Hostility Toward U.S.

This is a comment on the article (June 30) by Barry Bearak and Richard Meyer on the perplexity of the American public over the seeming hostility of many foreign nationals toward the United States.

Many Americans would like to believe that it is only the fanatics who are hostile to U.S. policies. The fact is that many, if not most of the people of the world, including many in Western Europe, view the United States as a major anti-liberal force in the world. And this is not without cause.

If one were to try to objectively view the many situations in which the United States has used its diplomatic, its economic, and/or its military power then you would find that in the overwhelming majority of the instances the United States has come out against those who were advocating greater political equity and/or greater economic equity.

The reason for the U.S. opposition to what most people identify as the liberal trends in the world are varied. But the most often cited reasons center on the American opposition to socialism and communism. However, many responsible people think of the efforts toward greater social and economic equity as progress. And these people often identify U.S. actions as efforts to benefit the United States at the expense of progress in other parts of the world. In brief, much of the world sees the United States as working with missionary zeal to stamp out any social or economic progress wherever it may appear in the world.

But the most surprising thing about the article is the fact that the U.S. public is so badly informed about these opinions. Some of the quotes such as “I don’t understand what they’ve herd about us that has them so ticked off,” and “I don’t understand why they don’t like us,” would seem to reflect what a poor job the U.S. news media do in telling us how many informed and responsible people view the United States.

Maybe those in charge of our news organizations are not fully aware that much of the rest of the world views the United States as an enemy of progress. That would be a sad commentary on our press. But then it is an equally gloomy commentary to believe that the press is aware of these views and the reasons for them but has not made this known to the American public.

C. BRADFORD

Santa Monica