> I am not sure you all actually disagree. Nixon et al
> almost certainly thought that the policies of Allende
> in Chile, Goulart in Brazil, Arbenz in Guatemala,
> Mossadeq in Iran, and other targets of US overthrow
> plots, were bad and would lead to bad things. The US
> would oppose such policies as (our leaders believe)
> destructive and harmful if advocated here, so there is
> no reason to think that they think they would be good
> if practiced abroad.
But there's a seductive line of thought that goes like this: conservatives know that their policies are bad for the masses, but support them anyway out of self-interest. I used to believe this, but now know that most conservatives sincerely believe that their policies are good for the masses--even though I think this belief is ultimately rooted in self-interest. (Of course, many conservatives also assert that the masses deserve to be poor. But conservatives still have a hard time admitting that their policies are sub-optimal when judged from a consequentialist POV.)
-- Luke