Anyways, I guess that's when the West reached its limits as they divided Europe between the Allied forces and the USSR. So when you hear politicians say "We can do anything as Americans when we're united" it's really saying "[...] in this part of the world". Post World War II, in Europe, the world got smaller for the democratic forces on this planet. Likewise when Vietnam fell to the communists. Understandably as one doesn't want loss of life but let's also not support communists regimes in order to have them collapse. The sooner, the better. Then, financially outrun the communists by supporting the democratic forces. You've to understand, a country that has C-PTSD nationwide, after it has been run into ruin, cannot redress on its own to democracy. Otherwise, you simply have the communists at power in the weak democratic country: they may combat corruption by having the communists and corrupts who fell out of favor go to prison for 2-3 years while retaining their accumulated wealth after stealing, but you won't get that authentic change at the leadership level of having that country be an economy of producing (with as little waste as possible) instead of just consuming and borrowing. You've got to go that extra mile of administrating the region for generations to come, while training the new generations and empowering them to take over. I am, of course, talking about a federal EU.