Why do other countries hate the United States?

[Stevicus]

I came across this article (which is six years old, but still pretty relevant to our times): Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War.

While I'm not necessarily limiting the scope of this discussion to just Korea, a few cogent observations were made about how Americans view and perceive the outside world, particularly those who have expressed antipathy and/or outright hatred towards the United States.

Americans are taught from a rather young age about how our country was founded in concepts like "freedom," "democracy," and "justice for all." We're told that America is a generous, compassionate, loving nation which gives of itself to the less fortunate nations of the world.

Even those of us who might have a slightly more balanced and even somewhat cynical view of U.S. foreign policy and the historical background of what our government actually does and has done in the past, it doesn't entirely shake the basic perception of "Captain America" as existing to be the "leader of the free world," with the moral responsibility to use force to right all the wrongs of the world. More often than not, Americans might be willing to admit our flaws and say "mistakes were made," but the bottom line is that we're still relatively more moral than the rest of the world, and on that basis alone, we have the right to pass judgement and take military action against any nation or faction which we see fit. In other words, being on the side of good, we have no other choice to bomb our enemies "back to the stone age," since they're so intractably evil. They can't be reasoned with or negotiated with, and they're beyond any hope of redemption or reform - so they have to be wiped out.

Even in a world where we can talk sanity to lunatics and calm mad dogs, somehow, such notions are thrown out the window when it comes to the U.S. and warmaking.

And yet, even though most of us know all of this, the article opens up with a very poignant question Americans often ask, and they're asking sincerely:

“WHY DO THEY hate us?”

Why, indeed?

It’s a question that has bewildered Americans again and again in the wake of 9/11, in reference to the Arab and Muslim worlds. These days, however, it’s a question increasingly asked about the reclusive North Koreans.

Let’s be clear: There is no doubt that the citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea both fear and loathe the United States. Paranoia, resentment, and a crude anti-Americanism have been nurtured inside the Hermit Kingdom for decades. Children are taughtOpens in a new tab to hate Americans in school while adults mark a “Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month” every year (it’s in June, in case you were wondering).

“The hate, though,” as longtime North Korea watcher Blaine Harden observed in the Washington Post, “is not all manufactured.” Some of it, he wrote, “is rooted in a fact-based narrative, one that North Korea obsessively remembers and the United States blithely forgets.”

Forgets as in the “forgotten war.” Yes, the Korean War. Remember that? The one wedged between World War II and the Vietnam War?

Ah, yes, our selective amnesia - a huge bugaboo in both domestic and international politics. That explains both why they hate us and why Americans are mostly clueless as to why they hate us.

Listening to most historical accounts and the commentary from politicians and pundits, they think these countries just inexplicably decided to become evil for no reason whatsoever. Or as Bush once put it "They hate us for our freedom." Others claim that it's all due to envy, because America is so wealthy and powerful. But they can never believe that it was something we actually did, since the prevailing view is that America is nothing but goodness, sweetness, and light. The "shining city on the hill," as Reagan called it.

“What hardly any Americans know or remember,” University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings writes in his book “The Korean War: A History,” “is that we carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.”

How many Americans, for example, are aware of the fact that U.S. planes dropped on the Korean peninsula more bombs — 635,000 tons — and napalm — 32,557 tons — than during the entire Pacific campaign against the Japanese during World War II?

How many Americans know that “over a period of three years or so,” to quote Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, “we killed off … 20 percent of the population”?

Twenty. Percent. For a point of comparison, the Nazis exterminated 20 percent of Poland’s pre-World War II population. According to LeMay, “We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea.”

Every. Town. More than 3 million civilians are believed to have been killed in the fighting, the vast majority of them in the north.

20% of the North Korean population wiped out.

How many Americans have heard of the No Gun Ri massacre, in July 1950, in which hundreds of Koreans were killed by U.S. warplanes and members of the 7th U.S. Cavalry regiment as they huddled under a bridge? Details of the massacre emerged in 1999, when the Associated Press interviewed dozens of retired U.S. military personnel. “The hell with all those people,” one American veteran recalled his captain as saying. “Let’s get rid of all of them.”

