Anti-Americanism

"[2] Some, such as Noam Chomsky and Nancy Snow, have argued that the application of the term "anti-American" to other countries or their populations is 'nonsensical', as it implies that disliking the American government or its policies is socially undesirable or even comparable to a crime.

[6] Negative or critical views of the United States or its influence have been widespread in Russia, China, Serbia,[7] Pakistan,[8] Bosnia and Herzegovina,[9] Belarus,[10] and the Greater Middle East,[11][12] but remain low in Israel, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Korea, Vietnam,[13] the Philippines, and certain countries in central and eastern Europe.

The United States National Security Council, concluded that was due to a perception that the U.S. supports corrupt and brutal governments and opposes political and economic development "to protect its interest in Near East oil".

[26] In this vein, the head of the Council of Foreign Relations terrorism program believes that the American support for repressive regimes such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly a major factor in anti-American sentiment in the Arab world.

The sentiment was that the country lacked "[a] monarch, aristocracy, strong traditions, official religion, or rigid class system," according to Judy Rubin, and its democracy was attacked by some Europeans in the early nineteenth century as degraded, a travesty, and a failure.

Robert Hathaway, director of the Wilson Center's Asia program, suggests: "The growth of anti-American sentiment in both Japan and South Korea must be seen not simply as a response to American policies and actions, but as reflective of deeper domestic trends and developments within these Asian countries".

[162] In Japan, a variety of threads have contributed to anti-Americanism in the post-war era, including pacifism on the left, nationalism on the right, and opportunistic worries over American influence in Japanese economic life.

Speaking to the Wilson Center, Katharine Moon notes that while the majority of South Koreans support the American alliance "anti-Americanism also represents the collective venting of accumulated grievances that in many instances have lain hidden for decades".

Strongly anti-U.S. foreign policy and anti-Bush, the song was written in 2002 at a time when, following the Apolo Ohno Olympic controversy and an incident in Yangju in which two Korean middle school students died after being struck by a U.S. Army vehicle, anti-American sentiment in South Korea reached high levels.

During the 1957 presidential campaign, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted black propaganda operations to ensure his defeat, including the distribution of condoms with holes in them and marked with "Courtesy of Claro M. Recto" on the labels.

US government documents later showed that a plan to murder Recto with a vial of poison was discussed by CIA Chief of Station Ralph Lovett and US Ambassador Admiral Raymond Spruance years earlier.

[177] When U.S. president Barack Obama toured Asia, in mid to late April 2014 to visit Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, hundreds of Filipino protests demonstrated in Manila shouting anti-Obama slogans, with some even burning mock U.S.

[190] In effect, when targeting U.S. or other Western assets in the region, radical armed groups in the Middle East, Al-Qaeda included, have made reference to U.S. policies and alleged crimes against humanity to justify their attacks.

[194] He was particularly disturbed by jazz, which he called the American's preferred music, and which "was created by Negroes to satisfy their love of noise and to whet their sexual desires ..."[195] Qutb's writings influenced generations of militants and radicals in the Middle East who viewed America as a cultural temptress bent on overturning traditional customs and morals, especially with respect to the relations between the sexes.

[200][201] He has also been indicted in United States federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, and was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

[216] In July 2013, Palestinian Cleric Ismat Al-Hammouri, a leader of the Jerusalem-based Hizb ut-Tahrir, called for the destruction of America, France, Britain and Rome to conquer and destroy the enemies of the "Nation of Islam".

[247] The United States hastens the delivery of arms to the puppet governments they see as being increasingly threatened; it makes them sign pacts of dependence to legally facilitate the shipment of instruments of repression and death and of troops to use them.Many subsequent U.S. interventions against countries in the region, including democracies, and support for military dictatorships solidified Latin American anti-Americanism.

[251] America's tightening of the economic embargo on Cuba in 1996 and 2004 also caused resentment amongst Latin American leaders and prompted them to use the Rio Group and the Madrid-based Ibero-American Summits as meeting places rather than the United States-dominated OAS.

[266] In 2015, the Obama administration signed an executive order which imposed targeted sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials whom the White House argued were instrumental in human rights violations, persecution of political opponents and significant public corruption and said that the country posed an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

He wrote an open letter in a full page ad in The New York Times in March 2015, stating that Venezuelans were "friends of the American people" and called President Obama's action of making targeted sanctions on the alleged human rights abusers a "unilateral and aggressive measure".

[268][269] Examples of accusations of human rights abuses from the United States to Maduro's government included the murder of Luis Manuel Díaz, a political activist, prior to legislative elections in Venezuela.

[279][280] Political scientist Kim Richard Nossal highlights the role of the national myth pushed by Loyalist refugees who migrated north as a result of the American Revolution, who portrayed Canada as a community founded on a conscious rejection of the United States.

Consequently, anti-Americanism in English Canada tends to be defined by a desire to differentiate from Americans,[281] with common caricatures often based on half-truths or truths lacking context, and which often reflected public opinion that exists in certain U.S. sectors as well.

[280] This benign form of anti-Americanism rarely leads to confrontation or calls for radical decoupling from the U.S.[281] It is often restrained by shared culture, language, and heritage,[282] manifesting instead as a sense of estrangement and mistrust or as an outlet for feelings of insecurity and hostility against the U.S.[281][283] This sentiment tends to focus on the U.S. government and its policies rather than the American people.

[284][280] The paradox of Canadian anti-Americanism lies in Canada's simultaneous embrace of U.S. economic and cultural influence, and its persistent rejection of "American republicanism" as an "inappropriate means of governance" and viewing the U.S. as a threat to its identity and sovereignty.

[279] While Quebec and Nova Scotia's inhabitants were primarily neutral, the influx of loyalist refugees from the war brought a population deeply loyal to the Crown and antagonistic to the American political regime that displaced them.

[279] From the end of the Fenian Raids in 1871 to the signing of the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) in 1989, anti-Americanism in Canada was primarily driven by opposition to deeper economic integration with the US, as fears of military invasion had largely subsided.

This sentiment played a pivotal role in the 1911 Canadian federal election, where Wilfrid Laurier's pro-free trade Liberals were defeated afer the Conservative Party stoked anti-American fears.

"[288] Early 20th-century Canadian intellectuals like Harold Innis, Donald Creighton and George Grant criticized US values of progress, technology, and mass culture, contrasting them with Canada's traditions of order and harmony.

Though some attribute modern anti-Americanism to the Vietnam War and "boorish" American tourists in Australia, historian Bruce C. Daniels argues the backlash reflects pre-existing resentment, temporarily masked by earlier periods of cooperation.