both Democrats and Republicans up to the end of the Cold War.
Why do I think that the Belgian Government was behind Lumumba’s death?
Because they weren’t exactly innocent either
(Note to self: In the future, when making a cite, read the entire thing!!)
Who (allegedly) destabilized the democratically elected Communist president of Chile, resulting in some kinda heavy-handed dictatorship?
(sorry, my memory lacks all the details)
I’ll give you a little hint. It starts with a R, ends with an N, and has an M in the middle. And techniclally, Allende was a socialist, not a communist. He was best buddies with Castro, though.
Seymour Hersh, in his book The Dark Side of Camelot, alleges that the CIA plotted to assasinate both Lumumba of the Congo, and Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, and Kennedy knew of and sanctioned their plans. Can’t recall his specific evidence for these assertions off the top of my head, but Hersh is famous for his intelligence sources.
It’s well-known that the CIA attempted to kill Castro and to unseat him with a US-backed revolution (the Bay of Pigs plan). Do failed assassinations by Democratic Presidents count?