I knew a sheriff's deputy who was moonlighting as a security guard where I worked in college, and he was kind of a wannabe mercenary kind of guy. He showed me a t-shirt he was wearing under his uniform which had picture of a skull wearing a military beret that said "Let's kill 'em all, and let God sort out the rest." I've grown up with people like this, and this mentality is firmly embedded in America's cultural fabric.

Millions of ordinary Americans may suffer from a toxic combination of ignorance and amnesia, but the victims of U.S. coups, invasions, and bombing campaigns across the globe tend not to. Ask the Iraqis or the Iranians, ask the Cubans or the Chileans. And, yes, ask the North Koreans.

I've often heard descriptions of Americans as superficial, flighty, short-sighted, with short memories and short attention spans. In many cases, this is actually true. The general public has a short memory, and it's often fairly easy to gaslight people when it comes to events of the past. This is especially true when it comes to matters of foreign policy where Americans may not have any experience or direct knowledge of.

The world loved America at the end of WW2, so it must have been something we did after 1945 to get them to hate us.

 

[Secret Chief]

I'm not in the hate camp. However, I do often see a presumption and attitude from Americans that their country is the be all and end all of everything on the entire planet. One sees signs of it on here, sometimes in a subtle way. I notice North American political topics sometimes get put in the general politics sections - because the topic is obviously of interest to the entire planet.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I doubt that many countries do hate America, apart from the ones that want to dominate and/or expand their particular influences, whether economic and/or religious perhaps, and which see America as an obstacle. But I can see why so many are worried as to the power that resides in the USA, and which is often at odds with what many other nations would like to see as being progress - like, the possible breakdown of democracy within the country (Trump et al), the casual ownership of personal weapons, the disregard as to wealth differences (so much wealth but so many being poor too), the lagging as to religious influences within a supposed democracy, and many other issues that many other countries will have made advances towards. Hence Other.

 

[Estro Felino]

I am always mystified how people seldom succeed in separating the people, the commoners from the élites who take all the important decisions.
They are two world apart.


I think that Europe is so americanized (especially Scandinavia, but the other countries too) that Europeans sometimes don't consider Americans "foreigners". The problem is that the élites, the military industrial complex victimize Americans themselves with their own decisions.

I think my country is like a little America in Europe. Americans still portray it as the rural Italy of 100 years ago in their movies... but it's very modern and americanized, like this show called College, shows. Come on, even the opening theme is so...American.

 

[Eddi]

I don't hate America

Hating a country is stupid

Wouldn't want to have to live there though

 

[Stevicus]

I'm not in the hate camp. However, I do often see a presumption and attitude from Americans that their country is the be all and end all of everything on the entire planet. One sees signs of it on here, sometimes in a subtle way. I notice North American political topics sometimes get put in the general politics sections - because the topic is obviously of interest to the entire planet.

I hadn't really noticed, although the general sections might just be a catch-all or default choice if someone can't decide which section to put it in. It may not be any kind of slight towards other nations.

 

[Soandso]

Reminds me of the Philippine-American war

Philippine–American War - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

"Throughout the war, numerous atrocities were committed by the U.S. military, including the targeting of civilians. American soldiers and other witnesses sent letters home that described some of these atrocities. For example, In November 1901, the Manila correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger wrote:

The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog...[171]

Reports from returning soldiers stated that upon entering a village, American soldiers would ransack every house and church and rob the inhabitants of everything of value, while FIlipinos who approached the battle line waving a flag of truce were fired upon.[172]"

Most Americans I've talked to about it don't even know the war happened. I work with a lot of people from the Philippines, and many of them were taught about it in school. Interesting that this isn't the case for us. Maybe if we were made to face the amount of bloodshed our nation has spilled, we might understand better why some nations aren't our biggest fans

 

[Secret Chief]

I hadn't really noticed, although the general sections might just be a catch-all or default choice if someone can't decide which section to put it in. It may not be any kind of slight towards other nations.

