Countries have a large spectrum of different governing types. From monarchy to Communism, to everything in between, each different methods has its good and its bad. In the last century, most of the major developed countries favor either democracy or a constitutional monarchy. These countries have an immense impact on the rest of the world, influencing many developing and under developed countries into adjusting or changing their governments to fit the Western developed country standard. Sometimes, these changes will be made by the country themselves, whether it is because of social injustice within their former government, or because of economic failure caused by bad government policies. But sometimes, countries are forced to change their way of governing by outside forces. The U.S.A is known to have played a heavy hand in changing the type of government in countries they feared were turning towards the more radical side of the government spectrum, in other words, communism. These efforts have resulted in varying degrees of success and failure. Two of the most significant examples are the U.S. interference in Vietnam and Chile, which both share many similarities during and after the U.S. influence, but also share many differences. The U.S. supported a dictatorial regime in opposition of a government leaning towards communism, and while the U.S. involvement in Vietnam failed and resulted in rule by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, their success in Chile resulted in the rule of the Republic of Chile.

In both Vietnam and Chile, the U.S. were in favor of a military regime as opposed to a government leaning towards communism. Vietnam was under the French colonial rule when the Vietnamese Communist Party was formed. The French rule in Vietnam was brutal. The Vietnamese were treated like slaves under their landlord elites. The peasants were forced to produce rice for international export, all while being taxed by their landlords. The people were starving, and the peasants, led by Ho Chi Minh formed the Vietnamese Communist Party. The Vietnamese Communist Party, or Viet Minh, were successful in pushing out the French, and North Vietnam was declared an independent country by the UN. Elections were to be held to see who would govern unified Vietnam, but never happened. The U.S., seeing the imminent spread of communism, supported the regime in South Vietnam, with Ngo Dinh Diem as president. War broke out between North and South Vietnam, with the U.S. sending troops and funding in support of South Vietnam. In Chile, Allende was elected president. Allende was a left-leaning socialist, which frightened the conservative military factions. The military, under General Pinochet, took control of the country by force, with covert support from the CIA, who feared Chile’s conversion to becoming a communist ally to Cuba. Both countries, due to social unrest and the rise of leftist leaders were leaning towards Communism. Due to these developments, the U.S. believed necessary to interfere politically, economically, and militarily in Chile and Vietnam’s affairs.

Though the motivation for the U.S. involvement in Chile and Vietnam were similar, it yielded very different results. The Vietnam War was especially devastating because of the use of guerilla warfare, as well as the invention of Napalm bombs. By 1974, the U.S. pulled out all of their troops, and without their support, South Vietnam could not fend for themselves. The Viet Minh won, and took over control of unified Vietnam. They pushed heavy Marxist-Leninist policies, politically repressing and persecuting the population. They had a rigidly centralized economy, which resulted in total government control of business as well as the profits. The general population was miserably poor, and the people suffered. However, by the 1980’s Vietnam modified their economic policies, with less central control, more individual business effort by farmers and producers, and more involvement in international commerce, though the Vietnamese people still remain in the same state of poverty.

The U.S.’s involvement in Chile resulted in Pinochet’s victory against Allende, which led to Pinochet’s totalitarian rule of Chile. Pinochet’s regime systematically repressed all opposing political parties and persecuted all people who opposed Pinochet’s rule. The economy under Pinochet changed drastically. Initially after the coup, the economy was faltering. Pinochet, with the help of the U.S. initiated economic reforms which transformed Chile from a government centralized economy, to a liberal economy involved with international commerce. The difference between the Chilean government and economy, and that of Vietnam is significant.

The U.S. became involved with Chile and Vietnam in an effort to prevent their turn to communism, but their success in Chile, and their failure in Vietnam had direct effects to their social, economic and, political standings post U.S. involvements. What is important for the purpose of analysis is that neither of these outcomes could have been predicted at the time the United States was actively involved intervening in the internal affairs of each of these countries. This illustrates the futility of massive political, economic, and military interference by the United States in the affairs of foreign countries with the goal of determining the shape of those country’s governments and economies in future decades.