@vtcc73 make it to list 3?

1. List the country or countries who were liberated by or with the aid of the US through armed conflict and/or US inspired or lead coups ie. regime change.

2. List those in the list from #1 who remain in the sphere of influence and/or remain allies.

3. List those from the list in #2 who do not currently receive massive economic, military, and/or political aid. Which ones remain friends with the US?

4. Which ones from #3 are also free to plot and pursue their own destiny without US economic or military coercion or interference?

5. Looking at your list, explain the reasons we citizens continue to overwhelmingly support foreign policies that have brought us so much success.

Looking at the record of the world's remaining superpower from this perspective should be an eye opener. I'm absolutely positive that most will find a way to minimize the obvious conclusions offered to favor continuing to support massive failure upon massive failure.

@The Wizard

is one of the best I've read anywhere about anything in this subject area. Wow. I want a copy etched in gold.

Vietnam- We had to stop the domino effect where the entire region would go Communist. Well that was wrong and it cost 60,000 US lives and three million Vietnamese lives. They are our trading partners now and quite market driven, although they insist on one functional political party, whereas we insist on two dysfunctional political parties. It would have been much better to allow the UN mandated election and the unification of Vietnam under Ho Chi Min. There has never been a reconciliation for what the US did to Vietnam. But even before that, there was Korea, One people, one country united for 4 thousand years. Again it was the local insurgent Communists fighting the Japanese. We managed to mangle that up by installing a brutal dictator, Syngman Rhee, in the South. Again, better dead than red … for them. We bombed the hell out of them, leveling almost all buildings of any size and killing another 3 million people. We bomb the shit out of them and they still don't do what we want? They would have been much better if we had left them alone and by now they would have been a free market based, super successful united country, with no nukes to the North. The younger generation in Korea is beginning to realize this. Yes I heard this with my own ears from a very smart Korean. Whenever I can I refer to the country as "Korea", never with the North or South prefix.

Well, here we go again with Afghanistan, and really half of the ME. Just get the F out and let them determine the fates of their own countries. We, clearly, have no ability to do that. We also seem to have no ability to be a good ally. It's really all about the US dollar and the fantasy that the US leads some sort of world wide coalition. One can only ponder as to what would happen if the US economy were to collapse. Well, I think that the British would still bend the knee as they continue to live vicariously through US power, as Ghislaine Maxwell proved.

@The Wizard agree that not picking up where France left off would have been so much better for all, including Cambodia.

This is a half decent article: What Explains Vietnam's Current Covid-19 Struggles. It's the second part that purports to answer the question that may or may not be correct. Taiwan had even fewer cases and deaths than Vietnam through 2000 and like Vietnam (and many other countries) is experiencing a surge. Another reason for questioning the answer is that Canada has the highest vaccination rate in the world and it's also experiencing a surge in cases. A comparison of yesterday (one day): Canada new cases 707 (total cases 1,411,634) , deaths 16 (total deaths 26,191) , population 36 million -- Vietnam new cases 285 (total cases 14,232), deaths 2 (total deaths 72), population 98 million.

Vietnam- We had to stop the domino effect where the entire region would go Communist. Well that was wrong and it cost 60,000 US lives and three million Vietnamese lives. They are our trading partners now and quite market driven, although they insist on one functional political party, whereas we insist on two dysfunctional political parties. It would have been much better to allow the UN mandated election and the unification of Vietnam under Ho Chi Min. There has never been a reconciliation for what the US did to Vietnam. But even before that, there was Korea, One people, one country united for 4 thousand years. Again it was the local insurgent Communists fighting the Japanese. We managed to mangle that up by installing a brutal dictator, Syngman Rhee, in the South. Again, better dead than red … for them. We bombed the hell out of them, leveling almost all buildings of any size and killing another 3 million people. We bomb the shit out of them and they still don't do what we want? They would have been much better if we had left them alone and by now they would have been a free market based, super successful united country, with no nukes to the North. The younger generation in Korea is beginning to realize this. Yes I heard this with my own ears from a very smart Korean. Whenever I can I refer to the country as "Korea", never with the North or South prefix.

Well, here we go again with Afghanistan, and really half of the ME. Just get the F out and let them determine the fates of their own countries. We, clearly, have no ability to do that. We also seem to have no ability to be a good ally. It's really all about the US dollar and the fantasy that the US leads some sort of world wide coalition. One can only ponder as to what would happen if the US economy were to collapse. Well, I think that the British would still bend the knee as they continue to live vicariously through US power, as Ghislaine Maxwell proved.