No not a sleight but an unthinking presumption. Mccarthy on Trump? Does the rest of the world know who Mccarthy is?

 

[Stevicus]

No not a sleight but an unthinking presumption. Mccarthy on Trump? Does the rest of the world know who Mccarthy is?

There have been times when I'm convinced that there are non-Americans who more knowledgeable and aware of US domestic politics than many Americans are. That's kind of sad when you think about it, and one of the points I was raising here in this topic. The writer of the OP article said it was a toxic combination of ignorance and amnesia.

 

[rocala]

Well I certainly don't hate them, and I was not raised to either. My family home was destroyed in the blitz, along with all that they owned. The family received some parcels of food and clothing from an American charity, and this was when the U.S. was neutral. My Mother never forgot this kindness even though she was a child at the time.

 

[Stevicus]

I am always mystified how people seldom succeed in separating the people, the commoners from the élites who take all the important decisions.
They are two world apart.


I think that Europe is so americanized (especially Scandinavia, but the other countries too) that Europeans sometimes don't consider Americans "foreigners". The problem is that the élites, the military industrial complex victimize Americans themselves with their own decisions.

I think my country is like a little America in Europe. Americans still portray it as the rural Italy of 100 years ago in their movies... but it's very modern and americanized, like this show called College, shows. Come on, even the opening theme is so...American.

Never heard of that show. I guess it never made it to American TV.

I think some people are able to distinguish between what the government does versus how the common people generally are, but the media sometimes tell the common people that people around the world just hate us for no reason. That's what Americans are often led to believe.

Imagine this as the new national anthem:

 

[Estro Felino]

Never heard of that show. I guess it never made it to American TV.

It's an Italian show, indeed; Berlusconi's media.
Very nice. An exclusive female college next to a Navy Academy...lol...

I think some people are able to distinguish between what the government does versus how the common people generally are, but the media sometimes tell the common people that people around the world just hate us for no reason. That's what Americans are often led to believe.

Imagine this as the new national anthem:

It's the cultural difference.
Too much cultural difference...

 

[Colt]

I came across this article (which is six years old, but still pretty relevant to our times): Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War.

While I'm not necessarily limiting the scope of this discussion to just Korea, a few cogent observations were made about how Americans view and perceive the outside world, particularly those who have expressed antipathy and/or outright hatred towards the United States.

Americans are taught from a rather young age about how our country was founded in concepts like "freedom," "democracy," and "justice for all." We're told that America is a generous, compassionate, loving nation which gives of itself to the less fortunate nations of the world.

Even those of us who might have a slightly more balanced and even somewhat cynical view of U.S. foreign policy and the historical background of what our government actually does and has done in the past, it doesn't entirely shake the basic perception of "Captain America" as existing to be the "leader of the free world," with the moral responsibility to use force to right all the wrongs of the world. More often than not, Americans might be willing to admit our flaws and say "mistakes were made," but the bottom line is that we're still relatively more moral than the rest of the world, and on that basis alone, we have the right to pass judgement and take military action against any nation or faction which we see fit. In other words, being on the side of good, we have no other choice to bomb our enemies "back to the stone age," since they're so intractably evil. They can't be reasoned with or negotiated with, and they're beyond any hope of redemption or reform - so they have to be wiped out.

Even in a world where we can talk sanity to lunatics and calm mad dogs, somehow, such notions are thrown out the window when it comes to the U.S. and warmaking.

And yet, even though most of us know all of this, the article opens up with a very poignant question Americans often ask, and they're asking sincerely:



Why, indeed?





Ah, yes, our selective amnesia - a huge bugaboo in both domestic and international politics. That explains both why they hate us and why Americans are mostly clueless as to why they hate us.

