The U.S. and it's western allies were suspected of being somewhat hypocritical during the Cold War. We claimed to stand for democracy and self-determination for everyone, based on free elections, but often ended up supporting autocrats because they were anti-Communist. Many countries across the world were our allies not because they were democracies but because they were NOT democracies.
As many colonies of European imperial powers gained independence, following the end of the Second World War, the concern of the west is that they would become Communist. There were struggles in these countries between pro-democracy and Communist factions, with the west supporting the pro-democracy side and Communist countries supporting the Communists.
But it had to be this way and the reason is "The Rule Of Successive Revolutions", as we saw in the posting by that name October 2024, and where this posting will be added.
I see the French Revolution, which began in 1789, as opening the modern political era. We could call it the "Big Bang" of the modern political era. In this revolution the king and queen were overthrown and guillotined, in favor of a republic. But it ultimately resulted in the rule of Napoleon, who is considered as the prototype of the modern dictator, although he wasn't involved in starting the revolution. Napoleon's conquests spread the ideals of the French Revolution across Europe.
There have since been two major reenactments of the French Revolution, as well as many minor ones. What I mean by major and minor is not a matter of how important it was. The French Revolution is very much still with us but the two major reenactments have each changed it's basic direction.
Napoleon's invasion of Russia was ultimately unsuccessful. Could he possibly have imagined that, over a century later, the Romanov Dynasty that he was up against would be overthrown by the first major reenactment of the revolution that had brought him to power? This was the October Revolution, in 1917, that was the beginning of world Communism. The difference was that the Romanovs were executed by firing squad while Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had been executed by guillotine. The October Revolution began the Soviet Union and it set about spreading the ideals of Communism just as Napoleon had spread the ideals of the French Revolution to Russia.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had actually been America's first allies, and had helped it to gain independence. The government of the new U.S. must have been very displeased at the news of their overthrow and execution but, as explained in "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris" December 2015, America's Republican Party became the continuation of the French Bourbon Dynasty. This was why America was so resistant to the Metric System, it had been invented by the bloody revolutionaries who had overthrown and guillotined America's first allies. America's Democrat Party represents France after the revolution.
The means that, during the Cold War, America's Republicans represented the pre-revolution monarchy, while it's Democrats and western allies mostly represented the First Revolution. The Communists represented the Second Revolution. This explains why the west sometimes found itself supporting autocrats, instead of the popular self-determination that was professed.
The Cold War was not won, and could not be won, by conflict with the west because the Communists were ahead in the successive revolutions. What happened is that the first major reenactment of the French Revolution, the October Revolution which we could call the Second Revolution, was supplanted by the second major reenactment of the French Revolution, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 which we could call the Third Revolution.
What the Third Revolution is all about is religion, and not only Islam. The First Revolution was generally hostile to traditional religion, the Second even more so. In contrast to the Cold War, when nations deal with each other today no one seems to care much about economic systems. The world, at least the west, is moving back toward religion. Can anyone believe that Russia, once the land of "Godless Communism" is now "Holy Russia", standing against the west that has fallen into apostasy and decadence?
There is a definite move back to religion in the U.S., although it doesn't always mean real faith. The 1973 ruling on access to abortion was considered as a victory for secularism but is now in the process of being reversed. There used to be numerous lewd and crude bumper stickers that are now generally considered as unacceptable. Making fun of religion on television is not usually acceptable anymore. This is the Iranian Revolution arriving in America.
I see this "Rule Of Successive Revolutions" as inviolable in explaining the modern world.
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