From my limited understanding, it seems we have seen no appreciable shift in US foreign policy since the days of the Cold War, and given that we are perpetuating these policies, it interests me to know how they've played out in arenas outside the Middle East. Why did the US choose to employ a strategy of political repression in South America and Southeast Asia, and how have these strategies played out in the long term? It seems that anti-US sentiment still runs high in these spheres, and one can't help wondering whether the instatement of sympathetic dictators and the facilitation of their oppressive regimes was truly the best way to stoke support and allegiance in a turbulent time (saying nothing about the rightness, or rather, wrongness of the work).
I can answer the first part of your question for South America but I believe the second part goes beyond the limits of 1995 and would be more appropriate for /r/AskSocialScience. The simple answer to the why was the US felt it needed to prevent another communist country like Cuba from existing in the Western Hemisphere. The US was paranoid that another Cuba would create a base for Soviet operations in the Hemisphere, damaging American national security interests. They were willing to support strong dictators that were able to at times brutally suppress the communist threat.