While the United States holds itself out as a beacon of democracy and freedom, its actions on the world stage have long contradicted this pretense. From Vietnam in the 1950s, when the US blocked elections which would have allowed the Vietnamese people to vote for a unified country and for their own president, to the overthrow of democratic governments in Iran and Guatemala and the consequent installation of brutal regimes which killed tens of thousands, the US has undermined the very democratic principles it claims to promote. the World details these and other instances of US interference in countries such as Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela, Greece, the Congo, Honduras, and even in Russia in the recent past.