cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/6484299
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2015/06/23/1-americas-global-image/
America’s image is mostly positive among the Asian nations polled. Particularly large majorities see the U.S. favorably in the Philippines (92%), South Korea (84%) and Vietnam (77%).
It’s from 2015 but more recent polls have found similar data IIRC
79% of people polled in Vietnam chose the US in the “Preferred alignment choice in U.S.-China rivalry” which is a different metric obviously but still points towards the same idea
Edit: According to Luna Oi, Pew Research Center is a neoliberal think tank that cannot be trusted on anything about Vietnam
The basic answer is that everyone just likes America. I’m not kidding.
Mao had been open to allying with either the US or the USSR, and even leaning towards the US. Stalin wasn’t playing ball when Mao went to Moscow to demand the unequal treaty signed with the KMT to be replaced, until Truman’s State Department released a memorandum in January 1950 that the US would be ready to give up on supporting Taiwan, after which he immediately signed an alliance with China.
Fidel had wanted to keep a friendly relationship with the US as soon as Cuba had its independence, until he was turned away by the Americans and only then did he turned to the USSR.
This was how Ho Chi Minh opened Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence given on August 17, 1945:
America has always been everyone’s first choice until they inevitably had their hearts broken by America, and only then did they look to the Soviet Union, their spare tire. But even then, as soon as America showed some signs of wanting to reconcile, they’d be ready to forget about the years of abuse and get back with the old flame. Not joking, or am I?
Reminds me of an old video I saw of Putin saying he’d hoped Russia could be considered a Western country as well one day; basically it’s a lot of people who are in deep denial of what they’re dealing with.
Honestly consider places like Iran or Gaza/West bank; they make deals with the US thinking America is earnest only to be stabbed in the back, for their willingness to cooperate to be used as a weapon against them (for example America convincing Palestinians not to insist on the UN recognizing Palestine as a member and to just accept observer status for the time being). Heck, you even have recently with America convincing Western Europe to stop buying Russian oil and to buy American only to hike up the price.
I also think the US played a huge role in liberation by fighting Nazis and Imperial Japan during WWII so they gained quite a bit of reputation. Still, the Cold War was when the USSR gained prominence until its collapse, after which it has been an open season for neoliberalism. There is simply no alternative to it at the moment.
A lot of them were absolute bastards and hypocrites but the founding fathers of the USA did wax quite poetic about freedom and if nothing else I’m glad it got said or written down so it could inspire others.
Thomas Paine was cool, though.
Except it was already written down and lived for hundreds of years by the indigenous people of Turtle Island which the “USA” was “inspired by” when creating their own slave trader nation’s constitution.
Or they pretend to, because it’s the biggest kid [1] in the playground.
[1] by PwrIndx