Pro-Americanism

America won gratitude and favor from many Europeans for coming to the defense of Western Europe twice in the First and Second World Wars, while earning ire from enemies such as Germany and Japan.

America earned further approval from Europeans, and later Asian countries such as Japan and Taiwan, for standing against its ideological opponents the Soviet Union and Communist China in the Cold War.

As part of the Cold War, America engaged in a global struggle with the Soviet Union to win hearts and minds, seeking to promote pro-Americanism in the developing world, often through foreign and military aid.

America proved good at mollifying former wartime enemies, with former opponents such as Germany, Japan, and Vietnam all coming to embrace pro-Americanism by century's end.

During the 20th century, Hollywood movies and other forms of popular culture proved a powerful vector for spreading American ideas and fomenting pro-American sentiments all around the world.

[2][3][7] Pro-Americanism declined in the late 2010s in Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, and the European Union, due in part to the strong worldwide unpopularity of the Donald Trump administration.

[8] However, pro-Americanism has risen sharply around the world in recent years, following the 2020 election of Joe Biden as America's new president, China's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, with overall global views of the United States returning to positive territory once more.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which plays a key role in de facto one-party system of Japanese politics, has been described as a "pro-American conservative".

Americans were seen as the "fearless guardians of freedom and equality" and the "conscience of the world" due to the United States' status as a powerful Western nation that was not involved in the colonization of Africa.

African newspapers such as The Lagos Standard highly idealized early American leaders such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, while acknowledging but disregarding the fact that they were slave owners.