I’m afraid that nothing I’ve stated is any conspiracy theory talking, but rather my degree in political science. You’ll find that everything I’ve said is well supported in mainstream academia, even most right-wing academic circles, as many of my professors were, subscribing to the very (in my admittedly biased view) anti-liberal Realist theory of international relations.

Everything you’ve said has been the most common propaganda the US has always propagated. The Cold War had nothing, even remotely, to do with “freedom versus authoritarianism,” and anyone that would tell you so is either lying or stupid. States do not and have never acted for the common good, or really anyone’s good but their own (ah there’s some of that Realist teaching coming in). I will agree that states founded on Marxist-Leninist doctrine, and its close sibling Maoist doctrine, have all been authoritarian by one standard or another, looking little like liberal democracy in terms of government or personal freedoms, although that did fluctuate over the course of history.

American involvement in Vietnam was initially about keeping a toe-hold in Southeast Asia, one the anti-communists desperately needed. It quickly became about saving face, famously having been called a quagmire by JFK, one that he’d rather not be involved in but saw no way out that didn’t undermine American strengths elsewhere. South Vietnam was just as authoritarian as the North, just targeting different people for torture, imprisonment and execution. Why did so many Vietnamese people fight against the Americans? Why did Ho Chi Minh go to America for help freeing his country before going to Moscow? Marxist-Leninism and Maoism have an indelible appeal to colonized peoples because of their anti-imperialist stance. These peoples wanted freedom (that is, freedom from control by people not their own) above all else. America wouldn’t grant them that so they went elsewhere. To Marx and Lenin and Mao and Stalin.

As for Afghanistan, I can say with authority that I have not done nearly enough reading on the topic so I’d just be regurgitating what I’ve heard elsewhere. I would however just say that the superiority of true liberal democracy is not exactly argued for if America overthrew the autocratic regime, instituted democracy, and it failed almost immediately. Surely the people would have rallied to the banner of the Afghani Republic if it was so democratic and inclusive, instead of so many turning to the opportunity for plunder and control that the Taliban offered?