Allende's career in Chilean government spanned nearly forty years. As a Socialist Party and Marxist politician, he became a senator, deputy, cabinet minister and after failing in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 presidential elections was elected President in 1970 with 36.3% of the votes.(Wikipedia)
(Popularly elected with 36.3 % ?)
There was a military coup, Allende committed Suicide. After General Pinochet assumed power, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told U.S. President Richard Nixon that the U.S. "didn't do it," but "we helped." (referring to the coup itself). Recently declassified documents show that the United States government and the CIA had sought the overthrow of Allende in 1970 immediately before he took office ("Project FUBELT"), but claims of their direct involvement in the 1973 coup are not proven by publicly available documentary evidence. Many potentially relevant documents still remain classified. (Wikipedia)

The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein, Salvador Allende and Pinochet, as long as it was in the best interest of the United States to do so. That's our Foreign Policy!

Nothing to be proud of, in my opinion. Supporting dictatorships and other arbritrary conduct seriously hurts rhe credibility of USA. At least Carter tried to be honest. With Clinton the US reputation improved very much. But now with Bush and his infantile "war against terrorism" it is probably lower than ever. Besides, this stupid "war" has encouraged terrorism all over the world.

USA still is the most powerful superpower. It is still a democracy, although there have been alarming violations of democracy in the last years -e.g. Guantanamo.
Russia is a new democracy. Very fragile. Let us hope for the best! I am not sure whether to still call it a superpower.
China is definitely a superpower. I believe it will surpass USA in a near future. As China is a dictatorship, this is very frightening. So it is very important to support democratic movements and promote human rights in China. But for USA, with such low democratic credibility, this is not easy to do.

Quote-"Supporting dictatorships and other arbritrary conduct seriously hurts the credibility of USA." ..."As China is a dictatorship, this is very frightening. So it is very important to support democratic movements and promote human rights in China."

I suspect English is not your first language, but you appear very confused when you say supporting dictatorships hurts the U.S. credibility, yet you say in the same article, that China is a dictatorship, yet we should support democratic movements and promote human rights IN China?
There ARE NO democratic or human rights movements allowed in China! The lack of democracy and human rights in China is dictated by Communism, not any fault of the U.S. And if you think there will be a softening of human rights in China, I have some land I would like to sell you in south New Orleans...

This "Stupid War'" as you call it was started on 9-11
by Suicidal Islamic Fundamentalists, not by George Bush.
They attacked us! Talk about an "Alarming Violation of Democracy"! Guantanamo? In a war, you do not release prisoners back to the enemy to be used against us again- what are you thinking?
If you lived in the U.S. and would rather fight on our soil than in the mideast, you would not think that way!
Do you think Communist Russia is a democracy? A super power now? You must be joking!


Now that I have thoroughly discredited your thinking, I will applaud your statement that China is a frightening Communist dictatorship, and will eventually be the largest superpower, by virtue of her unbelieveably large population alone... She is like a freight train running at full power. We will not be able to stop the momentum. She is bulding a great Army as we speak, and, thanks to Bill Clinton, she has a head start on Nuclear Submarines and a viable space program, complete with anti-satellite technology! If we are lucky we might hold her off for a decade or more. Encourage your grandchildren to take Chinese Language lessons.
They will need to spell Armageddon in Chinese Characters!

USINKOREA- Sorry, my young friend and I have bastardized your North Korea Policy area, but I am now finished with my rebuttal to the actions of the U.S. and the "War".

Right now the Koreans are hoping for great progress when President Roh meets Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang in two weeks!
What a bunch of crap! I wish I could be sanguine also, but I am not. The only reason the North wants to talk is for SELFISH reasons. They left the last talks a few weeks ago upset because the South would not give in and move the DMZ lower so they could get more Ocean ! They will shake hands, get International attention, ride around on a train, and accomplish little or nothing towards unification. Wait and see.

Well, it may be due to my English. But where is the contradiction?The fact that democratic movements are not allowed does not mean that the do not exist. Never heard of underground movements? Chinese dissidents are trying to make their voices heard. Why not support them? And why avoid discussing human rights when dealing with Chinese people?

FYI Russian government is not Communist. Russian communist party belongs to the opposition.

You are right- I may be off the track , and I see what you mean by supporting dissidents and underground movements. I'm sure we (the U.S.) do that by expressing opinions and asking for sanctions, etc. But to no avail. Really. A tiger won't change it's stripes. Ask Condolessa Rice.

And if anyone believes Putin, former head of the KGB is not a communist, well, my land in Louisiana is still for sale! I assume you know the Russians recently fired a missile from a Nuclear Sub clear across their country. It was only a test.

(I promised USINKOREA I would stick with discussing North Korea on his forum, so I'm retiring this subject here.) Please do feel free to open another thread if you wish to continue!

But how can you discuss N.Korea without involving the neigbouring countries and USA, unless you wish to limit the subject to purely domestic N.Korean issues? I don´t have the impression this was the intention of USINKOREA.

President Roh meeting Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang is not a purely N.Korean issue.