I've been trying to figure out why the US, the "champion of freedom" against the oppressive communist regime, would go out and overthrow democratically elected governments only to install military dictatorships.
The obvious (and probably official) answer would be because those governments were "too friendly" to communists or their ideology, and I can see how that makes sense, but I think that it was first and foremost America's economic interests that got the US involved, not ideology. Guatemala and Iran seem like prime examples of this. In both cases it wasn't because there was an immediate threat of communist takeover, but that the countries in question sought economic independence from American (and British) corporate interests.
That being said I can still see how that can be tied back to preventing the spread of communism, as economic prosperity was central in America's long-term plan to outlast the Soviet Union and damage their rhetoric, which portrayed capitalist governments as shaky and decrepit.
Anyone have a perspective that can shed light on this? It all just seems so circular to me.
Basically a major motivation during the cold war was a sincere belief in the threat of communism. That's the historical consensus on the issue and you can read memoirs, respected books on the cold war, important documents, ect if you want to look at the issue yourself (and I encourage you to do this).
(On a more general note people dismiss the power of ideology when discussing history, ignoring a lot of historical nuance for the sake of coming to a preconceived conclusion, as its a very difficult thing to understand.)
To simplify greatly, many Americans and American leaders saw communism as not just the polar opposite of the ideal world as America envisioned it (Capitalist democracies), but as the destructive antithesis to that world. So, this wasn't just a bad an ineffective system, it was the living embodiment of the perversion and destruction of all that was "America."
Is that hyperbolic? Absolutely. However, a great deal of Americans and their leaders believed that to a very strong degree. Paranoia surrounding discovery of a massive Soviet Spy network, and the seemingly unstoppable wave of Communist expansion contributed to this sentiment.
I think there is an argument (especially when looking at historical president) than economic motivations might have played a major role in the American interventions in South America but in general ideology was the or a major motivation with U.S. actions.