Listening to most historical accounts and the commentary from politicians and pundits, they think these countries just inexplicably decided to become evil for no reason whatsoever. Or as Bush once put it "They hate us for our freedom." Others claim that it's all due to envy, because America is so wealthy and powerful. But they can never believe that it was something we actually did, since the prevailing view is that America is nothing but goodness, sweetness, and light. The "shining city on the hill," as Reagan called it.



20% of the North Korean population wiped out.



I knew a sheriff's deputy who was moonlighting as a security guard where I worked in college, and he was kind of a wannabe mercenary kind of guy. He showed me a t-shirt he was wearing under his uniform which had picture of a skull wearing a military beret that said "Let's kill 'em all, and let God sort out the rest." I've grown up with people like this, and this mentality is firmly embedded in America's cultural fabric.



I've often heard descriptions of Americans as superficial, flighty, short-sighted, with short memories and short attention spans. In many cases, this is actually true. The general public has a short memory, and it's often fairly easy to gaslight people when it comes to events of the past. This is especially true when it comes to matters of foreign policy where Americans may not have any experience or direct knowledge of.

The world loved America at the end of WW2, so it must have been something we did after 1945 to get them to hate us.

The preoccupation and handwringing about being liked by a cult nation like North Korea?

 

[Stevicus]

The preoccupation and handwringing about being liked by a cult nation like North Korea?

The discussion is not just about North Korea. It's more about Americans' perceptions of the world and how they're formulated.

I'm way past the point of worrying about if other countries like us. I gave up worrying about that back in '79 when the Iranians took over our embassy and kept chanting "Death to America."

 

[Twilight Hue]

I came across this article (which is six years old, but still pretty relevant to our times): Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War.

While I'm not necessarily limiting the scope of this discussion to just Korea, a few cogent observations were made about how Americans view and perceive the outside world, particularly those who have expressed antipathy and/or outright hatred towards the United States.

Americans are taught from a rather young age about how our country was founded in concepts like "freedom," "democracy," and "justice for all." We're told that America is a generous, compassionate, loving nation which gives of itself to the less fortunate nations of the world.

Even those of us who might have a slightly more balanced and even somewhat cynical view of U.S. foreign policy and the historical background of what our government actually does and has done in the past, it doesn't entirely shake the basic perception of "Captain America" as existing to be the "leader of the free world," with the moral responsibility to use force to right all the wrongs of the world. More often than not, Americans might be willing to admit our flaws and say "mistakes were made," but the bottom line is that we're still relatively more moral than the rest of the world, and on that basis alone, we have the right to pass judgement and take military action against any nation or faction which we see fit. In other words, being on the side of good, we have no other choice to bomb our enemies "back to the stone age," since they're so intractably evil. They can't be reasoned with or negotiated with, and they're beyond any hope of redemption or reform - so they have to be wiped out.

Even in a world where we can talk sanity to lunatics and calm mad dogs, somehow, such notions are thrown out the window when it comes to the U.S. and warmaking.

And yet, even though most of us know all of this, the article opens up with a very poignant question Americans often ask, and they're asking sincerely:



Why, indeed?





Ah, yes, our selective amnesia - a huge bugaboo in both domestic and international politics. That explains both why they hate us and why Americans are mostly clueless as to why they hate us.

Listening to most historical accounts and the commentary from politicians and pundits, they think these countries just inexplicably decided to become evil for no reason whatsoever. Or as Bush once put it "They hate us for our freedom." Others claim that it's all due to envy, because America is so wealthy and powerful. But they can never believe that it was something we actually did, since the prevailing view is that America is nothing but goodness, sweetness, and light. The "shining city on the hill," as Reagan called it.



20% of the North Korean population wiped out.



I knew a sheriff's deputy who was moonlighting as a security guard where I worked in college, and he was kind of a wannabe mercenary kind of guy. He showed me a t-shirt he was wearing under his uniform which had picture of a skull wearing a military beret that said "Let's kill 'em all, and let God sort out the rest." I've grown up with people like this, and this mentality is firmly embedded in America's cultural fabric.



