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I would certainly never view promoting freedom and democracy as a "knee jerk" reaction. Communism was a serious threat to the world.

To speak to this example of anti-Communism, Nicaragua had democratically elected a leftist government with Communist overtones. The Reagan administration was so scared of it, despite the fact that they had no ties with the Soviet Union and that it was democratically elected that they fomented revolution using the Contras, to whom, reports have it, the US suggested starting to strike civilian targets. Regardless of who told them to, they did and the US supported them in it.

There's no doubt that the Sandinistas were militant when they came to power, but they were fighting a ruthless government. After coming to power, they held democratic elections four years later in which many non-Sandinistas were elected to office. That's not to say that they were the best rulers ever, but they did much, much, better than one might expect out of a coup.
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Bitt Faulk