[spopejoy]

As far as superpowers in history go, the United States post WWII is downright benevolent

I'm not sure the citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, D.R., Honduras, Panama, the Philippines, Vietnam, or any of the other sovereign nations the US has invaded, would agree with this statement.

[leroy_masochist]

Sorry, please remind me of when the US invaded Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, or Chile?

Our involvement in Vietnam was in fact, at the time, conducted with the full cooperation of a sovereign country, the Republic of South Vietnam. To be fair, US forces definitely did violate the sovereignty of Laos and Cambodia during that conflict.

I believe I understand your general point here, but can we at least get basic facts right when we have these discussions?

[mjrpes]

Just because the US doesn't invade by name, doesn't mean they aren't involved, often at a fundamental level. Look a Chile; Nixon gave the orders and supplied to weapons and CIA support behind the coup that brought Pinochet into power. 3,000 people were killed and 200,000 were exiled during his reign. The US has always tried to get its way by pulling strings behind the curtain, where public awareness is absent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_re...

Also take a look at East Timor.

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB176/

U.S. support was fundamental to a conflict that killed 100-180,000 Timorese. But not many are aware of this.

[kaoD]

Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_intervention_in_C...

E.g.:

> The U.S. provided material support to the military regime after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses.

Brazil: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat...

Nowadays invasions aren't explicit like in colonial times (where every superpower raced to colonize as much as possible), but there is definitely covert "warfare" going on.

[spopejoy]

Thanks for asking! Argentina: 1890. Chile: 1891, plus direct support for the 1973 coup. Sorry about Paraguay and Brazil, US merely engineered and directly advised murderous corrupt dictatorships. Invasions however also include Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Grenada, Haiti, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Regarding South Vietnam, does "full cooperation" include assassination of their president in 1963?

[leroy_masochist]

The examples you cited for Argentina and Chile were -- in both cases -- the US sending a landing party of Marines to defend the embassy grounds during political unrest. That's an "invasion"? OK....