I've often heard descriptions of Americans as superficial, flighty, short-sighted, with short memories and short attention spans. In many cases, this is actually true. The general public has a short memory, and it's often fairly easy to gaslight people when it comes to events of the past. This is especially true when it comes to matters of foreign policy where Americans may not have any experience or direct knowledge of.

The world loved America at the end of WW2, so it must have been something we did after 1945 to get them to hate us.

It all started when America went on the offensive, where this country would initiate the wars rather than being asked to help intervene and protecting other countries engaged in conflicts.

Something that was unheard of when I was a child , so it became rather upsetting to watch when we started attacking everything in sight most notably after 9/11 where it went well past Afghanistan in our conquest to find an exterminate terrorists, which in my opinion affected our reputation as an international protector and ally and became a more notable as an uninvited invader, which clearly didn't win too many hearts and minds in that endeavor.

 

[Twilight Hue]

The preoccupation and handwringing about being liked by a cult nation like North Korea?

That's one country I've absolutely no sympathy for , with the exception of maybe it's traumatized people under Kimmy boy's iron fist. Most definitely that government has to go and Kimmy boy's reign ended sooner than later because I think eventually he's going to start killing people outside his horribly abused country.

I hope I live long enough to see the day where South Korea and North Korea returns to the unity it had before the Communist totalitarian regime invaded and destroyed people's lives and split between the Soviets and the US After Imperial Japan surrendered.

 

[Quintessence]

Isn't it interesting how we often speak of countries as if they are individual persons? Why is this done, I wonder? Even as an animist for whom "person" is not constrained to "human" I'm not sure what a country would think or feel about anything. What is the Spirit of a Country? How much does it reflect all who dwell within its borders - human and non-human - and contribute to its nature as a Spirit? I just don't know what this Country Spirit - Spirit of the United States of America - is. I don't know how I would define it as it is tremendously complicated and multifaceted. Certainly hating the Spirit of a Country falls into the realm of non-rational prejudice given that, wouldn't it?

 

[LuisDantas]

I don't hate the USA, but I sure grew disappointed with its people since 2003 or so. The current state of its politics does not help either.

Among other Brazilians, feelings seem to be... complicated. There is a fair bit of projection at work there, further complicating things.

The gist of it is that many Brazilians associate the USA with professional competence and efficiency, but also with military abuse and imperialistic action. It is not at all unusual to find Brazilians who have both feelings at once.

Not little of that comes from naiveté and a vague but deeply taught feeling that Brazil and Brazilians "ought to be rich" and would, were it not for those nasty imperialistic Americans. We used to be a slaver monarchy and that has left a lasting mark in our values.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

To grossly oversimplify:

The U.S. is a land run by the self-centered arrogant empowered by the self-centered indifferent.

 

[Stevicus]

It all started when America went on the offensive, where this country would initiate the wars rather than being asked to help intervene and protecting other countries engaged in conflicts.

Something that was unheard of when I was a child , so it became rather upsetting to watch when we started attacking everything in sight most notably after 9/11 where it went well past Afghanistan in our conquest to find an exterminate terrorists, which in my opinion affected our reputation as an international protector and ally and became a more notable as an uninvited invader, which clearly didn't win too many hearts and minds in that endeavor.

It could be that. I was also thinking that, as much as our government crows about supporting freedom and making the world safe for democracy, our track record doesn't really reflect any actual adherence or commitment to such a principle. It's often been reflected in the regimes and the allies we support. For example, South Korea was not exactly a bastion of freedom and liberalism during the Korean War. Same for South Vietnam. Or Iran under the Shah. Or Chile under Pinochet. Or the Philippines under Marcos. There are other examples of coups, covert ops, assassinations, and other such behind-the-scenes intrigue, in addition to overt military actions.

So our government doesn't exactly practice what it preaches, so I can see where some might take issue with that.